The Bath International Music Festival has started – not that it’s easy to tell if you walk around Bath. Apart from four banners decorated by children hanging on the south side of the Abbey, I’ve seen no street decorations at all, not even the little pennants that appeared in the Guildhall area last year. It’s not entirely to do with reduced budgets – the reason there is no banner across Milsom St. as there used to be is that Council rules only permit banners to stay there for one week. There is however a display in the window of Bath Compact Discs.
I’m a little worried that the focus of the Festival is beginning to move away from classical music; the Festival’s Facebook group gives this impression, though perhaps it has been skewed to try to reach younger audiences via Facebook. I will write accounts of the opening night, and of some other concerts, over the next few days.
On Wednesday I was in Oxford and went to evensong at Christ Church Cathedral – Weelkes, Gibbons and the full psalms for the day nicely sung by the Cathedral Singers (the Cathedral Choir was away for half-term). It took me back to my days in the Christ Church Cathedral Voluntary Choir, when it was the first Cathedral I ever sang services in – not entirely happy memories, as I found the conductor absolutely terrifying!
Meanwhile I was contacted by Welsh National Opera and invited to take part in a feedback discussion, as a representative audience member. I was rather sorry that I wasn’t free to do this, as I’m always willing to advance my opinions (as this blog shows).