Concert-going offers another view of a foreign city; no language required

And so our final report from Amsterdam brings us to music.

One of the great delights of our internet age is the ability to pop online to review concert schedules and buy tickets for pretty much anywhere in the world.  In my youth, planning a concert within a foreign trip took extraordinary effort.  Now, it's easier than heading to your local box office.

The Amsterdam Concertgebouw is a name that pops up regularly in classical music.  We knew it was one of Europe's great concert halls and thought it would be fun to experience a performance in another country.  Their website is particularly helpful, with an English option and … in addition to the usual map of seats … a webcam application that lets you see what the actual view is like from the places you're considering.  Oddly, though they're quite high tech in this regard, there's no e-ticket option.  You do need to stand in line at the box office to pick up paper tickets.  But this is a minor gripe within a tremendous concert-going experience.

The hall is beautiful.  Rather than the more usual shell-shaped auditorium, it's a large rectangle with just one relatively narrow balcony around the side and extending from the back.   The architecture is clean and classical; mostly white with a coffered ceiling.  Meaning there's an admirable sense of light and space.  There's an organ behind the stage and, like the Royal Albert Hall, seats around it, allowing you to get bargain tickets if you sit behind the symphony.  The soloist and the conductor enter and exit from a door at the top of this seating area, making a ceremonial little walk through the audience.  That's a nice touch.

We chose seats in the very back row of the ground floor; I'd guess these were a modern addition to increase capacity, rather than part of the hall's original design.  The obstructed view, thanks to the columns holding up the balcony, lowered the price.  These were about the best available when we got around to ordering.  The acoustics provided great sound quality, however, and the hall is small enough that even this back row felt fairly close.

We were impressed by the extras that come with a Dutch concert ticket: free public transport to and from the hall, and a free drink at the intermission.  Trays of glasses with white and red wine, orange juice and water await you as you spill out into the public spaces around the hall.  There's also an elegant  little cafe on the ground floor facing the main road, with vast windows, old chandeliers, new art and free WiFi.  All very civilised and appealing.  I wondered if some of this was a bid to get younger people to the hall.  If so, it didn't seem to be working.  As with most other places I've seen classical music live, the crowd was mostly 50 and over, with a smattering of youth.  The demographic make up is the spectre haunting these grand palaces of culture.

They're sold out now, but will they have the audience to be so in 30 years?  I suspect an exception may be London, where audiences do seem a bit younger.  I think this has a lot to do with England's Classic FM radio station, which treats symphonic music like pop, with playlists, countdowns and celebrated personalities.  It was, after all, our daily listening to that station at home that made the Concertgebouw and its director, Mariss Jansons, familiar names to us, and worth seeking out on holiday.

And the music?  Haydn's cello concerto in C.  Familiar, comforting, soul soothing, with soloist Truls Mork's cello like warm oil pouring over the aching muscles of a long day of sightseeing.  We weren't familiar with the Bruckner.  Pleasant enough, with some stirring moments, but on the whole it seemed a Wagner wanna-be without the obviously memorable bits.  (And, in fact, some research upon returning home shows that he's the same time period, working from the same romantic inspiration of German myth.)

So happy were we with the whole experience that we're considering making this a regular part of future holiday planning.  (Sadly, the schedule of the Palermo opera house doesn't fit with out next trip.)  On the ticket-included tram on the way back to the hotel, we started discussing our target list of musical venues.  La Scala.  Carnegie Hall.  The Paris Opera.  The Hollywood Bowl.  The options are intriguing.  Suggestions below, please.
All of which is leading us towards an interesting travel objective for our 50-something years.  Perhaps we should make a