There was just too much going on on May 21st. I had been due to sing a concert in Reading but asked to be released from it when I realised there were enough sopranos and some unrepeatable events going on in Bath. Among these was the wedding of a former organist to a current choir member at my church. Surprisingly, I’ve only once before sung at the wedding of an organist (I have attended three such events, but a professional singer was hired at one). It has the advantage that you are guaranteed quality music, at a time when I am now selective about which weddings I sing at. Though I don’t expect many grooms sit down at the console shortly before the entry of the bride and play the Radetsky March, as happened here.
In the meantime my husband went to hear the Navarra Quartet at the Guildhall in the International Music Festival. They played Haydn’s Op. 76 no. 1, followed by the third quartet of Peteris Vasks. This latter was enjoyable though not particularly groundbreaking. Then they moved on to Beethoven’s Op. 131. This they did justice to without being outstanding, with distinctive but blended tone. One visual trick was missed: because the viola player sat between the violinists, a phrase that was surely intended to move from one player to their neighbour instead jumped around.
Later in the afternoon he went to hear Nicholas Mulroy sing Die Schöne Müllerin accompanied by Alisdair Hogarth. To begin with the piano was too loud, and then slightly over-corrected and became unobtrusive. The performance was acted as well as sung, coming over well, although at one point a mispronunciation destroyed a rhyme in the lyrics (at which point the singer noticed what he’d done).
Both concerts were rather thinly attended and the Festival is presumably trying to attract back the audiences that it has lost in recent years. Certainly the programme this year featured plenty of classical concerts.
Other events on this busy day included a school fair (which I went to) and a pamper evening (which I had to miss), and I’m sure there were other things too.