We're on the radio!

Sorry not to have warned you of this, if you'd forgotten, but we're on Radio 3 RIGHT NOW. (If you're reading this too late, catch it on Listen Again later.)

Sorry also for the delay in posting. I didn't have time to write till yesterday, and then Blogger was down... still, it all seems to be working now!

I'm sure I remember writing some Jamieisms in my Messiah score, but I just looked through it and can't find anything (although it's hard to find ANYTHING in there, there's so much scribbling). Never mind. Wednesday's rehearsal was fun, though. I'd expected it to be really boring - I like Messiah, but not the rehearsing of it. But Jamie's brainwave, to make us rediscover it, was to get us to all swap parts, so that the sops and tenors sang each other's parts (at a suitable octave) and so did the altos and basses. This was hugely entertaining, and I'm only sorry we didn't do it all the way through! We did sing through quite a few movements, though, and we also spent some time learning (again, but it's always useful) how to do the runs properly. Oh, and we all discovered our hangman drawing from last year's "His Yoke Is Easy" :p

(Ouch, just listening to the Kodaly performance... the sops and tenors were miles behind the beat on their first entry!)

Jamie also had some serious words to say on the subject of taking preparation seriously, particularly before piano rehearsals. I've already stated my feelings about the piano rehearsal, so it won't surprise you to know that I agree with everything he said. I can understand, though, how some people were upset that he was being so negative after such a successful concert, but (a) maybe they were so shocked that they didn't notice that he DID say it was good, and (b) I think the point is - if it was that good when some people weren't as prepared as they might have been, how great MIGHT it have been?

Anyway, a few links to finish. Here's a great review of last week's concert. Here's a great review of our CD. Here's an interesting site I found the other day while I was looking for something else - it tells you how to pronounce stuff in just about any language, specifically classical musicians' names and titles of works. [EDIT: For all the people searching for "how to pronounce Kodaly" that end up here, this site tells you - specifically, on this page.] And here's the home page for next year's Manchester International Festival - tickets for members go on sale tomorrow for the first few events.

And finally, I realised that when I posted about the gig, I haven't once mentioned my absolute favourite aspect, which was the bottom A from the basses on the last page of the Kodaly. My spine still tingles just thinking about it. And in a couple of minutes I'll hear it again :-)