Nieuwe Kerk concert...

Yesterday a lunchtime concert in Nieuwe Kerk (mid 17C), now a central-city concert venue known as Prinses Christina Concours. Miyu Haraguchi (14 yrs old) played Schubert and Debussy, and Lena ter Schegget (15 yrs) on violin and Kanako Inoue on piano, played Elgar. Performances of astonishing confidence, technical proficiency and emotional depth which brought a standing ovation from the audience. I went with Raymond, who lives diagonally across Bilderdijklaan from Lauren and Merel, and afterwards we had coffee and apple tart (what else?) on the Lange Voorhout, lovely under the trees in fine weather and with surprisingly few people about. Raymond, it tuns out, was, until recently, Director of Research and Policy at the Ministry of Defence. Oooh, I had to suppress all sorts of political questions - well, I asked a few but so much wanted to know more. People are endlessly fascinating and the world full of surprise :-) 

Nieuwe Kerk today