This was naturally enough a great improvement on the two previous years. My musical life (like my non-musical one) contained many events postponed from 2020 and 2021, and so became very busy.<\/p>\n
I’ve only done half a dozen overseas choir tours in my life, but two of them were this year. First, the Gloucester Choral Society excursion to the Veneto, including singing in San Marco<\/a>, the Frari church in Venice, the basilica of St Antony in Padua and Asola Cathedral<\/a>. In the autumn came a trip to Hannover<\/a> with Bristol Choral Society to mark the anniversary of Bristol’s twinning with the city.<\/p>\n Actually the music-related highlight may not have been either of these, but being part of spontaneous<\/a> singing of the National Anthem at the Oval cricket ground, if only because I can’t imagine being part of anything quite like it again.<\/p>\n Large-scale concerts returned (though not the Bristol Beacon, for which we must wait till December 2023) and the works I performed at them included Fauré’s Requiem (twice), Rutter’s Requiem<\/a>, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs<\/em> (twice), the long-awaited Symphony of Psalms<\/em><\/a> by Stravinsky, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Messiah<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Bath Abbey Chamber Choir is finding its feet and I have learnt new repertoire (including O Hearken Thou<\/em> from my wishlist<\/a>) and did the solo in Britten’s Te Deum in E. I didn’t do much singing with visiting choirs at Cathedrals, although I did go to Lichfield<\/a> and Gloucester<\/a> with the Erleigh Cantors. I reacquainted myself with some pieces I had not sung for many years, such as Howells’ Responses, Stainer’s Crucifixion<\/em> and, at different times, all of Handel’s Coronation Anthems.<\/p>\n Concert-going was now freely possible again, and this included a Prom<\/a>, Bath Opera<\/a>, a trip to the Barbican<\/a> and to hear Welsh National Opera<\/a> in Cardiff.<\/p>\n 2023 promises excitement both in performing and in hearing others do so. I’ll write it up here in due course (along with finishing off writing about 2022).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was naturally enough a great improvement on the two previous years. My musical life (like my non-musical one) contained many events postponed from 2020 and 2021, and so became very busy. I’ve only done half a dozen overseas choir … Continue reading