Seated on a Cloud

The title refers to an imaginary situation, with me basking on one of those large floating images, within touch of The Almighty, looking down on Mother Earth -- my sight and hearing focused on the superb LPO and their magnificent Russian Guest Conductor Vassily Sinaisky. In reality, this was a stunning concert, the maestro, minus a baton, directing three wonderful works: Johann Strauss the Younger's vivacious Die Fledermaus Overture, and the orchestra matching their talents with Ukraine-born Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman performing Korngold. In the second half, the performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6, Pathetique, was easily the best I have heard since Sir Thomas Beecham -- the orchestra's founder -- and Nikolai Malko who included it in his All Tchaikovsky Festival with this orchestra, at the Royal Albert Hall in the early 1950s ... plus one other (see below)...