Wren Library

When I heard that there was going to be a concert in the famous Wren Library, I decided to go attend it, even if only to be able to see the inside of the library. As far as I know, entry into the Wren Library is fairly restricted, just like the Pepys Library at Magdalene. So, it was an opportunity to see the insides, and hopefully catch a glimpse of the Principia Mathematica penned by Newton, centuries ago.

Although the concert was free, the snag I hit was that the concert was only for members of the Trinity College Musical Society, for which I’m not. Anyone can join the society for a £11 membership fee. But I decided to put on a different hat and talk my way into a free ticket, which I got. So, the moment that I got in, I started snapping away with my camera and was promptly approached by one of the librarians who told me to stop taking any photographs. How sad.

The concert started with the Brandenburg Concerto #3, which is a rather famous piece. It was the first time that I had actually heard a harpsichord being played live. I’ve only ever heard it on CDs before. However, I could easily tell when the performer actually made mistakes, which he did several times. And I can also appreciate how different it is to play a harpsichord from any other keyboard instrument from the way it sounds.

The next performance was Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by a former Trinity student who died 50 years ago. The piece was extremely haunting and brought on a lot of sad emotions in me. It even almost brought me to tears. It was surprisingly good. Unfortunately, it would have been better if the orchestra actually arranged themselves differently as the piece was obviously written with an echoing effect in mind.

The final piece was Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss, written towards the end of WWII. However, I couldn’t appreciate it as much, seeing that I had never been in a war before. Death and destruction doesn’t quite do it for me, especially not after the emotionally draining second piece.

Anyway, the concert was good, and I managed to get one good photo of the place. It could have been better but I did not have time to calibrate my camera inside the library. I had wanted to experiment with some HDR photography inside and I have learned one thing. Never shoot at a high ISO for HDR photos because the noise just gets amplified during tone-mapping.