Author Archives: vhk10

Back at the International Festival

Posted on June 6, 2026 by vhk10

The Bath International Music Festival, after nearly being subsumed entirely in the Literature Festival (I didn’t go to any of the handful of concerts in it last year as it clashed with my Romanian choir tour) now no longer runs … Continue reading →

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I never want to sing The Spirit of the Lord again

Posted on May 28, 2026 by vhk10

A few years ago Elgar’s The Spirit of the Lord was the anthem at a forthcoming service I was due to sing in. In the run up to this we had several different conductors taking rehearsals and this anthem was … Continue reading →

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Liszt at Covent Garden

Posted on May 6, 2026 by vhk10

I went to the ballet for the first time in some years, to see the Royal Ballet perform Mayerling, choosing this because the plot appealed to me more than the usual fairy stories. The score was adapted from music by … Continue reading →

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a funeral and an anniversary

Posted on May 4, 2026 by vhk10

Having not sung there for a long time, I returned to St Mary’s Bathwick to sing twice within the space of a month, for a sorrowful and a joyful occasion. The first was the funeral of a former priest-in-charge at … Continue reading →

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from Palm Sunday to Good Friday

Posted on April 9, 2026 by vhk10

The Abbey Chamber Choir got to sing two services in Holy Week. As last year, we provided the music for the afternoon service on Palm Sunday, but this time it was a straightforward evensong. Somehow Ernest Bullock’s canticles in D … Continue reading →

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a belated return to Tewkesbury

Posted on April 1, 2026 by vhk10

I have not sung in Tewkesbury Abbey in a long time; my only previous occasion was a day trip for a Saturday evensong with my church choir from Manchester. It was good to have an opportunity to return with Gloucester … Continue reading →

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Purcell, Charles Andrews, Ives, Morley and Byrd for Lent

Posted on March 25, 2026 by vhk10

Meanwhile at Christ Church we sang evensong mid-March with more Purcell (Thou knowest, Lord) and the ‘faux-bordon’ canticles by one Carolus Andreas. I am suspicious of the provenance of these last. They have been reprinted by the RSCM (starting in … Continue reading →

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Purcell, Lotti and Byrd for Lent

Posted on March 2, 2026 by vhk10

For the second year in a row the Chamber Choir sang at the Abbey on Ash Wednesday. We opened with Purcell Remember not, Lord, used Byrd’s Four-Part mass as the setting, and during the Ashing sang Lotti’s setting of the … Continue reading →

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six of the best

Posted on March 1, 2026 by vhk10

Three of us went on a birthday outing to hear the Gesualdo Six at the Wiltshire Music Centre, giving a programme called Nachtmusik, setting texts in English, Italian and German, with less emphasis on the early repertoire that features in … Continue reading →

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a missed chance to sing Israel in Egypt

Posted on February 25, 2026 by vhk10

A couple of years before I started this blog I sang in a performance of Israel in Egypt with the Brandon Hill Singers. (It was I think the last performance with orchestra that the choir ever gave.) Apart from Deborah … Continue reading →

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Post-Christmas carol services (2): Candlemas

Posted on February 6, 2026 by vhk10

On into February, there was a Candlemas carol service in church, a service which we put on in some years. There was one new piece for me: David Ogden’s setting of Angels from the realms of glory. Not an arrangement … Continue reading →

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Post-Christmas carol services (1): Epiphany

Posted on January 31, 2026 by vhk10

I sang in two carol services for the latter part of the Christmas season, both of which brought new repertoire with them. First was Bath Abbey’s now annual Epiphany carol service. Among more standard pieces, we did Palestrina’s setting of … Continue reading →

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