OMG BRYN TERFEL!

I seem to have spent quite a lot of time yesterday getting excited about singing with Bryn Terfel. Not that the other soloists (Alice Coote and Paul Groves) weren't fabulous as well, but we've sung with them before - Bryn is a whole new experience!

I've been telling people at work about BrynFest and Bryn pulling out of the Ring Cycle last year and Bryn's official fan club (seems very secretive, you have to pay them before you can even see most of the pages on their site!) and Bryn singing Rule Britannia at the Last Night of the Proms one year dressed in a Welsh flag - and I'm sure he kicked a rugby ball into the crowd at the end, can anyone confirm this? I just spent quite a while searching for a YouTube video of this, but sadly I think it may have been in the days before everything appeared on YouTube. (There is lots of Bryn on YouTube now - I think I like this one best, but I haven't watched most of them!) I couldn't even find an article describing it, hence no link!

I also only realised yesterday that Bryn is singing at the Last Night of the Proms again this year, although I'm a bit disturbed that they don't appear to be doing the whole of the Fantasia on British Sea Songs - I hope that's just a mistake! (Have a look at the official Proms website if you want to see what else is on.)

And, talking of his forthcoming commitments, I see from his concerts page that he's singing in a Welsh Prom this Saturday, so I guess we'll be recording Gerontius in a non-traditional order so we can get all his bits finished tomorrow night!

I am still buzzing from last night's orchestral rehearsal, and not just because of Bryn - it's just such a fabulous piece. It occurred to me last night that there aren't many pieces where I can remember page numbers for years afterwards. I do know a few page numbers from Messiah - e.g. Hallelujah is page 171 and Frunto Us is page 55, I think - but we do that every year. I can't think of any other work that we DON'T perform more than every few years in which I can always remember what happens on page 111!

Actually I'm not even sure that page 111 is my favourite bit, although it's certainly one of them. (If you missed my list of things to look out for in Gerontius, you might like to have a look, by the way.) The Demons' Chorus is definitely up there, as is the "Go in the name of" bit that starts on page 41. And of course the momentary glimpse of God on page 159. (They did that several times last night, and I was very amused at the number of people who jumped out of their seats each time!) And I just love some of the quiet bits too. (Although, oddly enough, the bit I've had on the brain all morning so far is "in all his ways most sure". No idea why.)

It all just sounded so wonderful last night, and it will be even better with a capacity audience - and it's such a pity that the hall isn't ten times bigger, because we would still have filled it. I know my mum isn't the only one who hasn't been able to get a ticket, but she's planning to keep calling this afternoon - you never know! At least there'll be the CD, but it's not as good as the live experience.

I'm particularly enjoying singing in the unorthodox formation. I'm right on the end of the altos, next to the 1st tenors, who are usually so far away from me that I can't hear them at all unless they're singing when I'm not. Now I can hear them all the time, and the ones near me are very good indeed. And the Youth Choir sounds better than ever.

Anyway, more tomorrow maybe, but for the moment my lunch break is nearly over, so I will finish with some random links.

Wordle is great fun - you paste some text into it (as long or as short as you like) and it creates... well, try it and see!

The International Music Score Library Project has reopened!

Did you see the drunk referee? Unbelievable! (Thanks to Barbara for that one, although I've seen it everywhere since she pointed it out!)

They're repeating the Soweto Strings programme tomorrow night, so if you missed it the first time, do try to record it (it's repeated in the early hours of the morning too). It's very inspirational, plus our orchestra is in it briefly :-)

Did you hear about the place where you're not allowed to die?

And finally, I recently discovered Bachtrack, which has all sorts of interesting stuff on it, although the concert listings are extremely incomplete (i.e. they don't seem to include any of our concerts!)