The violin had curves too

I see that the teenage violinist Nicola Benedetti has just released her second CD, of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, plus some Mozart and Schubert. She won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition in 2004 and I went to hear her at Snape Maltings last year. And she was well worth hearing, she has a fine talent and I was impressed by her interpretation of the music.

She was also more than worth seeing. She wore a peach-coloured, clinging, full length gown, which was not revealing of flesh but showed her figure to its maximum advantage. And, slenderly voluptuous, this was indeed shown when she turned to the orchestra to check the tuning of the instruments. She is a mobile violinist and we could only speculate on the impression the view of her wriggling bottom was making on the male violinist who sat immediately behind her. I went to the concert by myself, but I say 'we' because, during the interval, I heard several people comment on this aspect of her appearance, including staid-looking elderly women, all of whom were vastly impressed. I spent my time wondering whether or not she was wearing knickers and, if so, whether it was such a minuscule thong that no line of it was visible, or whether it was a body stocking that had no lines to show. I never did decide.

I'm finally about to book for this August's series of concerts. I'm thinking that I will go to the sort of performances that I might otherwise never see, such as the Tibetan Monks of Tashi Lhunpo, as well as the orchestral music and jazz which I know I'll enjoy.

But less eye candy. Humphrey Lyttelton, perhaps?