Eine Kleine Lunch Musik

A friend of mine, who walks around the park with me in the mornings when we walk our dogs, gave me a ticket today for a lunchtime music concert in town. She was unable to go herself, and didn't want the ticket to go to waste, so I went in her place.
The concert was held in the City Recital Hall, which is tucked away in Angel Place, out of sight of the main roads and big buildings. Going into the recital hall is like entering the Tardis. It looks tiny on the outside, but when you get into the main hall, it is enormous. You wonder how such a big building could have fit inside such a tiny little space in Angel Place.
The lunchtime concerts are designed to last just one hour, and people are encouraged to bring their lunch, sit in the hall and relax to some classical music. Today, a young Australian cellist was playing. His name was Clancy Newman. He is a multi-award winning musician and composer, who has spent the last few years in New York. Only in his early twenties, he has already developed a good American accent!
He played two of his own compositions, which were ultra-modern, plus a concerto with piano accompaniment by Mendelsohn. His first piece was one of his own and it was a strange mixture between what sounded to me like schizophrenic insanity and Spanish guitar. The schizophrenic music came first, with repeating, aperiodic bass notes accompanying a sawing, chiselling, sliding, frantic treble. It wasn't a pretty sound, but it was interesting. Then, all of a sudden, the music changed midway through the piece. The cellist quietly put his bow on the floor, and plucked his cello like a harp and then strummed it like a guitar, as the melody drifted into a very Spanish style. This part of the composition was pretty. His skill in the mastery of his instrument was very obvious. He moved with his cello as though he were a part of it, and by the time the piece was over, he had become the cello.
The Mendelsohn concerto came next, followed by his second composition, also very modern but a little less crazy than his first piece. After one hour, it was all over, with much applause from the audience, and bows from a very humble and delightful young boy who was an absolute expert at his trade. Everyone rushed back to their offices, while I caught the train and rushed back home for an English lesson with one of my teenage students.
The music I heard today made it a very special day. It really was "Eine Kleine Tag Musik".