The Cinnamon Club and Vivaldi

Another beautiful day in London and lunch at the Cinnamon Club with our Winchcombe friends Sue and John.

Flowers are in full bloom in the hanging pots around the city...mostly decorating the pubs.

Winnie's view of Big Ben.

A wonderful statue dedicated to Women in World War ll. The clothing represents all the professions women took on while the men were away in battle. The statue was financed by various fund raisers but a large chunk of the cost, 800,000 pounds, was contributed by Baroness Boothroyd, one-time speaker of the House of Commons (the only woman to hold the position) who won the money on "Who wants to be a Milionaire."

Controversial statue outside of St. Martin called "in the beginning"......The baby is emerging from a huge chunk of granite - you can gauge the size of the marble by referencing Richard's head. He's standing on the other side. 

Vivaldi by Candlelight was our concert fare for the evening at St. Martin. Our seats were a bit better this time. We sat in the balcony and looked directly over the orchestra. The performance by Ruth Rogers as the soloist in the Vivaldi was spectacular. 

She's technically superb, beautiful and energetic. Her playing is emotional, but just enough. Although the conductor runs the show, Ruth plays standing in the middle of the group and energizes and inspires the playing. The regular players were dressed in standard long back dresses for the women; the men in white shirts. The harpsichordist wore fire-engine red and Ruth wore a sapphire blue gown, perfect for her role. 

Here's the set-up for the orchestra. No photos during the performance. 

Watching the audience from above was amusing. A young man in the back row couldn't resist conducting. His friend was trying to hold him back, but he'd stop and then start back up again. He was in a corner out of the sight of the conductor thankfully. Many of the older people in the audience, obviously tourists, fell asleep. They'd wake up for the applause and then fall back to sleep when the music began again. A group of Asians wrote post card during the performance. In the back of the balcony there are unassigned seats, the cheap seats  - from which you cannot see the performers. As we filed out, there was a woman up there getting her shoes back on and her belt and God knows what else. Apparently she partially disrobed for the performance. Yuck...what are these people thinking? I mention this only because we actually worried about being under-dressed for these concerts. There is no longer such a condition as under-dressed.