A lunchtime Beethoven septet at the Concertgebouw

18.05.2015

I'm 66 years old and have never attended a classical music concert, so when an opportunity turned up to see a free lunchtime recital at the Amsterdam Concert hall I joined the waiting line an hour before it started. They only let the first 400 in and often people are turned away. I thought it was a good idea because a nighttime concert would need flasher clothes than I have in my suitcase and would cost a minimum of $40 a seat. At least, having experienced about 45 minutes of virtuoso instrumental mastery, I know now what all the fuss is about. It was a spellbinding experience to watch and hear seven individuals play with such precision and passion. The sound from any one or combination of the instruments in turn filled the room with a powerful clarity of colour and tone that it became an emotional experience just to hear them. It was tempting to close the eyes and be carried away by the wonderful sounds, but watching each individual musician bobbing and weaving in their own inimitable way as they poured their heart and soul into their performances, added to the experience. The incredible imagination of the composer becomes apparent when you hear how the different instruments weave in and out of the melody strands and blend together seamlessly to create a whole that is so much more than its individual parts. I now stand in awe of the minds and imagination of classical composers. After all that excitement I got a bit peckish and headed off to my favourite little cafe for a healthy lunch of mushroom soup with a chicken and bacon sandwich. The lunch I had there yesterday was a not so healthy burger and fries with mayonaise. I have added a couple of photos of the nice place I'm staying, and some I took the other day when I took the free ferry from behind the railway station to the northern suburbs, and a very interesting building dedicated to the history of film. It is a spectacular building and has a large open restaurant complex as well as a number of luxurious picture theatres which showcase an eclectic mix of old and new arthouse films from all over world. I spent an hour looking through an exhibition showing the development of film from its earliest days and saw some amazing early short film clips I hadn't seen before. Finally I couldn't leave Amsterdam without commenting on the bike culture. I thought Tokyo was the capital of bikeriding, but I was wrong, riding a bike in Amsterdam is done by 70 percent of the population. Nobody wears helmets or lycra and dress only in what they will wear when they arrive. On both edges of the road is a pavement, then a two wide dedicated bike lane, then another pavement. This separates bikes from both cars and pedestrians, and they make the most of it with whole families beong transported from place to place clinging onto mum or dad on multiseat bikes. Even 50cc motorbikes are allowed to travel around helmetless in bike lanes. If I had been prepared with my camera I could have taken some crazy photos. The nicest one I saw was yesterday walking on the way to the local supermarket, when I was passed by a couple in their late seventies riding in the bike lane. She was riding her mobility scooter and he was riding beside her, barely keeping up, on a noisy old 50cc suzuki. It looked like their daily outing. As it was I took a few photos today of unusual bikes parked outside the local shops, just to give an idea of what sights can be seen everyday in Amsterdam. Tomorrow night I fly onto Seville and go from 12 degree days to 35 degree days. That should be interesting. However I've got 10 days of clothing to wash and a bit of settling in to do before I can manage another blog so It might be a few days...

The Concertgebouw