A concert with walking aids

To a concert at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon; we have a season ticket.

We always feel young when we go to these concerts; not only because of the bravely unrevised 1950s style of the building inside and out. Croydon tries to jazz it up with blue and purple floodlighting, and the foyer has been given a wavy white ceiling. Also, the unappealing 50s slab of Croydon College next door has recently been graced with a curvilinear addition, outlined in blue neon, but it doesn't help Croydon town centre, a desert of commercial tower blocks. They actually announce at the station that it is the home of Nestle, which occupies one of the tower blocks  opposite the Halls across the dual carriageway. I presume Nestle pays for this privilege, but I'd keep quiet about it if I was them - a good target for the occupy movement.

No, our rejuvenation arises from the age of the clientele for these concerts, we are often among the youngest, I presume because unlike any other place in which I have regularly been to orchestral concerts, Croydon has no school of music, so there are no students, and most of the orchestra can give the audience two generations in age. The array of walking aids would not disgrace a disabled living centre; in fact it's great to know that one will still want and be able take in a concert in the decades to come. Although it's worrying that the champagne bar achieves very little custom - possibly the trendy high seats are a little ambitious given the age of the clientele.

The audience is a bit depleted, possibly because the programme contains a 'world premiere' - that means modern music, although, since this is the London Mozart Players, the programme has been carefully balanced with an early Mozart symphony. However, this was one that Mozart was probably hoping everyone would forget, the likely fate of the world premiere piece, I fancy. The gem of the evening was a spirited rendition of Richard Strauss's suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, played with precision, as always when Gerard Korsten conducts. I've never heard it before: great fun.