The SCO dress code is all black with jackets optional, and ties whose absence looks as though it might be obligatory.  The classical player's need to show that he and his music are not as stuffy as they are thought to be, is it?

The music at the Britten centenary concert that I hadn't planned on going to was anything but stuffy.  The Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings by Britten himself was simply divine. It was preceded by two pieces that I suppose might be described as challenging, i.e. modern.

In introducing Harrison Birtwhistle's Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum the conductor pointed out that it was written when Monty Python was all the rage and that it probably needed to be listened to with a sense of humour.  You could believe having heard it that if you wanted to translate the Python anarchic style into sound you'd very likely end up with something like this.

Martin Suckling's Storm, Rose, Tiger saw the light of day as recently as 2011 and the 32 year old composer was there to enjoy it with us.  He was also giving a talk before the concert which had it not been for a craving for food I'd have gone to.  I should have had a bigger lunch.

Unusually for me I bought a programme - I thought I should at least know what words the tenor was singing.  Apart from that benefit I was able to read plenty about all the music.  Thanks to my saxophone studies I understand the words in those descriptions better than I used to but in the end it all boils down to whether the music you hear pleases you.  Storm, Rose, Tiger pleased me so it doesn't much matter that Suckling talks about "intervals that fall in the gaps - a semi-tone and a half for example, or the interval between a major third and a minor third - that give the harmony a special and often (to my[i.e. his] mind ) radiant quality".

Unusually for me also I sat upstairs.  It must be years since I was upstairs in the Queen's Hall and I was pleased to see that the pews have had their hard bench seating replaced by fold down seats something like the strapontins in the Paris metro, only more comfy, since I plan to sit upstairs next season. 

The second half was given over to Mozart's Symphony No. 40. It was lovely but I preferred the modern stuff.

Coming back to what the musicians wear I'm conscious that I haven't mentioned the women.  The SNJO doesn't have any and in the RSNO and the SCO the women wear a variety of little black numbers.  Let's leave it like that.  Enough attention is paid to women's wear.  Let's see the boys glamming up for a change.