… for concert-going in London, except possibly the week between Christmas and New Year. I am attending a meeting at the British Library tomorrow and my usual practice if work takes me to London is to end the day by going to a concert, but I have drawn a blank this time. The major orchestras and ENO have finished their seasons, the Proms haven’t started yet and the Wigmore Hall is dark because it’s being refurbished. I’ve tried a few other likely venues such as St. John’s Smith Square but no joy. All I can find is a sold-out Tosca at the Royal Opera House (everyone who’s missed this production over the last 40 years wants to see it!) and two concerts on the South Bank: one by a local youth orchestra, and the other a 70th birthday concert of works by a composer unknown to me. So it looks like I’ll go to the theatre instead.
On a more positive note, the Chantry Singers concert of Kodály, Haydn, Schütz and Walliser (a composer previously unknown to me) was well received. I didn’t feel I was singing quite at my best. I think the reason was probably the need to adjust to the high pitch of the organ, after rehearsing with a piano at standard pitch. (Salisbury Cathedral presents a similar problem). I’d got used to singing the music at that pitch and was consciously thinking higher, not because I have perfect pitch but because I had a physical memory of what it felt like singing them. But pushing up notes from below, especially very high ones, is a bad idea! I still haven’t worked out which of the tenors or basses caught my husband out in a recent cricket match.
Next week I’ll be writing up a weekend of services in Gloucester Cathedral.
I was a bit unlucky in that I just missed the City of London Festival. This year it goes right up to the beginning of the Prom season.