Monthly Archives: December 2009

the singing revival

There’s been a lot of media interest recently in a national revival in singing. How has this affected me? When you look at where this revival is taking place, it’s mostly in the unauditioned sector, and though this isn’t where … Continue reading

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2009 and 2010’s resolutions

I have to admit that 2009 was a quieter year than I’d have liked on the vocal front. There were some highlights: I revisited Spem in Alium for the first time in a long while, and though between New Year … Continue reading

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Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

Cross-posted from my other public blog, Egg and Dart. I’m not going to attempt a systematic review, as those can be found elsewhere and in any case I’m unfamiliar with some of the territory Ross covers in his survey of … Continue reading

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Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland

I don’t feel that the Advent/Christmas season has properly started unless I’ve played a CD that I was given a few years ago. It contains Bach’s Advent cantatas BWV36, BWV61 and BWV62 nicely performed by Collegium Vocale Gent and Philippe … Continue reading

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in the gallery – or not?

I went to hear Bath Minerva Choir conducted by Gavin Carr perform their seasonal concert, An English Christmas, in St Swithin’s Church, Walcot. This was the first time I’d been to a concert in this church (I gather that they … Continue reading

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Te Deum Laudamus

Two settings of this text framed the Chandos Singers’ most recent concert in St. Bartholomew’s, Oldfield Park. We started with Haydn’s Marie-Thérèse setting, which was actually a suggestion of mine when we were looking for a piece to complete the … Continue reading

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a return to Puccini

The first opera I ever saw was Tosca (in a Glyndebourne touring production in Oxford). Since then I haven’t been to a performance of any opera by Puccini, until WNO’s Butterfly. This is clearly the year of the monochrome opera, … Continue reading

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