Author Archives: vhk10

half a concert in St. Stephen’s

Posted on March 5, 2011 by vhk10

I went to hear A Handful of Singers perform some recent British choral music at St. Stephen’s Church, Lansdown. The first half of the programme included one piece I’d performed myself – Rutter’s Hymn to the Creator of Light – … Continue reading →

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Svyat! Svyat! Svyat!

Posted on March 5, 2011 by vhk10

Singing familiar texts in an unfamiliar language can make them feel altogether different. I know very little Russian, so there was a lot of grappling with the Old Church Slavonic texts of Rachmaninov’s Vespers (strictly the ‘All-Night Vigil’), which I … Continue reading →

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a quick return to Bristol

Posted on February 23, 2011 by vhk10

I was back in Bristol Cathedral – this time with Priory Voices – to sing a weekend of services. Most of the music, such as Brahms’ Geistliches Lied and Victoria’s mass O Quam Gloriosum was very familiar to me. Smart’s … Continue reading →

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A Royal Wedding anthem

Posted on January 30, 2011 by vhk10

Today I joined the choir of St. Peter’s Church, Caversham, for evensong at Bristol Cathedral. Our anthem was Let the people praise thee O God by Mathias, and this set some of us wondering who might be writing music for … Continue reading →

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The Genius of Mozart

Posted on January 14, 2011 by vhk10

I rather dipped into this 12-day trawl through all of Mozart on BBC Radio 3, rather than listening to chunks. There were some real high points; I enjoyed the broadcasts of Entführung (especially as I happened to be having a … Continue reading →

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2010 in review – from WordPress

Posted on January 2, 2011 by vhk10

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: Crunchy numbers A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats. A Boeing … Continue reading →

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The Armed Man for Remembrance

Posted on December 12, 2010 by vhk10

I joined the choir at my daughter’s school for a performance of selections from Karl Jenkins’ Armed Man mass. Not being a Classic FM devotee, I’d not heard the piece before and wasn’t sure how I’d get on with it. … Continue reading →

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Mozartfest 2010: Monteverdi’s aspect ratio

Posted on November 23, 2010 by vhk10

Others in the family made it to one of the central performances of the Mozartfest, Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort and Players’ interpretation of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610. This was quite a marathon as it was given without an … Continue reading →

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Mozartfest 2010: two chamber music concerts

Posted on November 21, 2010 by vhk10

There was the usual attractive programme for the 2010 Bath Mozartfest, and between us we went to three concerts. First up was the Belcea Quartet with Julian Rachlin on viola, for which we bought what must have been the last … Continue reading →

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LPs batch 25: concertos and chamber music

Posted on November 12, 2010 by vhk10

I’m moving on to some of the boxed sets I haven’t tackled earlier. Three of the discs in this batch were recordings that we very much want to have available: Beethoven middle-period string quartets played by the Alban Berg Quartet. … Continue reading →

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