Prestississississimo

I told Paul Brennan, on Thursday night before Beethoven 9, that I was planning to finally update my blog on Friday, so I feel a bit guilty that it's now Monday morning and I'm only just getting round to it. But, better late than never!

Before I forget: it's Whit Friday this week (1st June), so in a minute I plan to repost my article about it (it's five years old so I've updated it slightly).

Did you all hear the news about our friend Petroc Trelawney, by the way? Hopefully it will all have been sorted out by the time you read this, but it's a bit alarming, especially with the extra details supplied by the Guardian.

Sorry to have been missing for a while. There's been all sorts of singing going on, though. We did The Apostles, which I enjoyed more than I'd expected to – I estimated that there was a total of about twenty minutes of it that I liked, by the time the performance came. It seems I was definitely in the minority, though – I kept overhearing choir members saying that they found it difficult to sing properly in a few places due to the overwhelming emotion that overcame them. I've had that experience in a few other pieces, but can't imagine having it in this one – still, it takes all sorts, doesn't it? Anyway, the reviews were really good: the Guardian and the Telegraph (both five stars!); Seen and Heard; Bachtrack; City Life (MEN); informal comments on the Radio 3 forum. Oh, and there was a feature about it in the MEN the day before the concert. (And, before I forget, another interview with our leader, this one from Seen and Heard a few months ago, but I hadn't seen it until recently, and it's very long and interesting.)

Did you watch Maestro at the Opera, by the way? I was pleased with the overall result - I thought Craig definitely deserved it - but I thought Marcus should have gone out before Josie. He was much too full of himself! I also really enjoyed the BBC Young Musician, although I was forced to record it all rather than watching it live, so that I could fast-forward through the ridiculously large proportion of each programme that wasn't the actual performances. Which would have been fine if they'd actually showed the whole of each performance, but they didn't! Who on earth decided that we'd rather see interviews with the parents than the ACTUAL PLAYING?!? Argh. But then I despair of any rational decisions in such things. As Norman Lebrecht pointed out, not one UK newspaper reported the result the next day. But they could possibly be forgiven for thinking it was a minor contest, when the winner only got £2000, yet the winner of Britain's Got Talent – a DANCING DOG, I am led to believe – got £500,000. *boggle*

Also, I liked the recorder player best. The cellist bored me. Sorry!

Anyway, then there was Beethoven 9 on Thursday, as previously mentioned, and I enjoyed that a lot more than The Apostles. (I don't think it was as good a performance, I hasten to add – I just like the piece a lot more!) It was the fastest Beethoven 9 I think I've ever done – especially the end bit – but I think we pulled it off. Here are reviews from the Guardian and Bachtrack – there may be more soon (some of the Apostles reviews took more than a week to appear!)

A couple of weeks before The Apostles, Amy got married, and several of us sang at her wedding. The videos have been on Facebook for a while, I believe, but if you (like me) choose not to use Facebook, here's a sample: The Frog Song. (We'd actually planned to record this in Albert Square beforehand, but had to go to Plan B due to the extremely loud generators being used by the damp squib of a St George's Day Festival.)

The next singing event is very soon, although it only involves a few of the choir (I'm disappointed at how few, actually, given that they asked everyone: what they actually got was one soprano, six altos, one tenor and no basses). It's Manchester Lines for the Library Theatre, which will be running at One First Street from 12th June to 7th July. We've memorised our song – it hardly took any memorising, actually, because it's very catchy. It's been stuck in my head for weeks. Not sure yet which nights we'll be performing, but it'll probably only be two or three shows a week – they plan to have a rotation system. I'm looking forward to it – do come and watch if you can!

After that it's the Tatton Park fireworks gig, of course, and then it's The Apostles again, this time at the Proms – the prospect does not fill me with joy, but at least a trip to London is always fun.

Speaking of the Proms, which we can now (at last! It seems like it was years that we had to keep our involvement a secret!), of course all the details are now public. I can't say there are any this year that made me go "oooh!" when I saw them, but maybe someone will surprise me. Roger Wright was correct in his prediction that all the headlines would be for the Wallace and Gromit Prom, but sadly Wallace and Gromit leave me totally unmoved. (Yes, yes, I know I'm a heathen! I suspect that people who like the Apostles also probably like Wallace and Gromit, but I like other things.) The Guardian has Mark Brown and Andrew Clements picking their highlights; the Telegraph lets Ivan Hewitt summarise them and pick his highlights. The best summary, though, comes as usual from Classical Iconoclast: part 1, part 2.

Non-Proms-related, but still with the BBC: did you hear this Radio 4 programme a few weeks ago, in which Christopher Maltman talks to lots of singers about the possible problems created by classical singers trying to sing folk songs? Fascinating, and still available on iPlayer via that link.

Via Classical Iconoclast, a very sensible post from Croce e Delizia al Cor regarding the attitude of some spectators to singers who cancel gigs.

And here's a great post from Stephen Fry in response to the death of Dietrich Fischer Dieskau (or, as he calls him, Dirty Fisher Dishcloth).

From A Cappella News: I never knew about this before, and it sounds amazing! It seems that Magdalen Choir in Oxford always sings in the month of May from the top of Magdalen Tower. I'd love to see that, one year!

Also via A Cappella News, there are people in Canada who are trying to change the law so that schoolkids actually sing their national anthem every morning rather than just listening to it. (Can you imagine if we did that here? I had to teach the British national anthem to my school choir last year, and was quite shocked that only two of them admitted to having heard it before!)

I thought I'd posted this before, but I can't find it if so: an old but good post by Peter Phillips regarding the issue of female altos in cathedral choirs. (Thanks to Caroline for reminding me of it.)

Here's a fun Telegraph article about the Parliamentary Choir. I love the idea of them dashing off to vote in the middle of rehearsals!

Interesting news on the choral director front (not ours, I hasten to add): Simon Halsey is leaving CBSO.

I love this story: at the trial of that Norwegian madman recently, there were singalong protests all over the country, including one in which 40,000 people gathered outside the court to sing a song he hated.

A fascinating New York Times article about the actual physical techniques used by conductors.

Also from the New York Times, news that standing ovations are so frequent on Broadway that staying seated is now the best way to show extreme approval!

From the Guardian, an explanation of what order the birds join in the dawn chorus.

Here's a blog post from Stephen Hough about Rachmaninov's piano concertos. I was particularly fascinated by the story behind the second concerto, which is not the version I'd always believed!

Tom Services attempts to debunk five myths about contemporary classical music (and isn't that a silly phrase, by the way? It makes no sense!)

This is much more fascinating than it may sound: a very in-depth article about the Texas accent.

Another TED talk I've recently enjoyed: Pamelia Kurstin plays the theremin. Amazing.

And, finally, a few non-musical links. Here's a BBC News piece about the extensive testing done on the Olympic torches to ensure they don't go out if it rains. (Speaking of which, the torch passes through Manchester on 22nd and 23rd June, if you were wondering.)

A Telegraph article about something that drives me up the wall – the insistence of so many people on using "myself' and "yourself" instead of "me" and "you". ARGH.

I love this: icons that no longer make any sense, but we still use them anyway.

This is a bit technical, but very interesting nonetheless. It explains how Google searches actually work these days. (I say 'these days' because their methods have changed considerably over the past few years.)

And, last but not least, don't be put off by the URL of this article (or the title of its page) – it has nothing to do with sex. But it does have some very detailed advice for those of you who are keen to remain totally anonymous online. (Short version: it's much harder than you think!)