It was april 1959 and we were a group of young men in the final year of teacher training course at St Paul's College, Cheltenham spending a field week in London. Post National Service and career ahead, it was an exciting time to be with friends in the capital. Covent Garden for opera with Amy Shuard and Jon Vickers, then again for ballet, and Sunday 12 April to the Royal Festival Hall for a Brahms evening with the Philharmonia led by Hugh Bean and conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini. It was a wonderful concert in this beautiful new hall with its superb accoustic. They played the Symphony No. 1 in C Minor and Fou Ts'ong the Concerto No. 1 in D Minor. It was a heady evening and names of artists appearing in succeeding months were Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Horenstein, Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore. The programme cost 1/-!! << less