JMW Turner and Highlights Tour at Tate Britain

I took the Tube to St. James's Park on my way to the Tate Britain. Along the way, I passed Westminster Abbey.

Finally, I arrived at TB (Tate Britain):

I have not seen any method for refilling water bottles during my visit thus far. In fact, water in the bathroom is deemed undrinkable by signs attesting to this. I have gotten water from snack bars/restaurant and refilled my water bottle that way. But this drinking fountain at the TB was the first one I've seen in a week. Yay!

JMW Turner is a big name at the TB and in all of Britain. I've always liked his work. 

The Turner Prize will be announced in a week or so. It is given annually to a visual artist born in or based in Great Britain in recognition of an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of his or her work. It is considered the highest honor in the British art world. 

I had a wonderful highlight tour at the National Portrait Gallery, so I tried a similar tour at the TB. The guide, Louise, did a super job. These are her highlights:

 

I had heard of Francis Bacon, the philosopher, but not the artist. 

Louise mentioned that everything is equal with Pop Art. It should be: popular, transient, short term, mass and produced. She noted that the sneakers on the right were less clear; this may show a previous attempt at painting them. 

I thought these unusual forms were terrific.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Next stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The courtyard featured a pond which could be "paddled" in but no swimming! 

A piece by Dale Chihuly hung from the ceiling in the lobby.

I loved this exhibit of flattened instruments.

The Taylor Swift exhibit ends this weekend, so many Swifties were on the Songbook Trail through the museum to see all 16 costumes she's worn. 

All of the seven remaining cartoons by Raphael are on display at the V & A. Here are two of them:

Two other pieces that caught my eye:

Proms 67 - My First Atonal Concert

The BBC Proms, or Promenades, are held at the Royal Albert Hall. His memorial is right across the street:

I had been to Proms 40 years ago and wanted to return. I made a reservation for the stalls, the tier just above the floor. You can see some of the concert goers in these pictures lying on the floor:

 

I had made a reservation for dinner at 5 PM at the Elgar Restaurant. I arrived and had no idea where the entrance was. The address appeared to be the Royal Albert Hall. Fortunately, I spotted a man by Door 8 and hurried over to ask him if he knew. Viola, Door 8 was the exact spot (unlabeled) for the lift to the Elgar Restaurant. 

The restaurant had a wonderful view, and the menu had lots of choices: 

First came bread and then the appetizer I ordered, salmon cerviche.

I think those are banana crisps. They went well with the cerviche, which was quite spicy. I removed the red jalapeno peppers.

Next was trout with potatoes and broccoli and brownie sundae for dessert. Baked Alaska was also on the menu and was my first choice until the waiter told me it was served "British Style." This means a thick, softer marshmallow meringue instead of the hard meringue.

Next was the performance of Proms 67 which featured:

The BBC. symphony

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’ 4’

Schoenberg Violin Concerto 32’

Interval

Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor 44’

At the interval, people gathered for drinks and snacks. 

Greensleeves was lovely, but the Schoenberg Concerto was like nothing I had ever heard. My seatmate had gotten his dissertation on acoustics and explained that Schoenberg used an atonal method.

Wikipedia says this about it: Schoenberg is an expressionist composer, which means that his music is characterized by a plethora is dissonance and disturbance (Kamien). Traditionally, this approach would mean that compositions should not sound good, but Schoenberg mastered atonality to a point where his works are cohesive and excellent in sound.

The violinist was lively and quite physical with her performance, but I felt the music was simply awful. It was filled with squeaky dissonance. Perhaps I didn't understand it. But I certainly learned something about atonal works.  The crowd was ecstatic, so maybe this type of music needs to grow on you. The violinist returned to the stage over and over again - probably for 15 minutes or more, at one point participating in a call and response of violin and guttural utterings from the conductor. 

The final piece, a Shostakovich symphony, was more traditional but dealt with Shostakovich’s bid to save his own life in the face of Stalin’s wrath... 

Limited peaceful interludes for this performance. Still, I enjoyed the dinner, the beautiful hall, conversation with my seatmate, and some of the music.


 

The London Eye and Thames Cruise

The London Eye, made for the Millennium, was constructed horizontally over the river and then raised upright. It opened on December 31, 1999. It is the world’s largest cantilevered observation wheel with a span of 135 meters.  It seems to pop into view from many different areas of London. 

The Eye can carry over 800 passengers (equal to 11 London double decker buses) per rotation in 32 pods - one for each of the London boroughs. The pods are numbered up to 33 since number 13 was left out. Each pod seats 28 people.

Next I took a Thames River tour which was informational and fun.

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

St. Paul's Cathedral, which was designed by Christopher Wren. He also designed the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, Trinity College Library in Cambridge and the facade of Hampton Court Palace.

There are 35 bridges which cross the Thames. Here are a few:

Millennium Bridge, a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the river.

This is the Tower Bridge, built in 1894 and designed to blend in with the Tower of London. 

The obelisk on the right is Cleopatra's Needle, made of red granite and erected by Heliopolis in Egypt about 1500 BC. It was presented to Britain as a thank you for Nelson's victory at the the Battle of the Nile in 1798.