I was invited (via a contact at the children’s school) to sing in a performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria in Box, just east of Bath with Ian Phipps and the Bybrook Players and Singers. This is a work I’ve managed to miss out on – the only time I’ve performed it before was a come and sing in Derby. I was due to do it with Bristol Choral Society about a year ago, but pulled out in order to do another concert (whose programme was then changed, but that is another story).
As it’s a work that everyone is assumed to know, the rehearsal was more or less just a run through. So I still don’t feel all that familiar with the piece. The programme also included viol da gamba music played by Vanessa Coode and the first performance of a cello concerto written and played by a colleague of my husband’s, Mathew Penrose.
As my singing is largely outside Bath these days, I was looking forward to renewing contact with musical Bathonians. There were several other former members of the Chantry Singers present, but a large number of the choir came from outside the city, some having travelled quite a distance!