At Tate Modern in London for two excellent exhibitions.  First was ‘Henri Matisse: Cut- Outs’. When Matisse was prevented from painting by ill health he took to cutting out shapes from painted paper and invented a new medium. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see so many of these works together and it was a major triumph.

Henri Matisse ‘Icarus’ (1943 – 44)

Henri Matisse Blue Nude II (1952)

Henri Matisse ‘The Parakeet and the Mermaid’ (1952)

Henri Matisse ‘The Snail’ (1953)

The second exhibition was a wonderful retrospective of the career of Kazimir Malevich. Malevich was an extremely influential artist whose experiments led him to the invention of Suprematism, epitomised by the infamous ‘Black Square’. The exhibition started with his early Russian landscapes and paintings of peasant workers, continued through the abstract Suprematist works and ended with his return to figurative painting in his later life.

Kazimir Malevich ‘Self Portrait’ (1908 – 10)

Kazimir Malevich ‘An Englishman in Moscow’ (1914)

Kazimir Malevich ‘Supremus No 50’ (1915)

Kazimir Malevich ‘Head of a Peasant’ (1928 – 29)

Kazimir Malevich ‘Black Square’ (1929)

Kazimir Malevich ‘Woman with Rake’ (1930 – 32)

Kazimir Malevich ‘Self Portrait’ (1933)

In Ljubljana, Slovenia for a concert by one of the world’s great orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam under the baton of Mariss Jansons.  Starting with Brahms ‘Variations on a Theme by Haydn’, the first half was completed by an immaculate performance of Shostakovich’s ‘Symphony no. 1’ The second half began with a wonderful performance of Ravel’s ‘Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G Major’ with the great French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The concert finale was an amazing rendition of Ravel’s ‘Daphnis et Chloé Suite no. 2’.