I think I mentioned somewhere on these boards that I often read press reviews of concerts I've attended and wonder whether the reviewer was actually at the same performance as me.  Usually this can be put down to different points of view, different tastes and the fact that (I hope) a professional reviewer will be, at least technically, more knowledgeable than I am.  But this one:

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-arts/2008/06/12/music-review-ensemble-10-10-st-george-s-hall-64375-21063466/

is an example of a review which really does make me wonder whether the reviewer was there.  I don't disagree with much that Mr Hughes has to say about the music - principally because he hasn't actually got much to say when you get down to it - but to write "just a few places were available for what was a challenging programme" is just nonsense.  Even if my estimate, in my own little report on this board, of around 200 in the audience was wildly inaccurate (I didn't count the heads, after all) there were lots and lots of empty seats. 

I really have to wonder what motivates journalists to make such claims when it would be just as easy to say nothing - or even to get it right!  Mind you, this was in the Daily Post which, though it ran a story headed "One of the great names in jazz at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall" several weeks ahead of the McCoy Tyner gig, still failed, as far as I can see, to review the concert.

No, Mary.  I actually went into the Box Office a couple of weeks ago and watched the woman in front of me buy the last reasonably priced ticket for Elvis Costello.  When it was my turn there were just two £35 tickets left - and I don't like him that much!  I then enquired about the War Requiem and found that I could get places in the 'well' of the cathedral for £10 each.  As we were showing visitors around the city, including the two cathedrals, I took the opportunity to spy out the actual location of this seating area and decided to give it a miss.  The cathedral staff told me the performers would be shown on a screen - but I must say I was more concerned about whether it would be possible to hear anything properly.

I trust you were there and will be filing a report.  The acoustics of the building are rather odd, aren't they?  Last time I heard a concert there, Carmina Burana got lost in space but a Bruckner Mass interspersed with Messaien came across surprisingly clearly.

For some folk, not seeing the tenor soloist might be a positive boon: the one time I've see Bostridge on TV - in a Proms Child of Our Time a few years back - he was just bizarre, like Joshua Bell but sans fiddle.

Wow.