Prom 7

Last night I went along, with Mr SB, to my first Proms concert of this season. We nearly decided to completely bail, it being the hottest July day since 1911, and because the original intention was to queue for promenading tickets in the "Arena" (no seats, standing in front of the stage).

Luckily we managed to nab a couple of returned tickets for seats in a box on the second tier instead of crisping in the queue. These were probably some of the best seats I've had at the RAH for comfort and leg-room. It's also a bonus that they let you have drinks in the boxes - no bad thing with the place becoming increasingly sauna-like over the duration.

The concert was billed as a celebration for the 80th birthday of HMQ, so Herself was there too. That meant the usual panoply of Scots Guards trumpeters fanfaring and antheming was at the beginning. It also meant the stage was covered in various school and ecclesiastical choirs in all the space not occupied by the orchestra itself.

The programme was quite varied - starting with a new commission: A Little Birthday Music composed by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Master of the Queen's Music with words by Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion. A rather bizarre piece, as I tend to find these modern commissions; choral bursts from the children punctuated by discordant brass trumpeting.

This was followed by the far more relaxing Clarinet Concerto in A Major by Mozart. With the heat in the hall it was all too easy to begin to snooze.

Finally, after the interval, Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor From the New World. This was far more familiar than I had expected. It turns out to be the poaching ground for the famous music used for the Hovis bread adverts among others which will probably drive me mad until I manage to identify where I've heard them before.

More Proms to come before mid September.