"Warm and fervent, mellifluously blended and pitch-perfect."

That's how the Times describes our choir. Quite right too. We ARE very fantastic.

The MEN is slightly more restrained, mentioning only that "we rose to the challenges of the big moments".

Those are the only reviews I've seen so far of Saturday's gig - I'll edit this post if any more appear.

I did enjoy it in the end, although I nearly didn't sing at all - I somehow managed to lose my voice earlier in the week (without feeling ill at all - I just couldn't make any noise!) It was just a tickle at the start of the week, but by Wednesday I could talk but not sing. I went to the rehearsal anyway, and mimed in the first half. This turned out to be a very bad idea (even though I am *convinced* I didn't make any sound) and made my throat worse, so I just sat and listened in the second half. On Thursday I couldn't even talk, let alone sing, so I had the very great pleasure of sitting in the auditorium and listening to the choir and orchestra (and soloists) from the front. Can't remember the last time I got the chance to do that! On Friday things had improved slightly, and I could talk a bit but still not sing, so I sat out again, with the aim of being able to sing on Saturday. This strategy worked, and by Saturday afternoon I found I could sing without coughing, although not loudly... and by the evening most of the volume had returned. Perfect timing!

(While I was voiceless, I was looking up suggestions for remedies online. There are several here, but the one I kept seeing all over the web was ginger tea. Have any of you ever tried that? Does it work? Or, what's your preferred remedy? I ended up just sipping hot water with honey in it, on the grounds that I actually HAD some honey, but I didn't have any of the stuff for most of the other remedies!)

This week it's all change. Elgar is replaced by Debussy, Handel and Matthews (the latter is still being written, unsurprisingly), and we have a new guest choral director. I'm looking forward to the Matthews, but only because it's NEW. I've previously mentioned (and been lambasted for) my views on Messiah, so I won't repeat them (at least not yet!) The Debussy is his Nocturnes, which for the choir means being Sirens. I thought I'd had this on the brain all week, until I realised that I'd got it muddled up with Daphnis and Chloe! They are very similar in many ways, though, although our bit in Nocturnes is considerably less exciting. Anyway, if you don't know it, here's an mp3.

Loads more links for you. In no particular order, other than that I generally put the musical ones first...

Via ChoralNet, another interesting project from Eric Whitacre. He is one of the most groundbreaking composers currently working, and not just in musical contexts.

Via Intermezzo, an interesting look at how Germany differs from England when it comes to conductors in the news.

Intermezzo also tells us how much opera singers get paid.

Have any of you heard of The Manchester Carols? I hadn't, until I saw them being advertised while I was looking for something else.

Peter Phillips wonders where's the best place to be in a concert - singing, conducting or in the audience? He concludes that it's best to be singing - see if you agree with his argument!

Yet another discussion (with figures) of how Spotify is making money.

Via BoingBoing, a musical staircase in Sweden.

EMI and the CBSO issued instant CDs of their concerts the other day. I like this idea.

Not to be outdone, Radio 3 can now do synchronised opera surtitles.

Two blogs I discovered quite recently (and am not sure how I missed them): Classical Iconoclast and Tom Service's Guardian music blog. Both are now on my sidebar. (I've often linked to Tom Service's articles but I didn't realise until this week that he actually had a blog too.)

Not all arts critics are doing as well as Tom Service - all the Daily Telegraph ones recently lost their jobs.

A new exhibition of Spanish religious art at the National Gallery has a singing curator. I *really* want to see this!

Ash (a rock band you may or may not have heard of) are doing a UK tour in alphabetical order.

Manchester Confidential tells us about the new back view of Chet's. (I went past there today - the diggers are very busy! It's like the first chapter of Hitch Hiker.)

Next weekend Manchester hosts the UK's first ever robot festival!

Letters of Note is a fascinating new blog that publishes interesting actual letters (for example, this one from Mick Jagger to Andy Warhol).

From the London Review of Books, an enlightening explanation of why many postmen are so unhappy.

SayNoTo1870 is a useful website that gives you cheaper alternatives to 0870 numbers. (The Guardian claims this site has saved people a fortune.)

If you know any Deaf or hard of hearing people, make sure they know about the Emergency SMS trial, which means they can now contact 999 by sending a text message.

Astronomy Picture of the Day has long been one of my favourite websites, and last week they had a lovely new Pleiades picture.

(Ooh, that reminds me - those of you who use the Henry Watson Music Library may be unaware that the whole of Manchester Central Library (and, in fact, the Town Hall extension building) is closing for refurbishment in December, for a REALLY LONG TIME. (Three years, I believe, in the case of the library - not sure if the Town Hall is the same.) There are many, many items in the Henry Watson which are not in any other library in the UK. I have no idea whether there are any plans to make their stock available during the refurbishment - I can't imagine how they'd do it, given how much there is, so if you need anything from there, I'd make the trip ASAP.)

And finally... I'm sure you're all aware of the hilarious way in which Liverpool lost their match on Saturday - the ball went in off a beach ball that a Liverpool fan had thrown onto the pitch. Well, Liverpool play host to Manchester United this coming Sunday, and my absolute favourite story of the past few hours is that the Liverpool club shop has sold out of beach balls and the United fans are to be searched for them. "United supporters are suspected of being behind the increased demand for Liverpool beach products." Hee!

We do hear them speak in our tongue

I can't say that I've particularly enjoyed this week's rehearsals (although Wednesday's was MUCH more pleasant than Monday's), but that's mainly because I never really liked The Kingdom in the first place, so I'm a bit sick of it after rehearsing it for five weeks. Next week is the end of it, though, and I do usually enjoy performances of things (even Messiah!). In this case we're recording it too, AND there are four consecutive days of singing it, so I might be REALLY sick of it... but at least after Saturday we'll get a change! And maybe I'll have an epiphany during the week and grow to love the thing anyway.

I do have a few links for you, though. Let's see...

For some reason it only occurred to me this week to look at the Amazon reviews for our award-winning Gerontius CD.

The Guardian talks about what conductors do and how much they get paid.

My old school is having an open day (free, no booking required) on Saturday 17th October from 11am. Perfect timing for any choir members who are in town early before our rehearsal and always fancied having a look at Chet's.

BBC Music Magazine has a new concert diary, although it doesn't seem to have all concerts in it (they didn't have The Kingdom when I looked!)

Here's a thing about the eigenharp, a.k.a the "sci-fi bassoon".

The Guardian tried to calculate how much it costs to run Spotify... and then corrected their sums shortly afterwards.

The Guardian also quoted a BIllboard report which lists the ten best ways for UK pop artists to gain exposure. I think this is fascinating. For reference, the list is:

1. Doing a guest performance on The X Factor
2. Having your music featured in a high-rotation TV ad for Apple
3. Getting added to the Radio 1 playlist
4. Having your song covered on The X Factor
5. Performing on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross
6. Getting a listing on the iTunes front page
7. Performing at Glastonbury
8. Getting added to the Radio 2 playlist
9. Getting a cover story in Q magazine
10. Performance/interview on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show

Until I read this piece about someone creating an ending for Turandot, I hadn't actually realised it was unfinished. I need a bigger clue than that (for example, calling something the Unfinished Symphony!)

Tom Service raves about a film called Trip to Asia. It sounds familiar, but I can't imagine how I could have seen it, unless it's been on TV - does anyone know whether it has?

It seems there's someone collecting love stories from passengers on the 85 bus. I have to say I've never seen any of these postcards, and I've caught the 85 many times (it's the only bus that goes from the city centre to the inconvenient location of most of our rehearsals). Not that she'd get any useful stories out of me - I mostly live vicariously!

And finally, this is pretty, and very therapeutic: Wheel of Stars.

Just a perfect day

I had such a lovely day yesterday, although I feel absolutely exhausted today despite having had eight hours' sleep. I think it's probably because I spend a lot of time alone, and prolonged periods of time interacting with other people always tire me - but not usually this much! Oh well. I was determined to finally tackle my email inbox today, but instead I think I might go back to bed for a while after I've written this. (Sorry, if you've been waiting for an email reply from me! I'll get there eventually!)

It was Dr Liz's wedding, and it was fabulous from beginning to end. The photo above isn't great, but it's the only one I have - there were people in the way every other time I tried to get one! I have no doubt that there will be many proper photos available at some point.

The weather was OK - not sunny, but not too cold and not actually raining. The church was packed. The service went off without a hitch. (The brass quintet playing at the start was a lovely touch.) The evening reception featured a ceilidh - I watched more than I danced, because there kept being an odd number of people in our group and I didn't have a partner. But this was fine because I was melting as it was, so I was happy not to get any hotter! I was particularly amused to see Elaine and Gillian dancing all the dances as if they'd been doing so all their lives (which, they both admitted, they practically had) while their husbands exhausted themselves attempting to keep up :p

Our singing went very well indeed. There were six of us - two sops, two altos, a tenor and a bass (Lizzy, Claire, Amy, me, Tom and Richard) - and we did three songs a cappella. The first was the aforementioned I Was Glad, in which Lizzy was rather nervous about singing a top B flat on her own (but she needn't have been - it was spot on every time she did it), and we also did Perfect Day and Dream a Little Dream of Me. All three went down really well - there were people in the congregation mouthing the words throughout the latter two songs, which is always a nice thing to see. (In I Was Glad they mostly sat there open-mouthed, which is also encouraging!) The service was recorded, so I may be able to share mp3s with you eventually.

I felt really good about the number of people who came up to me during the rest of the day to tell me how much they'd enjoyed the singing. Most of them asked how many months we'd been rehearsing, and I don't think they all believed me when I told them we'd never sung together as a group before this week, and had only had one rehearsal. Needless to say this made me feel even more smug! And one guy - who has his own choir - was so excited about I Was Glad that he paid me for a copy of the arrangement, there and then. (He said his choir has tried it in the past and it's never really worked because the organist hasn't been good enough. And when he'd heard that this wedding would include an a cappella version with only six singers, he didn't believe it was possible.) You will understand that I very much enjoyed this whole conversation!

The six of us enjoyed ourselves so much that we were all quite sad that it's over and we have no excuse to sing together again - so if you know anyone who's getting married and has no music currently planned, let me know!

(Actually, that was one thing from yesterday that intrigued me. One of the people who came to tell me how much she enjoyed it said that it made a nice change to have something happening during the signing of the registers, because at most weddings the congregation are just left to talk amongst themselves. I was really taken aback by this, because at every wedding *I* go to, there is music during the signing of the registers.... but then it occurred to me that of course I'm usually there as one of the singers! I can't actually remember the last time I went to a wedding as just a guest - it was many, many years ago. What's your experience? Do most weddings have music at that point or not?)

P.S. Almost forgot.... When I was at Victoria Station on my way home, I was a bit baffled at the large number of people on the concourse, and even more baffled when a brass band started to play (at 11pm!) Turns out it was all in aid of the last ever train on the Oldham Loop line, which was about to depart from platform 1 when I left from platform 2. I'm annoyed with myself for not making the connection at the time (hee! I mean, the connection about the date - I did make my TRAIN connection....) because I was aware of the line being closed but had forgotten!

We are the champions!

Yesterday was the 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Awards, for which our Gerontius CD was a finalist in the choral category, and we won! We didn't win the overall award for recording of the year, but it's still pretty good. We beat The Sixteen in the choral category, although they did win Artist of the Year!

I'm off to sing for Dr Liz in a few hours - if you're wondering why I'm awake, it's because I'm nocturnal at the moment (I often am). Just wanted to post the award news. But I may as well share my recent links while I'm here.

Gustavo Dudamel is getting a rock star's reception in LA.

Some amazing images from the Big Picture showing China's birthday celebrations. They are great at doing stuff in perfect formation. I'd love to know whether they can just all do it perfectly first time or it takes days of rehearsal!

Here's a site that has no practical use at all - but just waggle your mouse over the picture. Very therapeutic!

A bit more info about the Manchester Camerata/Venice synchronised concert.

From the "you couldn't make it up" department, the Hull City first team squad went for a walk across the Humber Bridge and saved someone from suicide as a result.

A nice article from the Independent about how a Salford school improved its results by working with the world's best orchestra.

Alex James has been conducting again, this time at the Albert Hall, and he got very nervous.

The roads are all closed in a large part of Manchester city centre next week - beware.

A friend told me about the Cragg Coiners yesterday - a fascinating story, I'd never heard it before!

And finally, I was very amused yesterday lunchtime, when two of London's tallest buildings were having an argument with each other via Twitter.