In the closing minutes of 2006, it’s time to review my ambitions for the year and to look ahead to 2007.
The musical highlight of this year was (as I suspected a year ago) joining the Bath Camerata on Good Friday to sing the Chichester Psalms and Otce Nas, not just because of the standard of performance and the special atmosphere of Wells Cathedral on Good Friday, or even the opportunity to perform two works I’d long wanted to do, but also for the chance to be part of the choir’s 20th birthday celebrations.
Other than that it’s been a relatively quiet year for performances. Some favourite pieces of mine have come up, including an item on the wishlist, Lætentur Cœli by Byrd. But I haven’t found much time for exploring new solo repertoire.
I observed the Mozart centenary by doing some solos in the Coronation Mass and the Shostakovich one by hearing his 10th symphony at the Proms.
Some long-standing ambitions of mine are apparently not going anywhere. This year marks a decade of my being on the dep list for the choir of the Lord Mayor’s Chapel in Bristol, without ever having been invited to sing a service (when I asked why, I was told that retired people were asked to deputise because they didn’t work on Sunday mornings – as if I worked then!). Experience suggests that the Paragon Singers have a very long waiting list for soprano auditions, and the Bath Festival Chorus seems to be moribund (it hasn’t performed since 2005 and there are no known plans for it to do so in 2007). There are various other possibilities but I won’t go into details in case nothing comes of them.
I will still be on the lookout for opportunities to sing in the four remaining Cathedrals (Leicester, Bradford, Birmingham and Wakefield).
As for my resolution to be better at watching conductors, I have to be honest and admit there’s still room for improvement here. To this I’d add that I ought to be better prepared for performances, not just by learning notes (I already put effort into this) but by routinely looking through the music shortly beforehand to take note of anything that might catch me out such as a repeat going back to an awkward place, or a sudden decrease in dynamic, or a point of interpretation added in rehearsal. It makes a big difference.
Next I’ll write up my final performances of 2006, a weekend of services at St. Alban’s Cathedral.
Happy New Year Virginia!
Geography not being my strong suit, could it be the fact that you live in Buckinghamshire that prevents the LMC people asking you to sing?
I visited Bristol a couple of weeks ago because my daughter was looking round the physics department; it had not changed a great deal from my undergraduate days (25+ years ago) but the M32 route take cars in a slightly different way as one hits the city! Subtle hint to would-be motorists: don’t try to leave Bristol between 4.30pm and 5.30pm.
Happy New Year!
I don’t live in Buckinghamshire – I’ve been visiting relatives for Christmas. The organist of the Lord Mayor’s Chapel, John Marsh, comes across me in Bath sometimes when he guest-conducts in Bathwick.
The mistake in Bristol is probably driving there in the first place, as I remember every year when I take the car in for its MoT. I am astonished at the number of Bathonians who assume without a second thought that I drive to work, and who underestimate the number of trains between the two places by a factor of 2 or more.
If you’re really desparate to sing in Birmingham (I assume you mean the Anglican cathedral anyway) Peterborough Chamber Choir will be singing there 17/18th Feb. Our director should be able to give you contact details if nothing else. See http://www.peterboroughchamberchoir.org.uk/
David
In 2003 I tried to book the Cathedral Chamber Choir into Birmingham for a weekend and was told that visiting choirs could sing Saturday services, but full weekends were available only in August. I wrote about it in some early entries in this blog, and a few days ago the director of music at Birmingham read some of them and contacted me. It’s clear that I was misled in 2003 and it’s possible to sing weekends at other times in Birmingham, and I’ll write again on behalf of the Cathedral Chamber Choir.
However, I’d certainly be interested in singing with your choir in February, if you’d accept a guest soprano joining you at the weekend for one or more services. But I see that you’re quite a small outfit so maybe it would skew the balance, or the music you’re doing is too difficult for anyone to join you on the day.
May I say a quick word about the choir’s website? I had a look using the latest version of Mozilla Firefox and on the ‘Contact Us’ page the choir’s email is obscured by the photo of the choir. (Of course it’s still there if you ‘View Source’). This also happens when it’s viewed in Netscape. I see from the source that it was designed with Microsoft FrontPage, and a known problem with this is that the results often only work properly in Internet Explorer and not with other browsers.