2017 was a much quieter year musically than 2016, though not uneventful. The most notable single event was that I fulfilled my ambition to sing in a Promenade concert. A rather unusual programme, but it was well received.
I am beginning to run out of works I really want to sing and have never done, but here too I filled a couple of gaps: Mahler’s Second Symphony and Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols. Otherwise I revisited a number of works I had only sung once before, not recently: Mozart’s Great C minor Mass, Bach’s St John Passion, the Chichester Psalms. Cathedral moments included a premiere of canticles at Gloucester and singing almost all of Josquin’s Pange Lingua Mass at St David’s. Building of the Year was probably St Cuthbert’s, Wells, which I sang in on two separate occasions, never having sung there before this year.
I lost some performances due to clashes: I didn’t get to the Cathedral Chamber Choir’s summer week in Lincoln and wasn’t able to sing in Bristol Choral Society’s main autumn concert (though I did go to hear it!) Solo opportunities generally came via the church choir, though I did some solos in an Erleigh Cantors concert, a first with this choir, and sang at a family funeral, one of rather too many funerals this year.
I didn’t get to all that many performances by others this year, though I did get to hear the VPO for the first time, playing Mahler 6 at the Proms, and to WNO’s Khovanshchina.
2018 brings my first overseas choir tour for a few years and in July another encounter with a personal favourite, the Grande Messe des Morts. I don’t know yet what other highlights will appear, but maybe like this year’s Prom they will be at relatively short notice.
sad that your neglected – your mistake is probably not being married to another singer or organist! Maybe you should find some other group which would make better use of your abilities.