Nicht schleppend

So, this Friday is the final of Popstar to Operastar, although I won't be able to watch it live as we have a sectional (on a Friday night! AND rehearsals all day Sunday! It's just as well I have no life...) Can't say I totally agree with the results so far, but I also can't say that the two finalists don't deserve to be there. It's between Bernie Nolan and Darius Campbell, and I imagine Bernie will win, but I've been wrong several times so far!

On Saturday I'm singing at a wedding in Yorkshire as part of a group of six. We're doing I Was Glad (my a cappella version that I arranged for Dr Liz's wedding) and Bruckner's Ave Maria (adapted so that it can be done with six singers), as well as an a cappella arrangement of a hymn called On Eagle's Wings. We rehearsed on Monday night, so it felt really odd when the first two things that we sang in tonight's full choir rehearsal were Bruckner's Ave Maria and I Was Glad - except the proper versions! A little confusing. And it's been a while since I've sung I Was Glad without having to also sing the organ part :-)

The Mahler in Manchester series continues, and there are a few reviews of Mahler 3: Guardian, Telegraph, Times and MEN. The most interesting thing from those reviews, in my opinion, is Robert Beale's observation that "Mahler seems to have more of a male following than any other composer – at least it’s only when he’s on the menu that you get queues in the men’s loos, in my experience." Fascinating, if true!

I'm sorry to have missed Sunday's concert, which featured the lovely Jonathan Scott playing Rhapsody in Blue. It sounds as if I was one of the few members of the choir who WASN'T there! But I think it was Graham that alerted me to the Scott Brothers Duo's YouTube page - have a look at this great video of them playing the William Tell overture!

Thanks to Sheena and various others for alerting me to the fact that Janet Cardiff's Forty Part Motet sound installation is visiting Leeds until 3rd March. I saw this when it was in Liverpool a few years ago and loved it, but I thought it was now fixed in a permanent home (somewhere in Canada). There's a choral workshop too, if you want to go and sing it, on 27th February.

It's Chopin's 200th birthday soon, and Tom Service has an article about him.

Latest news about the Manchester Central Library closure, from the MEN: while the renovation is in progress, rare works will be kept deep underground in salt mines in Cheshire. There's all sorts of interesting info in that article, but the salt mines was the detail that fascinated me most!

And finally, the Big Picture has great photos of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.