Three-parts review by members of the Shigeno family (all three are BBCM students)

When I woke up in the car park at the Barbican, I knew it was the beginning of a very special evening for me: going out to an evening concert just like the grown-ups.

There were so many people on stage and it was very bright. When the music started, I sometimes couldn't help rocking back and forth and side to side. It was beautiful and they are so good at it. In the programme, I noticed there were pictures of people who wrote the music and also of some of the people who actually appeared in front of us to play the music. I was very interested to know that some of these people are already dead. When the music is in front of me and so alive, it is difficult for me to understand that it was made by dead people. I felt so sorry for them.

I was sure that I recognised some parts of Bartók's Violin Concerto, although my mum told me that perhaps I haven't heard it before. In the intermission we went to see the conductor and the violinist and that made me so happy and even more excited. It was an experience like a dream, which in the second half actually turned into dreamland as I fell into one of my nicest sleeps I ever had, completely exhausted but happy.

Kay, age 5

The first piece, Debussy's 'Nocturnes' had a lot of people standing and singing behind the orchestra. It sounded a little strange but beautiful. They were not singing in any words I could understand: not in English or Japanese, nor in Sol-fa! I found the second piece, Bartók's violin concerto, a little long and difficult, but I did think that the violinist, Mr Kavakos, played so very well. My favourite was the last piece called 'Cantata Profana'. It had a story to it and I loved the sound of this language, Hungarian, very much. I think it sounds really beautiful. When one of the male singers sang a very high note like a lady, I didn't know what happened and I just looked at my mum.

It was such an adventure to go backstage and meet the musicians. They seemed so happy to see us too!

May, age 7

Our first BBCM concert outing was indeed an exciting event for all three of us. I was particularly struck by the haunting beauty of Bartók's violin concerto and the way Mr. Kavakos played it. It is hard to describe, but it was as though he is inside the music rather than handling the music from outside. This might explain the fact that the somewhat tense and uneasy way he holds and plays the instrument (at least it seemed so to me, a beginner on the violin) doesn't seem to interfere with our experience of listening to him. I was totally captivated and could not move very much for fear that if I did I might miss out on something. Intensity seems to exist happily with freedom and that must be a rare combination.

Yumi