Author Archives: vhk10

what’s top of the bucket list now?

Like many singers I have a ‘bucket list’ of the works I would like to sing and have never done. For as far back as I can remember until 2008, the work at the top of it was Bach’s B … Continue reading

Posted in repertoire | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Belshazzar’s Feast with a pounding heart

On to Belshazzar (I would say ‘onwards and upwards’ but I don’t think there is any ‘upwards’, in any sense, after the Missa Solemnis). I have had terrible difficulties driving to rehearsals in Bristol this term, and tried to get … Continue reading

Posted in broadcasts, singing in concerts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Missa Solemnis is singable

So the great day finally came round, and I got to sing the Missa Solemnis with Gloucester Choral Society and the Bristol Ensemble in Gloucester Cathedral. I wrote earlier of the particular difficulties of performing this piece. It wasn’t Beethoven’s … Continue reading

Posted in singing in concerts | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bath Mozartfest 2016

There has been so much going on that this report is going to be rather brief. Between us we got to three concerts. My husband went to hear Winterreise in the Guildhall, performed by Roderick Williams and Roger Vignoles, which … Continue reading

Posted in going to concerts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

an unsatisfactory seat at ENO

After watching from a distance some belated but spectacular fireworks originating (I was told) at Somerset House, I went to the new production of Lulu at English National Opera. I have already seen this production in the cinema. The distinguishing … Continue reading

Posted in going to operas | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Two festivals merge

The Bath International Music Festival is to merge with the Bath Literature Festival into a single festival that will run for 10 days in May 2017 and 17 days in subsequent years, with a greater rôle for jazz. This can … Continue reading

Posted in festivals | Tagged , | Leave a comment

when the conductor is ill

I went along to hear Priory Voices sing Evensong with music by Stanford and S S Wesley at Wells Cathedral. The founder and usual conductor is not able to conduct at the moment so members of the choir are (very … Continue reading

Posted in going to services | Tagged , | 1 Comment

a free ticket to Cavalli

I won a pair of tickets to Cavalli’s La Calisto performed by English Touring Opera at Bath’s Theatre Royal, thanks to a competition in the Bath Chronicle. Cavalli has been chosen before by this company. La Calisto is his best-known … Continue reading

Posted in opera | Leave a comment

30 years of the Bath Camerata

I dashed back from Gloucester on the train to get to the Bath Camerata’s 30th birthday concert in the Pump Room. Ten years ago the 20th birthday was celebrated at a Good Friday concert which I sang in. This time … Continue reading

Posted in going to concerts | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Double Gloucester

Back in Gloucester again, this time for a weekend at the Cathedral with the Erleigh Cantors. As has happened here before, we had an out of the ordinary service to sing, in this case a farewell Eucharist in the nave … Continue reading

Posted in singing at services | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment