I signed up for the South West Festival Chorus intending to sing The Kingdom by Elgar, and got as far as borrowing a score, but the programme was then changed to a ‘Russian Spectacular’. It was the first time I had ever performed in the Forum (and experienced its hot lighting and poor sightlines).
In the first half the Bath Phil played Sheherezade. I’d not heard this all the way through for a long time – it really is of symphonic length. As I didn’t have a programme I was a bit vague about which story corresponded to which bit of the music!
The choral second half conducted by Gavin Carr began by raising the roof with the Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov. This was followed by a rarity I’d never come across, Rachmaninov’s three folk-song arrangements op. 41, sung in English (but with the translation improved a bit). These are straightforward from a vocal point of view (sung almost entirely in unison), but with more colour and some lovely original melodies in the orchestral interludes. We were asked to picture the scenes described in one song as we sang it, which I found a rather puzzling instruction – don’t people do this automatically?
More noise followed with the Polovstian Dances in their original choral version. Again, there was a lot more to these than I remembered, and I’d never bothered to find out quite how they fitted into the opera until now. Finally came the 1812 Overture with the choir singing the hymn at beginning and end. Cannon and mortar effects emerged from loudspeakers, with someone somewhere controlling a recording so they co-ordinated with the music. The audience were appreciative though their ears must have been ringing for a while afterwards.