Well mannered, all around.

BBC-star-Kathy-Clugston and I went to the Concertgebouw last month to hear the Kronos Quartet perform with Wu Man and Amy Knoles as part of October’sChina Festival. The Kronos Quartet were as usual brilliant and both guests were satisfyingly amazing. The program featured pieces by Tan Dun, a composer who amongst other things won an Oscar for the music in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” What we heard with the Kronos Quartet was enough to inspire a trip to Amazon. More CDs to pack! Our seats were on the stage itself, we being not organised enough to book early, thus we had a good view of not only the performers but also the audience. We did notice a bit-of-a-flurry and a standing ovation for two guests who arrived fashionably late, we had arrived only seconds before them and were too busy getting arranged ourselves to take too much notice. (To be honest, I may still have been in the bokzone…) They were seated directly above “Mahler” in the balcony, central and directly over from us so we had quite a good view. Even so, it wasn’t until AFTER the break that Kathy peered into the distance and said “Isn’t that Prince Willem and Maxima”? A series of discreet but penetrating eye-ballings revealed that indeed it was. Being well bought up of course we resisted the urge to wave. They didn’t wave either which goes to show they have been just as well bought up as ourselves.