Christmas concert at the Romanian Atheneum

As a child I received a very strict musical education, nearly Victorian.

I used to study sol-fa, piano and voice practice because well, one of my uncles is a musician and he thought I was sensitive and could easily learn. After some years of non-stopping practice, I decided music was not my vocational path, but I always kept a tender love towards it deep in my heart.

So after some short considerations this week, I persuaded The Gentle One about the genuine necessity of attending a Christmas concert: 

"As a matter of fact" I pedantically said, "one can´t live on a European capital and skip that tradition. That would be against civilization".

That was enough to make him see my point, partially because he also loves classic music and partially because (ahem) he would do everything to stop me when I start playing and talking like a Jane Auster character.

At this point I should mention that Bucharest was not accidentally called Little Paris.

As I previously said, all its beautiful nineteenth century architecture supports this idea and one of the most representative artistic icons is The Romanian Atheneum, which is the headquarters of the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra and of course, HAD to be the background for my first Romanian Christmas concert.

So we headed the impressive building really early in the morning (that explains both, my sleepy face, specially considering I went to bed at four o´clock last night, AND my milkmaid braids. I would love to say I was wearing them just because I find them stylish, but in all honesty, they are kind of my emergency protocol when I am in a hurry and/or it´s really wet or windy outdoors and I want to avoid my hair eating my face, something that occurs often.) 

Ok, I am digressing again. 

Anyway, we arrived early enough to take a couple of pictures.

As you may have noticed they are not exactly good but pretty blurry, I beg you to excuse me this time, unfortunately daylight was playing hide and seek with us the whole morning and the artificial light was not properly on, so it was totally impossible to make it any better.

However, I am pretty sure you can see the happiness on my face coming not just from the music itself, but also from the vague sensation of feeling like a Romanian countess sat on my velveteen chair inside my private box for a few hours.

Besides, we could enjoy a lovely program integrated by Tchaikovsky (love him!), Mozart (hate him!), Andrei, Richards, Bottesini and many others. We could even listen to some Christmas songs performed by the choir. 

Summing up, it was a memorable day.

So tell me darlings, do you have any personal holiday traditions?