I don’t think that this was a particularly vintage year, though there was one obvious highlight: singing in Mahler 8 at the Proms. For public exposure that is hard to beat! If there was a theme to the year, it was that it largely reprised Three Choirs 2016, as I got to sing again four of the six pieces I performed then. I sang in Clifton Cathedral for the first time. I made the acquaintance of Will Todd’s Mass in Blue at a Come and Sing, and at last performed Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music. From the Cathedral repertoire it was Purcell in B flat, Bach’s O Jesu Christ mein Lebens Licht and Weelkes’ Service for Trebles, amongst other pieces, that were new to me. I sang Duruflé’s Requiem with organ in Portugal, and with orchestra in Keynsham. I’ve also spent more time than I’d have liked bobbing about to try to get a view of the conductor.
Most of the performances I went to were local, either in Festivals or by local amateur groups, although I heard an organ recital at the Proms and another in the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.
And now for some awards:
Performance of the Year. Mahler 8 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the Royal Albert Hall (see above)
Building of the Year. Winchester Cathedral, where I sang both with the Cathedral Chamber Choir in August and with the Erleigh Cantors in October. I also went to a concert in Prior Park Chapel for the first time. And saw in Barcelona just what can be done with a concert hall when the choir is put at the heart of the design.
Repeated pieces. Nothing really spectacular, but there was Duruflé’s Requiem in its various guises, and at one point I kept encountering Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte.
Mistaken Identity award. Being thought to be French when I sang the Alleluias at a Catalan-language Mass.
Obstructive Fellow Singer Award. The winner of this may well turn out to be the all-time winner. Not content with usurping a place which had been carefully and clearly reserved for a soprano, he took it on himself in rehearsal to relay the conductor’s beat and gestures for the benefit of those of us who couldn’t see that far, and for good measure repeatedly gesticulated upwards if pitch dropped and shushed anyone he thought was singing too loudly. As I couldn’t face an evening next to someone who found fault with my singing every time I opened my mouth – that’s the conductor’s job! – I moved elsewhere for the performance.
Obstructive Fellow Singer Award: runners-up. The trio of sopranos (all from the same choir) at a Come and Sing (not one of Bristol Choral’s!) who decided to monopolise the solos, because of course no one else could possibly attempt any of them. I persisted in singing along with those parts I thought I could do competently – including some passages that their ‘lead’ singer kept getting wrong – so the soprano solo line was always a trio or quartet. It would have been better to divide them between us four (and indeed anyone else who wanted a go), as the altos, tenors and basses managed to do, so that it didn’t turn into a semi-chorus.
What does 2019 hold? I think it might be a year of change in some respects. We are looking forward to having an enhanced organ and new choir stalls in church, but there isn’t a definite timescale for either yet. That is something I’m really looking forward to. There are some pieces new to me turning up in concert, a first visit to Christchurch Priory and the Erleigh Cantors go further north than ever before! And I am going to try and put some more images – at least one a month? – into the blog.