I really enjoyed the Sea Drift concert, and it went pretty well (there was one point at which it wobbled slightly, I thought, but there was a quick recovery and hopefully not many people noticed). It's on the radio on Tuesday, of course, so see what you think! (I forget exactly where it was I thought it wobbled, but I think it was round about the "lapping everyone close" bit in S/A octaves.)
(Oh, and when you do listen on the radio, note that Lovely Markus Stenz is on In Tune immediately beforehand. What a brilliant bit of programming!)
The only review I've seen for the concert was the Manchester Evening News one, which doesn't go into much detail, but he did seem to like it. As did the audience member who started clapping while the conductor was still lowering his arms. (Tom Service was correct - there should be fines for that sort of thing. There was a very brief grimace on the conductor's face when it happened, but he covered it well.)
EDIT: There's now a Guardian review too.
FURTHER EDIT: Two more, one from Music Web and one from the mighty Manchester Confidential (I don't think they've ever reviewed one of our concerts before - hope they continue!)
Needless to say, I've had bits of Sea Drift on the brain since Thursday, but the rest of the time I can't stop thinking about that poor he-bird! So sad. I looked up the original Walt Whitman poem - it's a part of his Leaves of Grass collection, and the specific part is called by different names in different editions as far as I can see, but it's the section that starts "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". It has ten sections, and Delius uses sections 2 to 7 inclusive. I actually wanted to know what happened after the end of "Sea Drift", but after reading the poem I'm not entirely sure! I can see why Delius stopped where he did.
Anyway, next up is the Spring Symphony and a Mahler 8 repeat, in quick succession. Also, I'm moving house on Thursday, and everything is going well other than the fact that the automatic packing spell they use in Harry Potter doesn't seem to be working for me! So I'm having to do it manually, and it's VERY tiring. But it'll soon be over. Worse than that is the fact that there isn't currently a phone line in the new flat, and the earliest BT can install one is 8th April. 8th April! Which means more than two weeks with no internet and no Sky. Eek. Luckily there are public internet places these days, and the pub next door does at least show live football, and it's not as if I'll have nothing else to do, so at least the time should pass quickly.
Other news... let's see. Still lots about Japan, obviously. The one I found most interesting was a post I saw just after I posted my last entry and added belatedly, so if you read as soon as I posted you may have missed it: about Japan's functioning in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. In the same vein, here's another article that advises people NOT to donate money to Japan, and the Disasters Emergency Committee says the same thing. Food for thought.
And more pictures, of course. The BBC News site has a good set of "before and after" pictures. There are also two new sets from The Big Picture: some from last Monday and some from Tuesday.
(On Wednesday, by the way, the Big Picture took a break from Japan and printed some fabulous photos commemorating Discovery's last flight.)
I missed most of Comic Relief on Friday due to being asleep, but I wasn't too upset. However, I would have liked to have seen the mass kazoo performance, so I must watch it online at some point. (It's on Listen Again for five more days.) I do know that they broke the world record, but only just!
You'll have seen the news about the Manchester International Festival lineup, no doubt. I'm a bit sad that there's no chorus in Die Walküre, so we won't be in it directly, but it's still exciting to be peripherally involved! The thing I'd most want to see, though, is the Damon Albarn thing. It looks intriguing, and the Monkey opera was one of the best live shows I've EVER seen. And the fact that Damon's actually in this one is a bonus!
And finally, I wanted to tell you about something I actually saw over a month ago, but forgot to mention here until I was reminded of it the other day while I was in the Molly House watching the BBC News channel with the sound off. It's a clip from See Hear, the BBC's programme for deaf (and Deaf) viewers. I've recorded this ever since I worked at RNID, and some weeks it's more interesting (to me, anyway) than others. But I thought this clip was absolutely fascinating. It's about how they do subtitling for live news reports etc. I think most choral singers will find it as fascinating as I did (may seem odd to say that, but you'll see what I mean!) I had no idea that this is how they do it, and I'm astounded at what's actually involved. Do watch it. The full programme is half an hour, but the bit I want to show you starts at 8:38 and lasts about 10 minutes.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Kimigayo
We're almost at the end of our Sea Drift immersion - the concert is in a few days. I'm looking forward to it, and on the whole I think we know it very well. We ended this week's rehearsal like last week's, by mixing ourselves up so that no-one was next to someone else singing the same part. I suspect there are a few people who don't like it when that happens, but I love it, as do most of my choir friends. Last week I was surrounded by basses and sopranos but couldn't hear any tenors, so it was nice that this week I had tenors on both sides and behind me, with sopranos interspersed. It was lovely. (And I'm glad to report that none of the sopranos near me sang a C in that bar I whinged about last week, although there were still quite a few sops who did! Hopefully they'll fix it before the piano rehearsal. But they all sang beautifully in tune this week, which is more important.)
Most of the other news this week is Japan-related. I texted Sakura (our Japanese 2nd sop) and she says her family is safe, which is good news. (One of my friends has a brother who lives in Japan - but at the other end of the country, I think - and he didn't realise anything had happened until almost 24 hours later!)
You'll no doubt be aware that the BBC Philharmonic were on tour in Japan when the earthquake happened. (That links to the MEN article, which allows comments - I have to admit that the comments flabbergasted me in their ignorance!) They've cancelled the rest of the tour now and are coming home, but their website had already reassured everyone quite quickly that they were all safe, and before then they'd kept in touch via Twitter (which, as usual, was where I'd actually found out about the earthquake in the first place). It was also via the BBC Phil Twitter feed that I learned that Daniel Harding was there too, and he went ahead with his concert on Friday, albeit with a vastly reduced audience, but one of them had walked 4 hours across Tokyo to get there!
As usual, the Big Picture has the best photos: some from Friday itself and some from the aftermath in the next day or two. BoingBoing also has some good photos, although some of them are duplicates of the Big Picture ones. And this Time Out Tokyo blog post, written by staff who were in their office during the earthquake, is fascinating. Be sure to watch the included video of Japanese earthquake-proof skyscrapers behaving as they were designed to - i.e. swaying quite a lot!
EDIT: Just saw this: a great blog post about Japan's functioning in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Do read this, it's fascinating. And would never have happened in the UK, I suspect!
A few non-Japan-related links: an interesting Observer article about female composers, which mentions our new composer in residence.
An Observer interview with Antonio Pappano, mainly about Italian music in general, but I was most interested in the stuff about Va pensiero - I could probably sing the whole of that from memory, but I didn't know most of its history.
From BoingBoing, news of two scientists who claim to have found a man who's 'beat-deaf' - i.e. he is is unable to move in time to music.
A great Guardian article in which Graham Johnson (the accompanist) describes his love of Schubert's lieder and how he got to know them.
And finally, this is both very relaxing and very difficult to do: Do nothing for 2 minutes.
Most of the other news this week is Japan-related. I texted Sakura (our Japanese 2nd sop) and she says her family is safe, which is good news. (One of my friends has a brother who lives in Japan - but at the other end of the country, I think - and he didn't realise anything had happened until almost 24 hours later!)
You'll no doubt be aware that the BBC Philharmonic were on tour in Japan when the earthquake happened. (That links to the MEN article, which allows comments - I have to admit that the comments flabbergasted me in their ignorance!) They've cancelled the rest of the tour now and are coming home, but their website had already reassured everyone quite quickly that they were all safe, and before then they'd kept in touch via Twitter (which, as usual, was where I'd actually found out about the earthquake in the first place). It was also via the BBC Phil Twitter feed that I learned that Daniel Harding was there too, and he went ahead with his concert on Friday, albeit with a vastly reduced audience, but one of them had walked 4 hours across Tokyo to get there!
As usual, the Big Picture has the best photos: some from Friday itself and some from the aftermath in the next day or two. BoingBoing also has some good photos, although some of them are duplicates of the Big Picture ones. And this Time Out Tokyo blog post, written by staff who were in their office during the earthquake, is fascinating. Be sure to watch the included video of Japanese earthquake-proof skyscrapers behaving as they were designed to - i.e. swaying quite a lot!
EDIT: Just saw this: a great blog post about Japan's functioning in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Do read this, it's fascinating. And would never have happened in the UK, I suspect!
A few non-Japan-related links: an interesting Observer article about female composers, which mentions our new composer in residence.
An Observer interview with Antonio Pappano, mainly about Italian music in general, but I was most interested in the stuff about Va pensiero - I could probably sing the whole of that from memory, but I didn't know most of its history.
From BoingBoing, news of two scientists who claim to have found a man who's 'beat-deaf' - i.e. he is is unable to move in time to music.
A great Guardian article in which Graham Johnson (the accompanist) describes his love of Schubert's lieder and how he got to know them.
And finally, this is both very relaxing and very difficult to do: Do nothing for 2 minutes.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Blow to me
A day or two before last week's rehearsal, I finally got round to practising the bit of Sea Drift that I knew I'd never once got right (i.e. the bottom of page 16). So I was quite frustrated when that section was the only bit we didn't do last week. And as a result, I was really hoping we'd start with it this week, as I'd had to practise it again just to ensure it had stuck. But then it occurred to me that there was one downside to rehearsing page 16... which was that we were quite likely to go on to page seventeen, and that page had filled me with increasing rage every time we'd done it. The last entry on that page involves the sopranos coming in on a B flat, and EVERY SINGLE WEEK, for over two months, most of them have come in on a C. I have no idea why this has gone on for so long without them sorting themselves out. I commented to Alison in the car that I felt as if I was this close to just standing up and shouting at them if they did it again. But then we started to wonder what would actually happen if someone actually did that in a rehearsal. We decided that most likely there'd be a brief shocked silence, and then possibly some scattered applause from others who'd been dying to do the same thing. But we weren't sure what would happen next, other than extreme embarrassment :-)
Anyway, of course we did start with page 16. There were widely varying renditions of the alto notes on the bottom line, but after a bit of work the first bar was sorted. I'd found, when I practised it, that the second bar is actually much harder than the first, but it's much harder to hear if that one goes wrong, so maybe everyone was getting it right and it was just me that found it hard. (It's the F sharp. A very unreasonable note to have to sing at that point.) But before we got to the notebashing, we'd read on through page 17, and - sure enough - most of the sops sang a C. Alison turned and grinned at me, but I was very restrained and didn't shout out! (I'd been sitting at the front for the last few rehearsals, having been one of the first to arrive and therefore needing to stake the claim of the 2nds to a few seats on the front row, but when I arrived this week, the 2nd alto seats were occupied by a soprano, a tenor and a bass, sitting there chatting for no apparent reason... so I sat at the back.)
Other than that note, though, the singing was much better this week. We did the a cappella bit, and the 1st sopranos actually managed to stay in tune throughout it for the first time, which made everyone feel extremely optimistic. And even better, we finished the rehearsal with a runthrough of the whole thing, with all the voice parts jumbled up, and they stayed in tune again. (They are all fabulous singers, but they do seem to go flat on every single phrase unless they're reminded not to.) It was a really satisfying end to the rehearsal, and I'm looking forward to the concert (which is next week).
My house sale still isn't sorted, but it's progressing (as is my packing, but that's a bit slower), and the bank seem to have halted the repossession process - although they never actually replied to my letter formally asking them to, which I sent as soon as I had written proof of the sale agreement! Very rude of them, don't you think? I still don't have a moving date, but I expect it to be in the next week or two.
A few links for you. If you use the IMSLP as often as I do, you'll be interested in this New York Times article about it. (I couldn't have done my Secret Spem thing without IMSLP - all the scores came from IMSLP, legally and free of charge.)
Tom Service is unimpressed (as most of us are) at audience members who shout out immediately the piece has ended. And in an unrelated (hopefully!) post, he wonders about the music for the Royal Wedding.
Charlotte Higgins, also in the Guardian, wondered what it would take to create a British orchestra of the stature of the Berlin Philharmonic. She got quite a few replies.
Stephen Hough has another practice tip: this time, how to improve your rhythms.
I last saw my friend Anna Crookes (née Markland) in September, when we were both at a book launch. She'd come straight from a recording session, which she'd thoroughly enjoyed, but she said she'd had to sign a confidentiality agreement and couldn't tell me what she'd been recording, until it was released in March. Well, from what she did say, I think it was this: Striggio's 40-part Mass. (She mentioned that she'd been standing next to the sackbuts, which narrowed it down a bit!) There are reviews in both the Observer and the Guardian.
Here's an exciting idea: three of Manchester's greatest arts institutions are joining forces to put on a musical!
This seems not to have caught the headlines, but Phil Collins has just retired. Turns out his hands are no longer strong enough to play the drums, and that even before that, he had to tape the sticks to his hands! The article doesn't mention why he can no longer sing, though (which I thought he'd done far more than play the drums, in the second half of his career at least). Maybe he just doesn't want to.
I've never heard of this band, but it's always fascinating to hear someone else's reaction to a place you know very well - in this case, BBC Studio 7.
And finally, I already have 7th July in my diary (world premiere of the final Harry Potter film - it's in cinemas on 15th July) but I was thrilled to see we're getting a studio tour opening next year! One day I'll make it to Florida to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which I'm told is AMAZING), but I'll have to be a lot richer than I am now before trips abroad are an option :-)
Anyway, of course we did start with page 16. There were widely varying renditions of the alto notes on the bottom line, but after a bit of work the first bar was sorted. I'd found, when I practised it, that the second bar is actually much harder than the first, but it's much harder to hear if that one goes wrong, so maybe everyone was getting it right and it was just me that found it hard. (It's the F sharp. A very unreasonable note to have to sing at that point.) But before we got to the notebashing, we'd read on through page 17, and - sure enough - most of the sops sang a C. Alison turned and grinned at me, but I was very restrained and didn't shout out! (I'd been sitting at the front for the last few rehearsals, having been one of the first to arrive and therefore needing to stake the claim of the 2nds to a few seats on the front row, but when I arrived this week, the 2nd alto seats were occupied by a soprano, a tenor and a bass, sitting there chatting for no apparent reason... so I sat at the back.)
Other than that note, though, the singing was much better this week. We did the a cappella bit, and the 1st sopranos actually managed to stay in tune throughout it for the first time, which made everyone feel extremely optimistic. And even better, we finished the rehearsal with a runthrough of the whole thing, with all the voice parts jumbled up, and they stayed in tune again. (They are all fabulous singers, but they do seem to go flat on every single phrase unless they're reminded not to.) It was a really satisfying end to the rehearsal, and I'm looking forward to the concert (which is next week).
My house sale still isn't sorted, but it's progressing (as is my packing, but that's a bit slower), and the bank seem to have halted the repossession process - although they never actually replied to my letter formally asking them to, which I sent as soon as I had written proof of the sale agreement! Very rude of them, don't you think? I still don't have a moving date, but I expect it to be in the next week or two.
A few links for you. If you use the IMSLP as often as I do, you'll be interested in this New York Times article about it. (I couldn't have done my Secret Spem thing without IMSLP - all the scores came from IMSLP, legally and free of charge.)
Tom Service is unimpressed (as most of us are) at audience members who shout out immediately the piece has ended. And in an unrelated (hopefully!) post, he wonders about the music for the Royal Wedding.
Charlotte Higgins, also in the Guardian, wondered what it would take to create a British orchestra of the stature of the Berlin Philharmonic. She got quite a few replies.
Stephen Hough has another practice tip: this time, how to improve your rhythms.
I last saw my friend Anna Crookes (née Markland) in September, when we were both at a book launch. She'd come straight from a recording session, which she'd thoroughly enjoyed, but she said she'd had to sign a confidentiality agreement and couldn't tell me what she'd been recording, until it was released in March. Well, from what she did say, I think it was this: Striggio's 40-part Mass. (She mentioned that she'd been standing next to the sackbuts, which narrowed it down a bit!) There are reviews in both the Observer and the Guardian.
Here's an exciting idea: three of Manchester's greatest arts institutions are joining forces to put on a musical!
This seems not to have caught the headlines, but Phil Collins has just retired. Turns out his hands are no longer strong enough to play the drums, and that even before that, he had to tape the sticks to his hands! The article doesn't mention why he can no longer sing, though (which I thought he'd done far more than play the drums, in the second half of his career at least). Maybe he just doesn't want to.
I've never heard of this band, but it's always fascinating to hear someone else's reaction to a place you know very well - in this case, BBC Studio 7.
And finally, I already have 7th July in my diary (world premiere of the final Harry Potter film - it's in cinemas on 15th July) but I was thrilled to see we're getting a studio tour opening next year! One day I'll make it to Florida to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which I'm told is AMAZING), but I'll have to be a lot richer than I am now before trips abroad are an option :-)
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