"Well, we'd go anywhere to sing with Mark."

That's what one of the LPC told my tenor friend Graham W, when asked why so many of them had made the effort to come up to Manchester to sing The Bells with us. Nice, eh? I'm glad they did, though, because it was great to have so many singers. And they were really good, too. Particularly a bass sitting behind me whose Russian was so perfect that I thought he must be Russian.

Talking of Russian basses, someone who we're all agreed is headed for superstardom is tonight's bass soloist, whose name I now know. It's Mikhail Petrenko. (The soprano was Tatiana Pavlovskaya - how great a name is that?!? She was fabulous too, as was John Daszak the tenor, but Mikhail had a lot more to do in the concert so we noticed him more.) When Mikhail walked - well, strode would be more accurate - onto the stage for his first item (Shostakovich's Ten Songs of the Fool from King Lear, which amused everyone by basically being a set of variations on "Jingle Bells" with dramatic arm gestures and despotic laughter), I realised that that's how all male soloists should walk onto the stage. Wow. Of course, the open-necked white shirt (no jacket) (with the collar up) helped the image. Kind of Byronic. Ish. (Oh, and btw, googling him reveals that he's 30 this year. Which surprises me, as I thought he was much younger, but I'm really bad at judging age!)

Needless to say, the crowd loved him :-)

The concert, since you ask, when pretty well. I wasn't too impressed with the Glinka or the Borodin - instantly forgettable for me, I'm afraid - but the Shostakovich songs were great fun, and then there was The Bells. Most of the bits that had often been wrong were right. There was one bit where it nearly fell apart due to people not watching, but as ever the 2nd altos stuck to their guns and dragged everyone back onto the beat. (At least, that was MY perception. Other sections may disagree :p ) There was a bit of bad feeling at the warmup, though, when it was announced that we would be warming up at 6.30 instead of 7.00 as the schedule says. I suspect, remembering the pattern from previous two-choirs gigs, that it was always intended that the warmup should be at 6.30 and Jamie assumed that's what the schedule said. But the fact is that the schedule didn't say that, and lots of people had made plans which were awkward to alter at such short notice.

A couple of interesting things in the programme (there's always something that they don't bother to tell us till we read it in the programme!) Firstly, and amusingly, apparently the 3rd movement is supposed to be "a terrifying depiction of a panic-stricken crowd". How appropriate :p And, also, "The choral writing in this movement is so difficult that in later life the composer introduced some simplifications." Uh huh.

Only two quotes to report, other than the LPC one. A bass (who I won't name, because we need all the basses we can get, so it would be a pity if one was murdered) said, just as I walked past him, "Sopranos aren't renowned for having brains. Oops! Don't quote me!"

And the other is the only Jamieism of the day, but it's a great one. This was during the warmup: "Can I ask you to imitate a small furry animal that's chewing something very tasty and doesn't want any of his family to know about it?"

Other news: The triangle player turns out not to be a work experience boy, he's actually 21 and will be playing with the Hallé for the next 5 weeks. I suspect I added to his pressure by mentioning to one of his percussionist colleagues how very impressed we all were with his concentration, and that we were watching his every move :p

And I was very amused by Alison having water stuck in her ear (we went swimming in the afternoon) and trying all sorts of contortions and head shaking to dislodge it. Dr Liz suggested that she should hop around with her head on one side, but that didn't work (I suggested she probably needed to do it for much longer, but she didn't fall for that!). Anyone got any brilliant remedies in case this happens to any of us in the future?

I'll leave you with some photos. The first one is the window of the Dutch Pancake House, who really should be ashamed of themselves. The tree was just pretty. [EDIT: Photos now removed, sorry.] I also took some other photos during the interval (half the singers were missing - it was much more crowded by the time we went on!), and they're up on the choir photos page (I had to remove a few of the Belshazzar ones to fit them on, but most of the Belshazzar ones are still there too, in case you didn't see them at the time.) BIt blurred, sorry, but I don't have a steady hand! I thought some people might like them anyway. And it was a bit of luck being able to take them from the balcony - I took the first one and realised I could only get a decent impression of the numbers was to go up there. Now, I do know the code for the door, because I've been up there for committee meetings. But I'd just decided that it would be wrong to abuse that just to go and take a picture, when Naomi called down that I should bring up some of the ladies who were queuing for the toilets, so that they could use the ones upstairs too and help speed things up. So I went up there and took a couple of photos while I was waiting for them. Pity I managed to get them so blurry!

And finally - "Bravo, darling!" That's for Liz L, who is convinced that Mark was probably saying that to people in the corridor after the gig. (He certainly didn't say that in my hearing, but he was thanking all the choir members who passed him and saying repeatedly how fabulous it was.) Liz has very kindly offered to write down any and all Jamieisms from Wednesday's rehearsal, for I will be unable to attend. I never miss a rehearsal if I can help it, but I'm off to see the Proclaimers, and that's the only night they're in town. I don't really mind missing one rehearsal on Messiah, because I'd imagine the markings will be very similar to last year's - but I'm distraught at missing Jamieisms! You must all write down all the ones you notice, just in case there are some that Liz can't hear :-)