Category Archives: singing in concerts

a missed anniversary concert

I was prevented by illness from joining the Erleigh Cantors for their 20th anniversary concert. So I can’t write about the concert itself but I had rehearsed the programme with the other singers and at home which allows me to … Continue reading

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a time of penitence

The Chandos Singers broke some new ground with their latest poster, showing a couple of flagellants. The concert was built around two Masses by Adam Michna: his Lenten Mass and Requiem. The former of these is built on a repeating … Continue reading

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a colossal nightingale

This was Heine’s description of Berlioz and I can’t improve on it, so I’m borrowing it for the title of this post. A few years ago I learnt some of Les nuits d’été, including Le spectre de la rose. The … Continue reading

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Te Deum Laudamus

Two settings of this text framed the Chandos Singers’ most recent concert in St. Bartholomew’s, Oldfield Park. We started with Haydn’s Marie-Thérèse setting, which was actually a suggestion of mine when we were looking for a piece to complete the … Continue reading

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some plans for 2010

We have now sorted out a weekend visit for the Cathedral Chamber Choir in 2010. Over the Low Sunday weekend we will be at Sherborne Abbey. Their bell-ringers seem to move in as soon as the Abbey choir takes a … Continue reading

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Deborah

The Chandos Singers paid tribute to the Handel anniversary by performing this early oratorio. It’s a curious piece, based on one of the biblical episodes that you don’t usually hear about in church; not very much judging under the palm … Continue reading

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a quiet June/July

I seem to have been going to concerts more than performing in them. This part of the year is quieter than usual and there are various reasons, among them a couple of concerts I might have sung in and didn’t. … Continue reading

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the Festival opening night

Various family members were involved in this and I found myself dashing all over town to keep up. It began by watching, and then following, my son in the procession of children carrying their artwork on a ‘sea’ theme down … Continue reading

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Kodály and Fauré at St Stephen’s Lansdown

This church is a local landmark, but I haven’t sung in it for a long time (previous visits were to sing Holy Week devotional works with aggregations of local church choirs). I returned to augment A Handful of Singers (conducted … Continue reading

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the view from choir 8

I’ve written before about singing in Spem in Alium, I admit partly to see if it resulted in an invitation to sing the work in Tallis’ anniversary year of 2005. But I had to wait until now, with a performance … Continue reading

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another anniversary

Bet you didn’t know it was the tercentenary of Pergolesi’s birth this year! His dates are usually given as 1710-36, but the first of this is the registration of his birth in early January, rather than the birth itself, so … Continue reading

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The Lion, Reading

Not Kingsley but the title of a movement in True and False Unicorn, part of the Chandos Singers’ tribute to Finnish independence day. We began with Freedom on Saint Nicholas’ Day by Hyvönen, a composer whose career sadly ended when … Continue reading

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