A trip to the Fairfield Halls, Croydon's sole contribution to culture - well, apart from the two theatres.
It's probably a bit sad booking a ticket to go to a concert alone. But the fact that my fiance can't have late nights shouldn't stop me.
I had actually found the concert when looking for something completely different. The internet's like that. Turns out it's the opening concert of a whole year of Hungarian culture in Britain, to mark Hungary's accession to the EU in May. The Hungarian Ambassador was in attendance - I sussed that out when I saw a car with registration MAG 1 outside the concert hall. Events will take place in various British cities, so, if you are interested, as a couple of you will be, do check out Magyar Magic.
Also check out the concert programme, which also included as a bonus the tenor Attila Fekete singing three songs by Rachmaninov. As an encore they played Berlioz's Rakoczy March
Initially I was disappointed at having chosen a stalls seat, and one right at the front to boot. When I go to concerts I have to see the percussion. It's just one of my things. And I realised with sinking heart that I couldn't see the percussion.
But not to worry, I had an excellent view of the soloists, and the conductor, and even ended up exchanging looks with a second violinist and a cellist. I was also very close to the leaders (clearly a job share - they swapped seats after the interval), and was flirting with one in the bar in the interval. (It's a sad state of affairs when the leader of the orchestra, with his fiddle, has to come to the bar for an interval smoke...)
More importantly, by being in such a position I really felt that I was in the heart of the orchestra. Still, I'm glad that my seats for the Barbican next week, and in three weeks are in the circle. I really wanted a good seat to hear Murray Perahia.
I enjoyed the concert, without being moved to tears or any such thing. Still, the journey back reminded me why I stopped seeing Croydon as a viable evening venue a long time ago.
