Thin Riga Viking

Years back, I and my circle went through a phase of creating anagrams out of one another’s names, aided in part by a computer program. The title of this post was the best one anyone could come up with for mine. (The Vikings did I believe get to present-day Latvia, though they spent less time there then you’d expect, given where it is.)

Be that as it may, on a previous Bristol Choral Society choir tour I was asked where I’d like to go on a future tour and I said Riga. And after some years I got my wish, although the location this time was in fact suggested by the choir tour operator.

We gave two concerts with an identical programme, one in the modern Catholic church in Sigulda, the other in St John’s in Riga. The pieces were chosen from recent concerts and our most recent recording, with two additions that were very familiar to me: Howells’ Like as the Hart and Stanford’s Coelos ascendit hodie. The single largest piece was Mendelssohn’s Hear my prayer. Both concerts were well received, despite the competition from what appears to be a thriving local choral scene.