Prom reviews

I'll edit this as more appear. So far there's just the Independent, who don't mention the choir AT ALL (typical!) but they did say they liked the Mendelssohn the best.

EDIT: Really nice one from BBC Music Magazine.

EDIT 2: And the Guardian liked us too!

EDIT 3: The Times liked us better than the soloists, I think :-)

EDIT 4: (via Graham) Music Web International didn't like it that much, but did like the choir! But Classical Iconoclast seemed to quite like it.

Singing under the mushrooms

Well, our choral season is over (we start the new one in a month or so) and our choral director is now our ex-choral director. The sheet of notes he gave us after Tuesday's rehearsal is very characteristic of him, and I heard a few people rightly bemoaning the fact that we'll probably never have notes quite like that again. I'll certainly be keeping my sheet.

The concert went very well indeed, and we got a great reception, although I personally made more mistakes that I have in all the other concerts this year combined. I was trying to hardly look at the score at all, and as a result I got a few words wrong and (much worse) came in a bar early at one point. But that was in a bit where the 2nd altos were singing the tenor part, so hopefully if anyone noticed they'll think it was a tenor :p

I'll post reviews as they appear, but to be going on with, here's a few reviews from the BBC website.

A few other links:

On the way back from Tuesday's orchestral rehearsal (which was surprisingly short and included a very moving speech about Sir Edward Downes) Alison and I listened to a bit of that night's Prom. Just before the interval, Stephen Hough played, as an encore, a piece that not only did we not recognise, the Radio 3 announcer didn't know either! A few minutes later, he'd been told the answer, but although we caught the title, we couldn't make out the composer's name. I looked it up when I got home, and here is Stephen playing it (at a different concert): Young Girls in the Garden by Federico Mompou.

The FT has some theories about why Glyndebourne is so successful.

The Spectator has some responses to earlier articles, including another Wagner opinion, and news of a piece which uses the acoustics of St Paul's to advantage.

BBC Music Magazine has a poll to find out which is the most popular of Holst's Planets. I'm quite surprised that Mars is (at the time of writing) only 3rd, and Venus and Mercury joint last! I'd have Saturn last, but any of the rest could be first, although I actually voted for Uranus.

Do you know what a vuvuzela is? You will next summer. There have been a few articles about this recently: four different ones from the Guardian/Observer (one, two, three, four) and one from a brass band website called 4 bars rest. The latter amused me the most :-)

Via ChoralBlog, a collection of choral humour. I've seen lots of it before, but some of it is new to me so maybe it will be to you too.

I've mentioned how much I've enjoyed recent articles by Alex James (the Blur bass player). Here's another one: this time he takes his kids to Oxford.

The Big Picture's latest wonderfulness is a collection of lightning photos. Plus, the Beetham Tower was struck by lightning this very morning!

You know when to unleash the beast

I did mean to post a bit sooner after my last post than this, but I was waiting for reviews of our 4th July gig to appear, and they never did! Such a pity - the critics don't know what they missed. Well, apart from the one from the Oldham Evening Chronicle. Oh well.

We've only sung once since then, so my main reason for posting now is to share about a million links with you. First, though, I just wanted to remind anyone reading this who's NOT a member of the choir that our Proms visit this year is this Thursday, and we're live on both BBC4 and Radio 3, and no doubt available on the iPlayer for a while afterwards. It'll be the third time we've performed the Mendelssohn this year, and I hope it'll be the best - although it would have to be AMAZING to outdo the Valencia gig. I think we can do it though!

We're rehearsing tomorrow night (well, I guess tonight really, since it's now 1 a.m.) and Tuesday night, then I'm off to London on Wednesday. It's very bad timing that my mobile phone has recently been cut off because I couldn't pay the bill - not a big problem when I'm at home, but I feel twitchy without it when I'm out of the house. Which is silly, because for the vast majority of my life I didn't own one!

Last week was a little sad - we had our last ever "normal" rehearsal with our current choral director, who leaves us at the end of this season (i.e. this week). We didn't do any Mendelssohn, but instead spent the rehearsal sight-reading various a cappella things, including Palestrina's Sicut Cervus, Victoria's O quam gloriosum, Bruckner's Christus Factus Est, Elgar's My love dwelt in a Northern land, Pearsall's Lay a Garland, and finishing with Rheinberger's Abendlied. (I say "including", but I think that's everything we did - can anyone spot anything I'm missed?) This was very good fun, and (as a bonus) proved how much better at sight-reading the choir is than it used to be. Although, we did get the comment "I think the opening section sounds better with C sharps, but I admire your spirit of experimentation..." He will be sorely missed.

So, a load of links for you! In no particular order....

I'm sure lots of you will have seen Blur's triumphant headline set at Glastonbury a few weeks ago (if you didn't, I should probably point out that they split up years ago and have been doing various successful solo things since, for example Damon Albarn's Monkey opera and Alex James taking part in Maestro, but they reformed for a few gigs this summer, of which Glastonbury was the pinnacle). I really love this article by Alex James (the bass player) in which he explains not only the feeling created by having done a really great gig, but also how upsetting it is for a musician to be asked if they "still do music". There's also another article by him in which he explains what it feels like to perform.

Here's why the critics didn't come to our 4th July gig - they went to Piccadilly Station that night to watch the RNCM thing there. Robert Beale reviews it for the MEN, and (more entertainingly) Mark Garner for Manchester Confidential.



A few days later were the two Elbow gigs, the thought of which which has been upsetting me for months (because I would have given just about ANYTHING to have been chosen to sing in the choir with them, but I was not one of those invited), but I'm a bit calmer now they've happened. Anyway, the reviews were great (and numerous!): Guardian, Observer, Independent, MEN/City Life, Telegraph, Manchester Confidential, BBC, and some great pictures (my favourite of which is above).

The thing that was theoretically the festival's main event, Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna opera, wasn't quite such a huge success, but it wasn't a disaster either. Can't say I had the urge to see it (unlike the Monkey opera, which I remember raving about at the time) but that's probably because I've never really liked Rufus Wainwright. But several of my friends (who have otherwise excellent taste) love him, so what do I know?! Anyway, here are reviews from the Guardian, Manchester Confidential, and FT.

Two updates in the ongoing saga of a Northern base for the Royal Opera House - a negative one from the BBC and a positive one from the MEN.

From Intermezzo, a theory that Wagner is kinder to sopranos than Mozart. Which seems unlikely, but there you go!

Talking of Wagner, here's a Spectator article about how someone became a fan.

Tom Service in the Guardian is unimpressed with a website called musoc.org. He's also unimpressed with the idea of live musicals without a live band.

The newest article on musoc.org discusses people who clap in the "wrong" places, and here's a BBC article that discusses this topic (which is a big issue for us after what happened on 4th July). (Thanks to Barbara for pointing this out.)

Here is an absolutely wonderful story about someone who won a prize and decided to give it away to a music teacher.

Did you hear the one about the mezzo who fell over during an opera performance, broke her leg in the fall, but continued to sing for another three hours? Clearly an alto really!

Here's a fabulous video showing an a cappella performance of Toto's Africa. The way they do the rain effect is amazing.

Apparently people are upset about Judas Maccabeus being used to open the Edinburgh Festival. I was quite startled to read their reason - I had no idea!

I'm sure you'll have heard the sad news about Sir Edward Downes. On an Overgrown Path had a nice post about him, as did the Guardian. I don't think I was ever conducted by him, but I have a very vague memory of a concert, many years ago, that he was SUPPOSED to conduct for us, but he was ill and someone else stepped in. Have I imagined that? The concert I'm thinking of was in London, possibly the Festival Hall, and possibly Delius.

Interesting piece from Peter Phillips about music composed for specific performance spaces.

Great interview with Wynton Marsalis. I particularly like the last line!

There's a new TV series starting in the USA this autumn called Glee, and it's about a high school choir. The pilot episode was floating around the web for a while, and I saw it - it's very High School Musical ish (unsurprisingly) but interested me enough that I will probably watch the first few episodes at least. It starts on 16th September, and no doubt those who are interested will be able to find ways to see it online - and if not, it's bound to turn up in the UK eventually.

Some very surprising news about 582 drummers: They beat out the same rhythm for five minutes to set a new world record. I love the quote from the Slade drummer though: "'It isn't as difficult getting to everyone playing at the same speed for this as people might think, it's getting them to stop that's the problem." Hee!

Here's a Spectator thing about moving pianos, and another about Proms programming.

The Guardian has advice for teenagers wanting to try classical music. (The Muse song they mention, in case you're wondering, can be heard here. It's a bit... surprising.)

BBC Music Magazine explains why the only way to see the Proms is to be a Prommer. And the Observer reviews a couple of last week's Proms.

I know I often rave about the Big Picture (if you don't have it bookmarked, do so immediately), but they've outdone themselves recently. I particularly love their pictures from Glastonbury, but there's also Apollo 11, the solar eclipse, and mud!

Did you know that London tube drivers are to quote Gandhi in their announcements? I'm fascinated by this. Has anyone heard any of these announcements yet?

Sadly, I didn't see the recent flower festival in Manchester Cathedral, but Manchester Confidential has pretty pictures.

I also didn't see the Manchester Zombie Walk, despite looking forward to it for ages, but the MEN has a report with a couple of pictures. It seems they didn't break the record, but that's OK because it means they'll have to try again!

The MEN and BBC update us on the current Metrolink city centre misery. And remember that the whole of the Altrincham and Eccles lines will be closed in August as well!

And finally, I'm quite fascinated by the idea of the people on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, but not quite fascinated enough to watch them. But if you want to see them, you can do so online here.

He ain't got long to stay here

People who've sung with me many times may be aware that many of my scores have the letters "GB" written on them at various points. (Sometimes it's "GGB".) "GB" stands for "good bit", and although of course there are lots of good bits in most of the pieces we sing, only a few of them get the written warning. It is a warning, and it's to warn me that that particular bit is likely to give me a lump in my throat and/or a tear in my eye, so I need to try to concentrate really hard to sing properly. (I'm usually OK in rehearsals - it's in the performance that it gets to me.)

Concentration doesn't always work in these circumstances, so there have been quite a few concerts in which I've had to stop singing briefly because my voice was wobbling so much. It's REALLY annoying when this happens, because it means that in many of my very favourite bits, which I've been looking forward to performing, I end up not singing! Dr Liz told me on the way offstage tonight that she never gets tearful when she's singing, just when she's listening. I think I'm the other way round. There aren't many pieces that make me tearful when I hear them (a notable exception is A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, in which the entry of the brass at the end reduces me to a quivering wreck every time), but there are loads that make me tearful when I sing them.

I mention all this because I don't remember ever being in a concert that made me tearful as much as tonight's did. I'd been looking forward to it more than I can remember looking forward to any concert in years in any case, and I wasn't disappointed - it was fabulous. True, a few things didn't go according to plan - the sopranos didn't come in at all at the start of We Shall Walk, which was baffling, but the rest of us waited another beat for them, and they DID come in, and the crisis was averted and probably none of the audience noticed. And there were some REALLY stupid people in the audience. I thought my least favourite audience ever was the one we had four times at Christmas, when they would NOT stop coughing, but tonight's annoyed me more. To be fair, it was only a few of them - it was an almost-full house, and the vast majority were perfectly well-behaved. But those few thoughtless idiots totally ruined TWO pieces.

How? They were so desperate to be the first ones to applaud that they not only started the instant the music stopped - before the conductor's arms were lowered, so we never got that wonderful silence before the applause starts. But in two cases they assumed that the piece had ended when it hadn't. The first time was at the end of the Largo from the New World Symphony. The conductor, in his introduction, had really only mentioned two things - that there was a famous cor anglais solo, and that although that was wonderful, his favourite bit was right at the very end, where the double basses end the movement with a 4-part chord. (I never knew this before today, which is a bit of a shock to me because I thought I knew the New World Symphony very well indeed.) Did we hear the 4-part chord? We did not, because the I-want-to-clap-first idiots decided the music had ended in the previous bar, and applauded over the double bass chord. I mean, come ON, people - he TOLD YOU HOW IT ENDED and you still got it wrong!

But it was even worse in the second half, because we started with the Barber Agnus Dei. If you know the piece at all (or the Adagio for Strings, of which it is an adaptation) you can probably guess which is the worst possible moment for people to applaud, and of course that's where they did it - there's a huge climax about 7 minutes into the piece, and after a few moments' silence the music continues with an extremely quiet echo of the same two chords. Of COURSE the idiots applauded in that silence, thinking the climax was the end of the piece, and the quiet echo - the best bit of the piece, on which we'd worked the longest - was totally lost. (If you don't know the piece that well and want to know exactly which bit I mean, listen to this recording - the climax in question is at 6:50.)

After the Barber, there were no other applause-related disasters, so I like to think that the offenders were quietly removed and executed. I was particularly pleased that they didn't spoil my favourite piece in any way. (That was A City Called Heaven, in case you're wondering. But I'll come back to that.) So, having written for longer than I intended about what went WRONG, I suppose I'd better rectify that by talking about what went right, because it really was a FABULOUS concert, and there were many, many things I loved about it.

Fanfare for the Common Man was the first item, and it was awesome, in both senses of the word. I don't think I've ever heard it performed live before, and the sound was just incredible. After that, Lincoln Portrait, which I didn't know at all, was always going to be less impressive in comparison, but it was pleasant enough, and I was very taken with the speaking voice that the bass soloist used - very Darth Vader! I would have loved it if he'd added an extra line to the Gettysburg Address that said "No, Luke. I am your father."

The children's choir then sang At The River. When I saw that on the programme, I hoped it was the Groove Armada song, although I realised that was unlikely.... It turned out to be a hymn, and as usual Wikipedia has a lot of interesting information about it. Anyway, they sang it very well (they're REALLY good!) and I know a few members of the choir did get tearful listening to them, but it didn't move me quite that much, lovely though it was.

Then it was time for Go Down Moses (a.k.a. "the one where the 2nd altos have all the best bits"). The bit that got to me in this one was "let my people go" - every time it came, actually, but particularly the one with no crescendo. Spinetingling. The next piece was "We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace" (Moses Hogan arrangement), which I had never heard before a few weeks ago. I really love this piece, and a had a tear in my eye at several places, but mostly the very loud bit near the end where the 1st sops finally had a top G. Someone near me said she found this piece boring, and I suppose I can see what she meant, but I thought it was just wonderful.

I've already mentioned the New World Symphony, but apart from the idiot clappers it was great. It's always been one of my very favourite pieces, and hearing the Largo tonight reminded me how long it's been since I listened to the whole thing, so I'll be doing that very soon. But in the meantime, the last thing in the first half was Songs of Freedom. I love this piece too, but I've been frustrated while we've been rehearsing it because the men never seemed enthusiastic about it. Today, though, they finally sounded as if they were enjoying themselves, and the piece was transformed. And the kids were great too - they'd been practising their hurrahs and were very effective, and of course there was the cute little blond boy (I think he was called Nicholas) who sang a line on his own. He was perfect in rehearsals, but I wondered whether nerves would get to him in the performance - but he was fine. And then, straight after, was Shenandoah.

When we first heard the kids sing this on Wednesday, we all melted (at least, the back row of the altos did). But I still managed (just) to sing our backing vocal part. Tonight I could hardly sing at all - it took me several bars before I could produce even a wobble. Luckily I'd managed to calm down by the time we got to our "Glory Glory Hallelujah" countermelody, although I wasn't helped by the men sounding so amazing in the middle verse!

The train bit was the next part of the medley, i.e. We Are Coming, Father Abraham (I don't think our version included the slightly gruesome last verse!) This has an exciting accelerando as the train picks up speed, but the men never managed to do this convincingly in rehearsals - well, apart from the memorable evening when our choral director conducted them by doing train impressions.... But today they nailed it, and it was great, and then we were into When Johnny Comes Marching Home, in which the kids were again fabulous, and at the very end when they all shouted "HURRAH!" and punched the air in unison, that was when I actually cried briefly, for the first time of the evening. I'm not sure why - my best explanation is that I just LOVED that moment. (I've got a lump in my throat right now just thinking about it!) Just as well it was right before the interval.

After the break was Barber's Agnus Dei, which was sadly ruined by the idiot clappers. Other than that, it went very well, although my breathing seems to go worse each time I do it. At one point on Wednesday I was thrilled that I managed the first line in one breath for the first time ever. But I haven't managed it since, and I never managed it with any of the other lines! Oh well. (And before someone points out that we weren't EXPECTED to sing most of the lines in one breath - I know that, but trust me, we weren't supposed to be breathing as often as I was!)

Then the orchestra played Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer. Never heard either played by an orchestra before, although I know the piano originals very well, so that was fun. This was followed by Showboat (Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man (in which the tenors FINALLY did their interjections convincingly) and Ol' Man River. (I haven't mentioned the soloists - Sarah Fox and Robert Winslade Anderson - but they were both great.)

And finally we were up to A City Called Heaven. I mentioned this at the end of my last post - the piece was only written two weeks ago, and it was definitely my favourite thing in the concert. Just gorgeous. I was delighted, too, that the conductor told the audience the story of why he wrote it, as I'd hoped he would (it was in the programme notes too, for good measure). (I looked up Anne Brown's obituary, in case you're interested.) I really wish I had a recording of... well, the whole concert actually, but mainly this. Although I struggled to sing the first page because our choral director called us "his beloved choir" just before we started, and I can't remember the last time I was called "beloved", so I had another lump in my throat!

Next came a bit of (appropriately enough) Porgy and Bess: "Summertime" and "Bess, You is My Woman" - both of which brought the house down - and then the conductor got his own back on the audience by starting the last piece - Battle Hymn of the Republic (Wilhousky arrangement) - while they were still applauding the previous one. It seems this arrangement is very popular in America, but I'd never heard it before we started rehearsing it, and we didn't hear it with the orchestra till Friday. As soon as I did, I knew my mum was going to LOVE it. Not that she wouldn't like the rest of the concert, but we both love march-type things with trumpets and military drums, and this was an extreme example. Such an exciting start, and the end was spectacular - and in the middle the men did another 4-part illustration of how incredible they can sound when they put their minds to it. It was all appropriately glorious.

Applause, applause, applause... and then, the encore. We only found out we were doing this on Wednesday: Steal Away. We've done it before, and know it very well, so the lack of rehearsal wasn't a problem - it sounded great the first time we tried it, so it was just a case of polishing. I was all ready to sing it really well tonight - and then, just before we sang it, he quoted the words: "steal away... I ain't got long to stay here". And I felt like such an idiot for not having made the connection between those words and him leaving, but I hadn't. And once the connection was made, I couldn't get it out of my head, and I had tears running down my face through the whole song, and couldn't sing any of it without my voice wobbling. I don't think I'll ever hear it again without thinking of tonight.

Anyway, I have a few links to share with you, but I think I'll save them for a day or two in the hope that a few reviews appear, and I'll link everything together,