My third classic Brits; last year, I went alone – no-one else was interested! This time, I persuaded others of what a great evening it was, and so there were 7 of us altogether, all of whom want to go next year too, so I’m certainly spreading the word! I think the hall was fuller than in previous years, but there were still seats available in the circle; but this year we had decided to really splash out and go in the stalls and had superb seats, with a great view over the arena with all the guests there, and also over the stage.
We all arrived early, hoping to get a good view of the arrivals, as I had last year – but others had the same idea and we were too late to get good positions unfortunately. As we arrived, All Angels, dressed all in white, were drawing up in a horse drawn carriage; it appears that Katherine Jenkins had already arrived in similar style, along with Juan Diego Flórez. Katherine was dressed in a peacock Maria Grachvogel blue catsuit with diamond jewellery worth, it was stated, £1.6 million! We saw other arrivals also, Alfie Boe, Natasha Marsh, Natalie Klein, Sarah Brightman, Myleene Klaas, Lang Lang and Aled Jones.
After all the guests had gone into the Hall, we had our picnic on the steps of the Albert Memorial and then went into the Halls ourselves at 7.15 when the doors were opened. As usual, the arena had been cleared and the guests were finishing off their meals at the tables in the arena. The stage had fanciful scenery again – this time it reminded me of old Roman ruins after an earthquake, or maybe Pompeii after the eruption of Vesuvius! As usual the background to the scenery changed colour throughout the evening, often matching the songs being sung / pieces being played.
As usual, up from the arena on the left was the long staircase, lit along the rail, for the artists in the hall to mount to receive their prizes, and above the stage to the left was a large screen saying “Classic Brit Awards” and with the figure of Britannia on, and “Brought by National Savings and Investments”. As last year, we had the bonus of free programmes on our seats!
The orchestra – the London Chamber Orchestra, conductor Christopher Warren-Green – had taken their places and the Fron Male Voice choir filed in across the back of the stage; and then Katherine, who had changed into a long, red, flowing Kruszynska dress, strapless but with small train behind, started singing off stage and then came on to sing with the choir. Katherine sang “World in Union” to the tune of “I vow to thee my Country”, with the back of the stage now a deep orange, and then left the stage for the Fron Choir to sing alone – “Land of My Fathers”. Many in the audience stood, and there were also many people waving Welsh flags in the audience.
After the Fron choir had filed off again, later to take up a large block of seats to our left for the rest of the concert, Fern Britten came on to introduce the evening. I have always been in the gallery before and did not really realise what was going on! From our seats this time, we could clearly see the autocue, which she (and later the other presenters there) was reading, which was interesting in itself!
The first award was for the Young Classical Performer. In previous years Katherine, Duchess of Kent, has presented this award; this year, actor Douglas Henshall did the honours. The nominées were Nicky Spence, Nicola Benedetti (the first of three awards for which she was nominated) and Ruth Palmer, like Nicola, a violinist, with Ruth, dressed in a simple long black dress, mounting the long staircase to collect the award. Before the next performance, we had the second award – that for Singer of the Year, nominées the fabulous Anna Netrebko (who was, in fact, the winner), Rolando Villazón, and Simon Keenlyside. To present the award, on tottered Sarah Brightman, dressed most elaborately in a flowing feathery red dress and with red shoes with enormous stacked heels – so outstanding that she had her photo in many papers the following day! Anna Netrebko was not able to be at the RAH and her acceptance speech was shown on the large screen.
Back to music – and on came Joshua Bell, American violinist extraordinaire. With the background now a deep mauve, Joshua played “Estrellita” by Manuel Ponce, followed by “Summer” from Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’, with the background a streaky pale orange / grey, with moving clouds and flashing lights like lightening! - echoing the storm in the music. I have seen Joshua Bell before – and he puts great energy into his playing. When I saw him play before, we were sitting very near the front and could see the beads of sweat flying off his forehead, and the broken violin strings!! But not visible from our seats that evening!
The orchestra alone played one of the Elgar “Pomp and Circumstance” marches while the scene changers moved the scenery, and brought on lanterns and lights, and some singers, all in black, filed on, boys to the left, girls to the right. (We had, incidentally, been told that there would be a certain stress on the music of Elgar that evening, as this year is the 150th birthday of the composer’s birth) Before the next performance, Katie Derham, in a very attractive long strapless pale turquoise dress, presented the Classical Recording of the Year award to the Berlin Philaharmoniker, conducted by Simon Rattle, for their recording of “The Planets”, and Simon Rattle was seen accepting the award on the screen. Then we discovered the reason for the backing group – Sting and Edin Karamazov performed “Come Again” by John Dowland, an Elizabethan lutenist and composer, from his CD ‘Songs from the Labyrinth’, which had been nominated as the Album of the Year. The background was like a dark sky, with moonlit colouring and stars on the back screen!
Next was the presentation of Instrumentalist of the Year, presented by Aled Jones. Aled’s speech was typically Aled amusing – saying that the nominées were 66% female, 66% past winners, 66% past performers – and 100% genius – like Guiness! The nominées were Alison Balsom (who both won and performed last year!), Nicola Benedetti, and the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. The latter was the winner and the acceptance was again screened, as he was not able to be in attendance – “he can’t be here, he’s practising” said Aled!
All Angels filed on dressed again in white (we had noticed they were dressed all in black for the meal – no doubt not wanting to spill food on their white dresses!), the background turned to bluey grey and dry ice created the usual smokey effects arising around them. They performed two songs –“‘Sanctus Dei”, a new setting of Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’, followed by “Steal Away”. For the latter, the background had become a pale blue, and appeared to be moving gently – like a moving sky.
Next we had the presentation for the best original soundtrack composer –which went to George Fenton for “Planet Earth” (a lot of planets this evening!) and was presented by Trudy Styler, dressed in a simple long black dress. And then Juan Diego Flórez came on stage to a deep red background, a dark sky effect above and stars in the upper backstage- a dramatic background for him to sing dramatic music- “Granada”! Which led us equally dramatically into the interval!
During the interval, the piano on stage was moved into the centre, and the background became a whitish grey. Fern Britten returned to introduce Lang Lang, the Chinese pianist now resident in Hong Kong, and managed in the UK, so he told me, by Steve Abbott, manager for Hayley Westenra, Aled Jones and All Angels. Lang Lang played two pieces: Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody”, and then the Finale from the Tchaikovsky “Piano Concerto No 1”. His style could be described as enthusiastic! – seemingly leaping all over the place in the first piece, the ending very dramatic and with arms flung up in the air! For the Tchaikovsky we changed to an orangey background, and at the end Lang Lang blew a kiss to the audience and then gave Fern a kiss on one hand - very romantic! He was certainly greeted by rapturous applause so it clearly worked!
The Critics Award followed, presented by David Mellor, who first had a few words to say about Mstislav Rostropovich who had died at the end of April. David Mellor takes his music very seriously! – and this was obvious in the introduction and presentation, which went to the Freiberg Baroque Orchestra. And after actor Nigel Havers had presented the Contemporary Composer’s Award to John Adams, Alfie Boe and Natasha Marsh came on stage together. Alfie was dressed all in black, and Natasha was in a long silvery dress, sparkling on top – so contrasting! This was the second time within a week had heard Alfie! - and I have to say the Royal Albert Hall suits his voice well; the duet (the drinking song from La Traviata) was very well received by the audience.
The lifetime achievement award came next – to Dr Vernon Handley. To give the award were Anthony Payne and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, dressed in a pale blue suit – we had previously seen her in the Royal Box; and one bright spark among us – can’t remember who – had already noticed that she had left the box! Dr Handley is 77, and walks with the assistance of two sticks, so the progress up to the stage was slow; but was it worth it! He gave the funniest acceptance speech I have ever heard, and had the audience in fits, talking about his farewell concert which he intends to conduct in 2021, although that could change – with the resulting recording being on the Age Concern label, and to which he hoped the audience would come – although looking round, he felt some might not be around then. He continued by saying that, having been a champion of British composers such as Robert Simpson, Arnold Bax and Malcolm Arnold, among many others, he has now decided to discover Beethoven, because he’s found out that Ludwig was born in Chipping Campden! He left with a tribute to the people who have made his career possible, the orchestral players.
Natalie came back on alone to sing “The Laughing Song “ from ‘Die Fledermaus’, the hall dark with just a yellow spotlight on her, and a orangey yellow background behind the ruins; and then Alfie returned alone to sing “Recondita armonia” from ‘Tosca’, the stage having darkened to a deep blue-mauve background. And then the final and in many ways, most awaited award, that of the NS&I Album of the Year. Among those nominated were Alfie, Katherine and All Angels, the Fron Male Voice Choir and Sting, all of whom had performed, and also Libera, Bryn Terfel, Nicola Benedetti and Sir Paul McCartney. We had seen Sir Paul among the tables in the arena during the interval, and excitement increased when Sir Paul won the award, which was presented by Simon Bates, a regular at the awards ceremony.
And so we came towards the end of the evening, and the last performance. Sir Vernon Handley mounted the rostrum to conduct the orchestra as they accompanied Natalie Klein, playing the ”Adagio” from the Elgar ‘Cello Concerto’. Natalie was dressed all in black, and has dark hair. The background was very dark with stars in the sky and a huge moon on the background screen behind the ruins– very effective! I love the Elgar Cello concerto anyway, so this was a very moving final performance for me.
But it was not, in fact, the end. The evening finished with the orchestra alone again, playing part of a Beethoven Symphony to a totally darkened hall, with only lights on the orchestra, the stage empty and a white sky behind the ruins.
A lovely evening: dress of the evening – 3 votes for Natasha’s silvery white one, 1 each for Alison Balsom’s black dress and Katherine’s red dress And WOW of the evening – “Granada”, or Joshua Bell and the Orchestra, or the Elgar, or All Angels, or the speech of Dr Vernon Hadley - depends on the view of the people there! We had, this time no concerted agreement! (sorry about the pun!)
