Had late lunch at Ottolenghi on Upper Street in Islington.

Ottolenghi is famous for its cakes, and also for its salads spiced with oriental flavors.

My choice was

Char-grilled salmon with za'atar yoghurt,

char-grilled broccoli with chili & garlic,

mixed green beans with fennel, crispy kale, fennel seeds, anise seeds, dill & pink peppercorns.

More about Ottolenghi clic here and here.

The whole day was a bit rainy and windy. It all made me wanted to stay inside, but got tickets to a jazz concert at Royal Academy of Music, so the tube to Baker Street. 

The concert was marvelous! It was dedicated to Billy May and conducted by Mike Lovatt. The musicians were the students of Royal Academy - they played absolutely gorgeously. The jazz version of Brahms' Hungarian Dance no.5 was phenomenal!

What a great evening! 

Ceasars Palace

Las vegas is full of theme hotels. The famous Caesars Palace is one of them - it's a replica of ancient Roman features. If you have a room there you don't really need to go outside the hotel as everything is inside there including huge casinos, all high-end shops, restaurants and shows & entertainment for night. It's a pretty amazing complex. 

Where the casino ends the Forum shopping area begins. There's always an early evening with an almost clear sky...

Had a nice whole pot of lemongrass tea at Max Brenner's. The tea pot was quite special!

Vegas is all about gambling, having fun and seeing shows. Shania Twain was performing at Colosseum of Caesars Palace. Not really my kind of music but I'm open for a good show and in Vegas the shows are spectacular, so why not!

 A show in Las Vegas style!

Something about my outfit. Btw, you really need to put something warm on as the A/C is on with full speed everywhere, especially in theaters. 

jacket - Tiger of sweden

pants - Acne

top - Rils

shoes - Tory Burch

bag - Miu Miu

necklace - Aarikka

Been to Caesars Palace before...wink wink.

A7X

After having dinner with friends at Wolfgang Puck Pizzeria & Cucina at Crystals, headed to Mandalay Bay to see Avenged Sevenfold. That's THE band at the moment. The European tour starting in November is basically sold out.

The gig started with Shepherd and continued 1,5 hours with pure rock. Me likey a lot!

Szilvia The Singer

 Szilvia Voros, a talented young mezzosoprano.

So happy that went to listen to 

Szilvia's salon concert last night.

 Fantastic voice!

She's not just singing but she's in the song,

does that make any sense?

Her eyes are singing as well.

Btw Eva Marton is her teacher!

Szilvia with her pianist gabriella Gyoker.

These are the pieces they performed last night:

A. Vivaldi: Nisi Dominus (parts)

Georg Friedrich Handel: Giulio Cesare-Cornelia aria

G. Rossini: Tancredi-Tancred aria 

"Tu che accendi...Di tanti palpiti"

Frans Liszt: S'il est un charmant gazon

Frans Liszt: Freudvoll und leidvoll

Camille Saint-Saens: Samson et Delilah

Gabriel Faure: Les berceaux

G. Bizet: Carmen-Habanere

Mahler' s Symphony No.6

 Sunny & warm in London on Tuesday!

- around 25 degrees C

 Got an invitation to a concert at Royal Festival Hall:

Philharmonia Orchestra playing Mahler's symphony no.6

conducting by Lorin Maazel

 Mr van de Wiel on his way to work

to Royal Festival Hall

in his flip-flops & bright yellow t-shirt,

carrying his clarinet

 Mahler's Symphony no.6 about to start

 Mr van de Wiel still has time to tell a joke

to his collegue...

 Maestro himself, Lorin Maazel,

with Philharmonia Orchestra

after 79mins

- fabulous concert! 

 After the concert went to Ping Pong for dinner

No pics of food,

ate too fast...

- nice place, good food

.

Ping Pong

Festival Terrace

Southbank Centre

Belvedere Road,

London SE1

http://www.pingpongdimsum.com/

London Sinfonietta

London Sinfonietta performed

in Budapest as a part of

The 23. Mini-Festival
at The Palace of Arts

on Saturday

The orchestra was conducted by Swiss Baldur Brönnimann

The program was interesting& fascinating:

George Benjamin: At First Light

Tansy Davies: Neon

- funny & happy, kind of jazzy!

Ligeti György: Kamarakoncert

Bella Máté: Chuang Tzu's Dream

- the young composer was in the audience!

Thomas Adés: Living Toys- will defenetely buy his cd!
.

Carillon Concert

After Sami Garam's Xmas brunch at Le Meridien

went to Belvárosi szinház

to listen Xmas Carillon Concert
.

The building used to host Film Museum

but after succesfull renovation

it's been a theatre

- very retro style
.

Didn't really know what to expect

from a carillon concert!

- it all started rather promisingly

by the Vác Symphonic Orchestra

and Szilvia Kárászy playing carillon

(above in the pic)

.
But then started the speeches...
and it all turn out to "ein bischen komisch"
- it was supposed to a Xmas concert
but there're not real Xmas songs
.
- the clarinetist played pieces from his newest album,
which were all far from christmas music
- he even played pan flute
with playback mariachi music,
the same El canción del mariachi
that Antonio Banderas has sung!!!
and the audience loved it...
.
Somehow everything was so typical Hungarian!
It was a show
which was kind of fun actually
.
But the carillon would have worked better
in a bigger place
- now it was too loud
.
Szilvia seems to be very symphatic person
.
The Vác Symphonic Orchestra
conducting by Pál Farkas
.

Conductor Pál Farkas,

carillon player Szilvia Kárászy

& clarinetist St. Martin
.

The 10th "Golden Bell" prize was distributed
at the end of the concert to
Markusz Norbert
.

Kings Place

A cappella group "In The Smoke"

singing beautifully

up there

at Kings Place
.

Beautiful spacious building

designed by Peter Millican

- the house is not only for culture but also

hosting some offices

it's the home for

London Sinfonietta
& Guardian newspaper

.

( Sorry, the quality of pics is not so good... )
Endymion playing

Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A

&
Brahms Clarinet Quintet in B minor- pleasant start for Saturday !

.

Glass Façade

One of the most distinctive design features of the building

is the three-layered undulating glass façade

covering the west-facing York Way frontage.

This is a free-standing transparent surface

made up of hundreds of very slightly curved sheets of glass,

produced in a factory near Venice.

As well as being a beautiful design statement,

it has practical benefits;

from allowing Kings Place to be seen

and recognised by visitors from as far as

Kings Cross station to reducing heat gain

from the afternoon sun.
.

Lunch at Kings Place
Salmon quishe with salad,
cup of tea
and a scone-like cookie
- good!
.
Kings Place by Regent Canal
.