Author Archives: vhk10

for whom the bell tolls

Posted on October 6, 2011 by vhk10

On September 10th I took part in a ‘come and sing’ Verdi Requiem at Bristol Cathedral with the New Bristol Sinfonia and soloists, presented as a 9/11 memorial concert. I passed up a chance to sing this work earlier in … Continue reading →

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Weber/Berlioz at the Proms

Posted on September 26, 2011 by vhk10

My husband went to the penultimate night of the Proms. It’s no longer invariably Beethoven 9; this time it was a semi-staged performance of Der Freischütz in the adaptation by Berlioz, which sets recitatives to music and uses Invitation to … Continue reading →

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And which voice do you sing?

Posted on September 19, 2011 by vhk10

Earlier this year a member of a smallish choir I sing with invited me to join an occasional choir which he conducts. Having described the repertoire that they do and the way it was organised, he had my interest right … Continue reading →

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Two and half degrees of slope

Posted on September 10, 2011 by vhk10

If you place a coin on its side on the floor of the nave of St. David’s Cathedral, aligned east-west, it will quickly start to roll westwards because of the slope of the building. It’s really quite disconcerting to see … Continue reading →

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Proms 57 and 60: Mozart piano concertos and big symphonies

Posted on September 6, 2011 by vhk10

Some others in the family went to Prom 57 on Saturday, this time going on spec and standing in the gallery.  The Tonhalle Orchestra from Zurich under David Zinman began with the premiere of Cold Heat by Anders Hillborg, which … Continue reading →

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Prom 42: Swan Lake

Posted on August 23, 2011 by vhk10

Some others in the family went to hear Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre orchestra perform Swan Lake at the Proms – my elder son’s first Promenade concert. This went down well.  We have a recording of the complete score, but … Continue reading →

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no complaining in our streets

Posted on August 22, 2011 by vhk10

I thought I knew my psalter pretty well, but Ps. 144 seems to have passed me by altogether as I had no memory of the words at all. The Erleigh Cantors sang it at Sunday evensong in Bristol Cathedral (it … Continue reading →

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Liszt’s chaotic pendulum

Posted on July 21, 2011 by vhk10

The second half of the Chandos Singers’ concert opened with a Salve Regina by Liszt.  The rules governing the length of each beat, we were told, were very complex and the net effect on the beat was rather like that … Continue reading →

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LPs batch 28: Chopin and other duplicates

Posted on July 8, 2011 by vhk10

This batch contained four miscellaneous Chopin discs: Pollini playing Etudes and Preludes, and two of Nikita Magaloff playing the Polonaises. Quite a bit of duplication because we both had significant Chopin collections. Another duplicate was Zimerman’s Schumann/Grieg concertos with Karajan … Continue reading →

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Bath MusicFest 2011

Posted on June 30, 2011 by vhk10

The Festival is shorter now and largely coincided with half-term, so there was less opportunity to go to concerts, but we managed two. Some in the family went to hear the Scholtes and Janssens Piano Duo perform in the Assembly … Continue reading →

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