My concert-going in my formative years had all been at the Royal Albert Hall, before the work had been done to tame the famous echo. My first visit to the Royal Festival Hall was in 1953 when I saw and heard Artur Rubinstein play four piano concertos in one evening, two formal concertos plus Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody. This was a magical evening - a rare opportunity to hear a piano giant who even had enough stamina for an encore - 'The fire dance by Falla'. In addition, the acoustics allowed one to hear the music in incredible detail, that I had not experienced before.