This church is a local landmark, but I haven’t sung in it for a long time (previous visits were to sing Holy Week devotional works with aggregations of local church choirs). I returned to augment A Handful of Singers (conducted by Christopher Finch) for a concert of two Mass settings.
I’ve sung Kodály’s Missa Brevis a number of times, though not within the last three years or so. It was included in the last concert I sang with the Chantry Singers; this was five years ago, although a surprising number of people think that I have sung with the choir since then, or even that I still do! Fortunately the piece had been very thoroughly drilled into me so I was able to recall it easily on one rehearsal. I notice one thing about the score which is unusual for a 20th century work: it has a dedication in Latin (presumably because this would be more widely understood than Hungarian).
The second half consisted of Fauré’s Requiem. I’ve sung this quite a few times in church recently, but with at most an obbligato violin in the Sanctus. This time there was a small band.
This concert was going to be followed by a chance to audition for the choir, but the vacancy has been filled by a former member who returned, so I’ll have to wait for another opportunity.
sorry to hear about the audition!
It happens – and it’s not the first time it’s happened to me – I had a similar experience with the William Byrd Singers of Manchester, when a former member decided to return as I auditioned. If the Exultate Singers had a similar policy, I would still be with them…
St. Stephen’s is launching an appeal to raise money for reordering so that larger groups can perform. It gets overlooked for concerts as it has a fab acoustic, if anything a bit too good. During services i can sometimes hear my neighbours conversations so well that i listen to them rsather than the service!
btw I looked at related posts and what on earth does this entry have in common with golf??!
I haven’t seen any of my contacts in A Handful of Singers recently and can’t find anything on the web. I’d welcome any info on forthcoming concerts the choir is doing.