Hope that can never die

I had a Manchester United season ticket until last year, when I had to relinquish it due to having no money. It's probably just as well that I didn't have one tonight, because I'm not sure what I would have done. Go to Old Trafford for the second leg of a highly-charged cup semi-final against City, or go to the Bridgewater Hall for the orchestral rehearsal for tomorrow's Mahler 2 gig? On the understanding, of course, that missing the orchestral rehearsal means not doing the concert... I have to say that I think I would have gone to Old Trafford, but it would have been a close thing (and if we were performing the Mahler from memory that would have swung me the other way!)

As it was, I was in the Bridgewater Hall for most of the game, but my mum was texting me score updates, and I am delighted to report that the first time my phone vibrated in my pocket - when Paul Scholes scored United's opening goal - coincided with us singing the words "hope that can never die" in the Colin Matthews piece, Crossing the Alps. (The words are by Wordsworth, from The Prelude (this bit, although not all of those words are included.) I wasn't a huge fan of this piece at first, but I've grown to like it a lot (at least, when we do it without stopping! There have been a few rehearsals in which we've stopped after every bar or so...) And the "hope that can never die" bit is one of my favourites.

The rehearsal went very well, although I must admit I thought we might be out early and we weren't. Markus Stenz liked us, and we LOVED him. (At the piano rehearsal last night, not only did he smile all the way through - AND made helpful suggestions, so that the Mahler sounded even better after he'd finished - but he actually WINKED at us altos when it came to our big moment! We all wanted to take him home!) Have a look at his website - there are VIDEO CLIPS of him conducting.

The only bad thing that happened during the rehearsal was to do with the seating, but I could have predicted that! On the seating plan, you see, I was delighted to find that I'd been put on the end of the back row (almost my very favourite position - the only place I like better is the end of the FRONT row), so of course it was only a matter of time before something happened to get me moved to a different place. Last time, you will recall, I managed to push Lindsey off the stage using the power of my mind in an effort to fix this, but it might be a bit more difficult this time! Dr Liz pointed out, you see (quite rightly), that there are thirty-one 1st altos and only nine 2nd altos, and a few of the 2nd altos were a bit isolated and wanted to be nearer the others. So now I'm not on the back row OR on the end, and I'm racking my brains trying to think of a way round this, but I don't think there is one! Oh well.

Anyway, I have a few more links (don't I always?) Here's one I found just now while looking for stuff about Markus Stenz: Universal Edition have a special Mahler blog which has all sorts of links about the anniversary. I haven't read them all yet, but I plan to.

This is exciting: Intermezzo brings us news that the BBC is going opera crazy. Tom Service has more to say about this, and it turns out he's not a fan of Popstar to Operastar! I'm shocked. Well, I still love it - as long as Danny wins :-)

The Guardian tells us that the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples deserves to be better known, and opens a new opera season today.

And if, like me, you don't know (or used to know but have forgotten) the function of the middle pedal on a grand piano, Stephen Hough can tell you. (He mentions that in all his years of playing, he calculates that he's only used the middle pedal about fifty times. And I was at school with him - he was a couple of years above me, but he MIGHT remember me - so I know that that's a LOT of years of playing!) (He also has interesting things to say about the right pedal and the left pedal, but I knew more or less what they did before. It's the middle one I'd forgotten!)