Musiikkitalo

Today with school we went back to Musiikkitalo (Music House) to see the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. It was really great :) The price was right - free for school groups booked in advance, and only €3 to get in otherwise. It was the final rehearsal for their concert which begins tonight. They played Schumann, Prokofiev and Beethoven, and the solo violinist was Viviane Hagner from Germany - very talented. I took my 17yo daughter with me. She even said that she had enjoyed it, and wished she played the violin herself :)

Pro tip: if you live in Helsinki, these shows happen regularly. You can check out the website to see the dates, www.musiikkitalo.fi (it's also in English). They have a lovely sunny cafe indoors, and fresh pastries for sale. Unfortunately there's quite a rush at intermission, so if you want to buy something, sit close to the door and make a dash for it the moment intermission starts. They won't let you into the doors if you're late, so arrive in time to use the cloaking service.

   

The rehearsals are informal - leave your furs at home and wear jeans (the whole orchestra will be in jeans too). The musicians ignore the audience, so this is a little different to "going to the symphony". The conductor often asks them to play small sections of the pieces again, asking them to play louder in the horn part, or tell the violinists they're a bit slow to begin the fast section, and so on. It's kinda interesting :) Even the building is spectacular.

Dream Come True

My friend Linda sent this to me, and I was transported backwards a decade in time.

This girl never would have dreamed what was included in her ticket price.

I had every one of U2's albums, I had several U2 t-shirts, and I had an ENORMOUS poster that covered most of one wall in my bedroom. I even had the sheet music to The Joshua Tree. I can blame classmate Rod for the obsession, because I sat next to him in Computing and he was obsessed with U2 and I was curious what was so great about them so I went and bought Rattle and Hum on cassette. And then it was game on.

If Bono had done this to me in 1989 MY LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETE.