BBC Ulster Hall Concert

I was at another BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concert in the Ulster Hall in Belfast this evening. It was a full house tonight, for a change. I sat in my usual spot, overlooking the stage.

I'd brought my little computer with me, to see if I could obtain a BT Openzone signal: no joy there at all.

The Ulster Orchestra was in great form, playing a range of pieces with a mainly French theme. The soloist was a young Irish pianist called Finghin Collins.

The orchestra had to play what, to my mind, was an absolutely ghastly composition called The Shipyard. It supposedly lasted eight minutes; though it felt more like eighty. One of the clarinetists actually put his fingers in his ears! He must have been too close to the percussionists for comfort, poor chap.