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 and October I made fewer and shorter Cathedral visits than usual, there were some very worthwhile ones including amongst other things a first opportunity to sing Howells’ canticles in B minor. The year wasn’t devoid of solo opportunities either and I thought I was generally singing well.
I did get opportunities to perform music by all four of the main anniversary composers. It will seems strange turning on the car radio on the way to piano lessons on Thursday afternoons in 2010 and not hearing a Handel opera.
Among the disappointments were being asked to note a concert date in my diary and then not being told I wasn’t needed for it, and the audition which was cancelled the day before it was due to happen because the vacancy had disappeared. I also thought I’d been dropped from a couple of Cathedral-going choirs when messages from them stopped arriving, but I’m happy to say that I was wrong in both cases.
It was a rather better year for concert-going though, particularly with opportunities to hear some of the Philharmonia’s Vienna – City of Dreams series in London, which did not disappoint.
I think 2010 will rather be what I make of it. I can’t see any obvious opportunities to do anything different from what I’ve done in 2009, but you never know what will come up during the year. I have to regard the Bath Festival Chorus as a thing of the past as it hasn’t performed since 2005 (though according to its musical director’s web page it still exists!) Likewise I can’t see myself ever being called up from the dep list for the Lord Mayor’s Chapel unless there is a change of regime there. One thing I can promise is that this blog will continue. I realise that recently my postings has been almost exclusively accounts of performances I’ve been in or attended, and I shall try to introduce a wider variety of musical topics.