The children’s school is putting on one of its occasional concerts in which they invite parents and others associated with the school to boost the school choirs in a concert. I sang in the last of these; unfortunately I will be away for the next one, but I’ve been going to rehearsals anyway for fun and socialising.
The programme is a selection of well-known classical choruses. So for example a chunk of the Polovstian Dances comes round again (this time in English), and we warm up to Va Pensiero (this time in Italian). The only new music for me was Orff’s O Fortuna, which fortunately I’ve avoided until now, and almost avoided this time as I’ve only had to rehearse it once. That old May Week standby, Zadok the Priest, has taken up a fair amount of rehearsal time. On a more reflective note are the In Paradisum from Fauré’s Requiem and the Lacrymosa from Mozart’s. I can’t be the only person who can’t sing the latter without thinking of the final scene from Amadeus. Those two final chords are so very final – but was Mozart planning a fugal Amen instead, as has been conjectured, and indeed reconstructed? When I prefer the standard ending, am I falling into the same Romantic trap as those who truncated Don Giovanni so that it ended with the Don being dragged off to hell?