The Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Last night, I went to see the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on their last stop of their tour. It was lovely!

The programme was as follows:

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847)
Symphony No.3 in A minor, Op. 5 Scottish
Andante con moto - Allegro un poco agitato
Vivace non troppo
Adagio
Allegro vivacissimo - Allegro maestoso assai

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (b. 1934)
An Orkney Wedding, with  Sunrise
Bagpipes Iain Crawford

Igor Stravinsky(1882 - 1971)
Suite fro The Firebird (1919 Version)
Introduction
The Firebird and its Dance & Variation of the Firebird
Dance of the Princesses
Infernal Dance of King Kastchei
Berceuse
Finale

Conductor Peter Oundjian

*

It was a lovely evening. Very surprising was, I bought 2 tickets for a friend and myself, and we were seated. The hall started to fill up and there was an empty seat to my left, but I didn't think much about it.

What are the odds that a colleague from work came and just happened to have bought that one empty seat? It was funny. When he saw me, he said, "I can't believe it, the odds!" (he's a finance/optimization  guy so his use of "the odds" was quite funny to me).

I guess Mendelssohn being a classic, did make me fall asleep for a bit there. But the Orkney Wedding was wonderful. The lead violinist actually (for show) drank a bottle of whiskey and the orchestra went haywire, nobody in sync, it was hilarious. And then the Sunrise was portrayed by the bagpipes - I've never heard bagpipes live before, and the guy in the complete attire - guy in skirt! kilt! and I have to say the bagpipes do sound wonderful. The Firebird was really, really good. Wonderful even!

They did 2 encores, I couldn't hear what the first one was, but the second one, for the New Year, was the Auld Lang Syne, with 5 (or 6? I forgot) guys on bagpipes again. And again I thought that bagpipes had a very beautiful sound.

It was a lovely evening indeed! And our Saturday night wouldn't be complete without visiting our favourite cafe-bar :D