Twirling trumpets!

I hope you all remembered to watch the Proms thing last night with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. I'm annoyed because I meant to post earlier to remind people, but I totally forgot. Oh well. (I was a bit worried that BBC1 wasn't going to show the encore, but they did, right at the end. Whee!)

Those who missed Wednesday's rehearsal may be wondering what we did. Well, the plan had been to have sectionals with Fanny and David, but unfortunately Fanny was ill, so David saved the day by taking the whole rehearsal himself. This meant we couldn't do the Holst, which I'd been looking forward to (because the intention had been for the ladies to do that while the men did the Brahms), but we did do the middle section of Komm Jesu Komm and then spent the rest of the time on a new bit of Sibelius (Oma Maa) before the ladies went home early and the men started on the Brahms.

Oma Maa wasn't too hard (although the fact that we had no accompaniment or cues AT ALL in our scores didn't help - we all hate scores like that!) I think it'll be much improved by adding the orchestra though. The Bach wasn't great, despite our familiarity with it - I don't know why, although I suspect it's a combination of three things: We didn't sit in 2 choirs, so that might have put some people off. Lots of people were late (at the start of the rehearsal there were only two 2nd altos to battle the eighteen 1st altos, but by the time we'd finished the Bach our numbers were more respectable... not that the 2nd altos did anything wrong, mind you!) But mostly, not enough people had practised the bit they'd been asked to. I'm sure it'll be fine by the time we do it in the memorial concert - which, by the way, we now know more about: the only thing we're singing OTHER than the Bach is the Hallelujah Chorus, so anyone who doesn't know that from memory should dig out their Messiah score ASAP. Also, the concert will be over pretty early (8.45 was mentioned, and it might be even earlier) and there will be food for us afterwards!

Now, I was going to post some more mp3s, but before I do, I need to solve a problem. Can you please tell me whether the mp3s I included in my last post sound OK to you or not? The reason I ask is that (for example) Saarella sounds very buzzy to me, whereas the Alto Rhapsody sounds fine. But Graham says Saarella sounds fine to him, while the Alto Rhapsody is crackly. I haven't done anything differently, but before I can work out what the problem is, it would be helpful to find out whether it's just me. Could you all have a listen and let me know please?

Finally, I hope you're all loving Heroes. If you've missed any, this weekend is your chance to catch up - BBC2 are repeating the whole series from the start, from 9pm tomorrow (Saturday). 6 episodes on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, and then you're up to date in time for episode 10 on Wednesday!

Oh, and if you're up to date on Heroes and want a trip out this weekend, it's the 24-hour Race on the Marine Lake at Southport. It starts at noon tomorrow and finishes at noon on Sunday. Currently the weather forecast predicts that it will be much windier on Sunday, so that'll be better. But if you do come, try to come so that you see at least some of the night sailing. You don't often get the chance to see a yacht race under floodlights!