Red Piano

Check THIS beauty out dear blip followers! How COOL! If I just had a slightly bigger handbag...

Well, today was definitely a day of two halves, make no mistake about that! It started with the usual 6.00 alarm, the Wonderspouse made tea, came back to bed, then all went dark! Power cut! Almost certainly caused by the wind!

We got up, got dressed in the dark, went downstairs & fell over the cats a lot (they were looking at us in the torchlit gloom as though we were big hopeless clumsy beings with rubbish eyesight - which, compared to them, we are). Then to town where the Wonderspouse went to work. I went for a walk, bought some breakfast stuff, came home and did some work by candle & torchlight before giving up and dozing off for a while! When we're without power we have almost nothing - it's VERY dark and we have no cooking, heating, or hot water - fortunately it wasn't too cold yesterday!

Power returned late morning. Jobs list was kyboshed, so I did the most urgent stuff before heading off out for the evening!

We parked up in Kensington and went from the powerless wilds to extreme civilization, which was amazing. A quick stop to pick up a snack, then on to the Royal Albert Hall, where we saw James Rhodes outside just before he went off to prepare for the evening. Then we ate tea, went for a walk, and got back to the Albert Hall ready for the evening performance in the Elgar Room!

As usual, when we go and see James, we're reminded how wonderful live performance is, and how even the best recordings are no substitute for actually hearing the performance. James entrances his audiences such that you could hear a pin drop during his performances and tonight was no exception. Balakirev's transcription of Chopin's Romanza from his 1st Concerto was gorgeous, and the Busoni Bach Chaconne was fabulous (although I always find it odd when the piece is in D minor - in my (viola) world, it's in G minor! ;-) ).

It was also lovely to see @awoollyhat, Dexter's former human, again and to update her on the wonderful Dex and how he's doing, as well as to meet @pianomaths!

Once of the stars of the evening was certainly this piano! I quote from the programme:

The Royal Albert Hall would like to thank Markson Pianos Ltd for generously providing the hand-built Yamaha baby (sic) grand piano for this series. The piano, which was used by Elton John on his Big Red Piano tour and has appeared on the X Factor, has been kindly donated to the Elgar Room by Markson and its rich sound and elegant styling combine to add a wonderful dimension to all of our concerts.

I certainly wouldn't mind having such a piano in my house - and I'd get a red piano stool to go with it too!