Swan lake

It’s the Serpentine in Hyde Park, and it’s actually much darker than this, but my phone gathered as much light as it could. I’m heading for the Cadogan Hall at Sloane Square. It’s 7 stops on the tube from Paddington, but about a 45 minute walk as the crow flies. I was expecting a tube strike so had already planned to walk.
My friend A is singing in her choir, the Highgate Choral Society. The second part is Faure’s Requiem - it’s so sad and beautiful it makes my heart ache. We played In Paradisum at my mum’s funeral.  
The first half is a piece by Ronald Corp, the choirs’ director, getting its first performance. Called Phoenix from the Ashes - a cantata for suffering children. Of course it couldn’t be more relevant today, but the composers’s original intention was  to write a piece in memory of a choir member who died last year, who had been affected by the Swiss Verdingkinder system. Which I hadn’t heard of until last night. If you haven’t either, I suggest you google it, a shameful part of Switzerland’s past. The music was very modern, dramatic and absolutely stunning. A said it’s really hard to sing, because of the unusual intervals and constantly changing time signatures. The words are excerpts from various poems about children, death and suffering -  quite an experience, I was so pleased I’d travelled up to see it.
PS link now added re verdingkinder here