Upstairs, Downstairs

A few weeks ago I was offered a ticket to a Barenboim piano performance in the Concertgebouw. At this time it wasn't known that Princess Maxima had chosen this very occasion to celebrate her 40th birthday with 700 guests. Lots of extra security and the rather weird sense of being a gatecrasher as the balcony and podium seats were all occupied by her guests and us plebs were confined to the downstairs bit. The papparazzi were allowed in before the start and after the end of the music.

Of course I still had an image in my head as Barenboim being the young curly haired man who played him in the film Hilary and Jackie when in fact these days he looks more like Anthony Hopkins. So it was slightly disconcerting to have Hannibal Lector just a few feet in front of me playing Liszt. The concert was wonderful, though I could have done without the bit at the end where Maxima gave a speech where she seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she hadn't actually hired the whole hall for a private party. She said she 'hoped she'd be able to have a word with everyone in the foyer afterwards' whilst the upstairs foyers were forbidden territory to all of us in the main hall. I would have thought an apology for kidnapping the concert would have been more appropriate but ach, it was all vaguely entertaining in its way too I suppose.