I *told* you it was the greatest CD ever made!

Thank you to the various people who told me that our Gerontius was featured on Radio 3's CD Review last Saturday (8th November). You can still listen again online until tomorrow (the relevant bit starts at 2:24:40 - drag the slider across!) but Graham has helpfully sent me an mp3 of it in case you've missed it by the time you read this. It's about 11 minutes long, but most of that is taken up with an excerpt (the bit leading up to where the Angel takes Gerontius for his brief glimpse of God, including the very quiet choir bit that we did seated). The actual review is - well, perfect. They START OFF by saying that "the chorus is outstanding" (before they even mention the orchestra!), and they literally can't find a single flaw. Pretty good eh? :-)

(Graham also sent an mp3 of the interview with our music director which is mentioned at the end of the review. Some interesting stuff, particularly if you're an opera fan! This interview is about 13 minutes long.)

Actually while we're doing mp3s, I have another one - you remember that Radio 4 programme about me a couple of months ago? Well, I listened to most of the other episodes the day they were broadcast, but the last one was on while I was on holiday, and it was ages until I got to listen to it, because I'd recorded so much stuff while I was away. So by the time I heard it and found (much to my surprise) that I was featured in it, it was far too late for me to tell anyone to listen! However, the producer has now very kindly sent me a copy, so I've put it online in case anyone wants to hear it. (My bit is about 7 minutes in.)

(Needless to say there have still been no offers of employment as a result of either radio programme, but you never know. I am currently still awaiting a new temping assignment and have been at home for the last two weeks. I've got lots of other stuff done but would feel better if there was any money coming in! I'm hopeful things will start to improve soon though.)

Anyway, today is the start of a busy weekend for the choir (annoyingly it coincides with the release of Wrath of the Lich King, but never mind). Tomorrow night is Alexander Nevsky, and tonight we get to do it with the orchestra for the first time, so I'll finally find out whether it's as loud as I've been led to believe. I do hope so!

We met the conductor for the occasion, Alexander Lazarev, on Wednesday night, and we liked him very much. I was delighted that he sounds properly Russian - I would have been very disappointed if his English had no trace of an accent and his voice was high-pitched! Also, he told us some good stories (I think my favourite was the one about the use of bells in Russian villages) AND he finished early. Oh, and he didn't correct any of our Russian! These are all good qualities for a visiting conductor to have :-)

(Of course, even though he'd rehearsed everything he wanted to by 7.50pm, we didn't actually go *home* early - we spent the rest of the rehearsal learning the world premiere stuff for the 1st December concert. Mostly easy, although there's one line that the sopranos had to do that they failed SPECTACULARLY at. To be fair, it was ridiculously hard - amongst other things, it had a Db major arpeggio in the middle of a line that was mostly in D minor - but their attempts at it were quite funny!)

A few links to share with you, as usual in no particular order. Firstly, a very interesting article by Sara Maitland about silence.

Tom Service writes about Riccardo Muti upsetting the Queen.

Steve Reich's music is featured in a concert in Manchester on Wednesday (I thought at first that Steve Reich would be there himself, but when I read it again I decided I'd imagined that).

Some new research from the University of Maryland concludes that listening to music is good for your heart.

In Switzerland, meanwhile, researchers have announced that songbirds have hymnsheets in their heads.

And, finally, you will recall that I am very enthusiastic about the Vendee Globe yacht race. It's now well under way - it started last Sunday, but obviously it takes quite a while to sail round the world (see below for the route they take - they go eastwards, i.e. under Africa first and under South America last) so it will be ongoing for months yet. (The Guardian had a nice article about the race.) Sadly I appear to have cursed Alex Thomson by telling you about his bad luck, because he's already out - his boat developed structural problems almost immediately. He turned back to the start in the hope that he'd be able to repair them in time to continue, but it turns out he can't, so he has retired from the race. I can't begin to imagine how depressed he must be - after what happened last time, he worked for 4 years to take part in this year's race, and now it will be another 4 years before he can try again. Poor guy.

Still, it does at least mean that I don't have to decide whether I want him or Mike Golding to win! Mike is doing pretty well so far - he's in 10th place overall, but he's the leading non-French competitor. It's early days though, and anything might happen when they reach the Southern Ocean! (The traditional saying about the Southern Ocean - referring to its latitude - is "Below 40 degrees, there is no law; below 50 degrees, there is no God.")