2024 will not rank as a particularly vintage year for me I think – I didn’t go to any operas and there were no major works I sang for the first time (maybe this is because the ones that I have yet to sing are rarely performed). The first part of the year was marked by several performances with orchestra: the St Matthew Passion in Gloucester (although I got no nearer the B minor Mass than a day-long workshop), and Verdi’s Requiem and a return to Howells’ Hymnus Paradisi at Bristol Beacon. Since then the orchestras have dried up again.
There were nevertheless some interesting works I sang for the first time: John Bull’s ‘Star Anthem’, Jongen’s Mass of the Blessed Sacrament, Tallis’ mass Puer natus est nobis, Franz Biebl’s Ave Maria and several other anthems. Cathedral visit-wise there was a return to Rochester after a very long time, and one to York Minster that had been postponed for several years, as well as Bristol and Ely.
The year was bookended by two solo highlights though: in January I sang the treble one in Rejoice in the Lamb in Bath Abbey and in December the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City in Gloucester Cathedral.
Needless to say the Stanford anniversary featured strongly, with a few lesser-known pieces such as his Pater noster and Benedictus among the standards. And of course Bruckner motets.
Concert-wise, I heard Tenebrae and Sir András Schiff in Bath, and observed the Schoenberg anniversary at the Proms.
I’ll return I hope and put in links to some of the above, but until then you’ll have to search for them yourself if you want to read more. On to 2025….