Fish? Gesundheit!

I went to see Wonderful Town last night with my mum, and had such a good time. (I suspect I'm not the only member of the choir who got tickets as a direct result of last week's rehearsal!) The orchestra was the main thing that put the show in a different league to most shows, of course, but the cast and choreography were excellent too. I realised that actually, in a way, I probably didn't get the full impact of how good this production is, because I hear our orchestra so often that hearing them playing in a theatre pit just sounds normal, especially as I so rarely go to the theatre (it's several years since I was last in one). I had to keep reminding myself that theatre pit orchestras usually do not sound as good as that. (The sound of the strings, in particular, was a dead giveaway - pit bands often only have one violin. Last night there were 22, plus violas and cellos and double basses. The orchestra, in fact, had 67 players in the pit.) And it was lovely to see our fearless leader down there conducting. He even got a line in the script! (Something like "Sure! Let's get hip!" *giggle*)

I was surprised that there haven't been any reviews so far, but I found out today that the first three shows were actually officially previews, and the proper opening night (to which the press are invited) is tonight. So hopefully there'll be lots about the show in every paper tomorrow. It deserves it - it's really, really good. My mum and I both left the theatre with huge grins on our faces, having laughed out loud several times. She was particularly taken with the bit on the tram near the start. I think my favourite bit was the Irish policemen singing in lovely close harmony, but close runners-up would be the same guys being drunken Brazilian sailors doing the conga, or the rhythmic bit in the newspaper office, or the slow-motion bit in the football song. Or the Ohio duet near the start. Or… well, all of it, actually! I do hope they produce a DVD of it :-)

Most of my singing-related stuff since I last posted has been to do with my school choir. We had a stressful March, which featured two competitions two weeks apart, with a concert the night before the second one. They sang pretty well in the first competition, but unfortunately the adjudicator was unreasonably nasty to them, which meant they totally lost their confidence before the concert and the second competition. I managed to cheer them up enough that they were great in the concert, and that made them much more comfortable for the second competition. Not a pleasant couple of weeks, but they're over now - phew!

A bit of singing I did a while back, but it's only just been released: the Virtual Choir 3 video. I tried to persuade lots of choir friends to do this, but as far as I know the only one who did (apart from me) was Alison. I can't see either of us on the video, but we're both on the credits so we're definitely in the video somewhere! And it's much easier to see individual people than it was on the Virtual Choir 2 video. (If you really want to see everyone, there's a giant composite photo, and I'm definitely on that. I'm right near the start, row 2 column 10, and Alison (presumably because she recorded her video much later than I did) is row 26 column 6.)

Ooh, and another choral video for you... Josh Stutter's Spaghetti Mass in F minor. You will recognise many (if not all) of the people in this. And it's hilarious! I knew of the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but had forgotten everything else about it until the day we recorded this. (And, damn you, Josh - I've now got the Spaghetti in the Saucepan tune stuck in my head again!)

And I've just realised I haven't posted since our Holst concert (which was amazing - I haven't enjoyed being in a concert as much as that in years), so here are a couple of reviews: Telegraph and (in much more detail) Bachtrack.

Actually, although I did love the Holst concert, my favourite musical moment of the year so far was provided by my beloved McFly boys. They were in Manchester on 10th March (they're doing an extra date here at the end of the tour on 21st April, and I'd love to go again but Amy is getting married that day!) and were as stunning as usual. But my favourite bit was when they did an acoustic rendition of No Worries, singing in three-part harmony round a single mic. It's not a high-quality video - it's just one that someone recorded on their phone and put on YouTube - but you'll understand why I loved this performance, I think. Not just the vocal harmonies - I'm a sucker for them - but also the communication between them, especially when they do a dramatic speed increase and the drums join in. I could watch them do this stuff all day!

Sadly, not all musicians get to show what they can do live. It seems that for a while all the music in the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies was to be pre-recorded, but they've had a rethink and at least some of it will be live.

Maybe they don't want something like this to happen: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's performance of Brahms 2 featured a fist fight in the audience. My favourite line is this: The concert never stopped, but Muti shot a glance over his left shoulder toward the box where the punches were thrown. One concert-goer described the look as “dagger eyes”. Hee!

I was very amused by this Telegraph article about Katherine Jenkins, with which I totally agree, although when I said so on Twitter I was called "elitist" and "snobbish" by a couple of people. Maybe I am... but I still agree with the writer, sorry :-)

I know that most of you already know about Maestro at the Opera, but here's a more detailed press release about it. It'll be on TV on three consecutive Friday nights, we've been told: 20th April, 27th April, 4th May.

The always-excellent Tom Service wrote an interesting article about accompanists. (I've done a lot of accompanying this year. Mostly fun, but I hope I won't have to play the Horovitz Euphonium Concerto again any time soon!)

Every so often there seems to be a news story about earworms (i.e. songs that stick in your head), but this one is more thoughtful than most. (Current things stuck in my head, since you ask: Ohio (the duet from Wonderful Town) and Plastic Sunlight (a song you won't know - it was written by a girl in my school choir and I love it!))

This is fascinating: via BoingBoing, a list of Nazi rules for jazz performers. For example: "so-called jazz compositions may contain at most 10% syncopation; the remainder must consist of a natural legato movement devoid of the hysterical rhythmic reverses characteristic of the barbarian races and conductive to dark instincts alien to the German people (so-called riffs)". *boggle*

Speaking of jazz, did you know that the word originated in baseball? Me neither!

You may have seen the recent BBC programme in which an EastEnders actress (I forget her name, I don't watch it) was investigating the options for her daughter, who is losing her hearing. Since working for RNID a few years ago I've been fascinated by many aspects of deafness, but this was the first time I'd heard what a piece of classical music would sound like to someone with a cochlear implant. I had no idea it was that bad. Anyway, a recent TED talk explores this issue, and gives further examples. I was interested to note that a piece of rap music (at least, the one they played) sounds quite a lot closer to how it's supposed to sound than the classical pieces did.

From the "why do composers write things that need these forces?!?" department: Stockhausen wrote an opera that requires, amongst other things, a string quartet to play live from four separate helicopters. Unsurprisingly it's never actually been performed (!) but this summer it will be, and in the UK to boot.

Another piece that's probably rarely performed, but is probably a bit more tuneful than Stockhausen (on the grounds that most things are!): a piece for 12 solo violas. It'll be on the radio soon - must listen out for it.

Here's an interesting BBC news article about Theremin (the man and the instrument).

Stephen Hough's latest piano practice tip: sometimes you have to use your knees!

For reasons I won't go into, recently I needed to come up with songs that have seven beats to the bar. Needless to say, Wikipedia came to my rescue; even more intriguing, though, is this list, which I found en route, of "musical works in unusual time signatures". And to think we were all bemused by the 3/1 at the end of VW's Fantasia on Christmas Carols! This list is much weirder.

You'll no doubt be aware of Radio 3's recent Schubert marathon. As part of that, the BBC Music Magazine team tried to decide on their favourite Schubert works. What's yours? I decided that mine is probably the Arpeggione Sonata, although Du bist die Ruh and Ständchen are close runners-up.

Manchester United are considering having a singing section. This won't interest most of you, but I'm intrigued by the claim that the south-east quadrant (where the away fans currently sit) "offers the best acoustics within Old Trafford due to its location and the proximity of the East/South Stand quadrant roof." I've been to Old Trafford many times and can't see any reason why that quadrant would be better than any other - is it just me?

I haven't been to Jamie Oliver's new restaurant yet (although I'd love to, because it's getting great reviews), but I was intrigued to see that he has "music bread" on the menu. I had no idea what that was, so I looked it up, and found that it's this, and is also known as carta di musica.

This amused me: the New York Times explaining London to Americans in time for the Olympics.

Also London-related: via Londonist, where the main roads actually lead to. And, via the Guardian, did you know that there are now surprisingly popular coach tours of the M25?

From Today I Learned: in France, it seems that pink toilet paper is more popular than any other colour. I did not know this.

And, finally, three things that made me giggle: what happens when you finally reply to all your email; if dogs could text; and the blonde meaning of 'mph'.