Royal Albert Hall

16-05-2008
Sarah Andrews, MyVillage

The Spring Proms sounds like a daunting title, and to someone who has never so much seen an orchestra live before, let alone attended anything ‘promish’ it was delightfully surprising by how enjoyable it was. The Royal Philamonic Orchestra, led by conductor David Arnold, was the most amazing thing about the show. The sheer depth of sound reverberating around the Royal Albert Hall would be enough to move even those made of wood. Their interpretation of Summer, from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was all the more incredible because it was recognisable. Beethoven’s Ode to Joy became a joint venture with Royal Choral Society and had the entire audience’s attention. There were two over head monitors surrounding the musicians that displayed images of animals, as the event was giving money away from raffles to WWF. It was easy to become distracted from the music when the big screens and it felt like the proms were being dumbed down a little, and hindered rather than extended your enjoyment of the music. Alex Stobbs, the 18 year old boy - who has become a media interest – (with a Channel 4 programme documenting his life as a musical genius, living with Cystic Fibrosis, a hereditary disease that affects mainly the the lungs and the liver), displayed just that, when he played a piece from the Mozart Piano Concerto. But it seemed that whenever you longed to hear more of something, you were very quickly distracted by the next piece of music. The Welsh National Opera star Wynne Evans, blew us all away (literally, his lungs were THAT powerful) by singing Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, as a tribute to the late Pavarotti and confirmed to this opera virgin that you either love or hate it opera, and I LOVED it. Pipe Major Jim Motherwell, the 10th Personal Piper to HM Queen Elizabeth II, who played with the Eton College Pipers was not amongst my favourite things. I felt that the night took a turn for the commercial worst when they played Bryan Adam’s ‘Everything I do’, contrasting with the beautiful sounds of the orchestra. The sound of the bagpipe is harsh and not something to be desired by my ears. Each of the audience were given a Union Jack flag, which unbeknownst to me, you are supposed to wave when everyone drunkenly sings Rule Britannia at the end of the night. The night concluded in a bang of glitter and streamers as everyone was feeling very drunk and British. A perfect way to end a rather alternative night of fun.

04-04-2008
M.TIGWEL.SKY,COM

The venue is a fantastic !Howvever I think Gorden Brown has shares in the place as �1:80 FOR BAG OF CRISP AND �2:00 FOR A SMALL BOTTLE OF WATER is an absolute rip off.My advice is get your in house supplies before you go in.The concert was OK but expensive, this is not down to RAH.

09-07-2007
Daniel

Great night out, what a start to the Grand Prix weekend. The entertainment was superb. Best night out in a long time, worth every penny.

06-07-2007
chido

i really loved loved preforming at the royal albet hall that time for i was one of the soloist, thank u for this big oppotunity.