What's happened to the passion in my top part?

I'm not sure where the time's gone in the past couple of weeks - I haven't done anything other than sing, but there hasn't been THAT much singing. What there was was great, though! Most recently, I had a rehearsal with my band at which there was NO-ONE MISSING, which is extremely rare (usually something always happens at the last minute that means someone has to cancel). I was absolutely delighted about this, because it meant that we could finally rehearse a couple of six-part arrangements which I wrote almost three years ago. (Before this week, we'd tried them ONCE, and that was over a year ago, and on that occasion we didn't have time to do more than read through them. That's how rare it is for everyone to attend!) I've been grinning about this ever since - it's the best thing that's happened in my life this year so far.

And yes, that's a year that's included Mahler 8! The concert was last Sunday, and it was very wonderful - as was the open rehearsal the previous day (for which the hall was almost sold out!), although I was disappointed that the Saturday audience didn't get to hear the end. I was hoping they might, because it seemed likely that the bits with offstage brass (i.e. the end of each half) would be rehearsed together, so that they wouldn't have to pay the brass for two sessions. But I was wrong about that.

I could rave about all the many wonderful things in the performance, but it's easier just to say "all of it" and show you some reviews. (I'm quite surprised that all the reviews aren't five stars, but there you go.)

Times
Independent
Telegraph
MEN
Guardian
Chris Swithinbank
AudioWorks (scroll down the page)

EDIT: Three more reviews in the Sunday papers, which I saw just after I finished this post:

Observer
Sunday Times
Independent on Sunday

Also, James Ridgway (a singer from the CBSO Chorus) has put some fabulous photos online. (Do click to get the full-size versions - it's well worth it.)

(By the way, I thought our orchestra's website was broken all weekend, till I realised they'd redone the page hierarchy and therefore broken all the links. If you have any pages from the site bookmarked, you will need to renavigate via the front page.)

Talking of reviews, the Berlin Philharmonic did a morning concert in Oxford last weekend, and the reviews are amazing. Tom Service explains the circumstances (I knew nothing about this - sounds like a lovely tradition); Classical Iconoclast has a detailed review, and the Guardian has a slightly less detailed one (but still gives it five stars). Tom Service has a review of his own: An earthquake in C major. (Isn't that a GREAT headline?) And you can see the concert at the Berlin Phil's website here, although it's not free.

Via Classical Iconoclast, a fascinating Times article about the role of agents in classical music, which includes a list of which stars are with which agents.

Intermezzo has been keeping up with Proms news, and reported on Tuesday (when booking opened, in case you didn't know) which Proms sold out on the first day.

Also from Intermezzo: dates for the BBC's forthcoming opera season.

And you remember I told you about Scottish Opera's operas for babies? Well, the Times has a report - their baby loved it.

Stephen Hough has two more practice tips: make full use of your metronome and don't feel as if you have to include emotion while practising.

Londonist reports that Eurostar has appointed Jarvis Cocker as their cultural ambassador. The really interesting part is news of the partnerships between Eurostar and various artistic institutions.

Blake Morrison writes about the amazing cost of quoting song lyrics when writing books.

The Guardian has a fascinating article about the actual songs that songbirds sing, and the changing nature of the dawn chorus.

From the Globe and Mail, yet another article about the relationship between singing and health, but this is a good one.

An intriguing article from the BBC News website about commissioning music for election night TV coverage.

I've seen quite a few reviews for a recent concert by Rolando Villazon - they're variable, but they all seem to agree that his voice has problems. The Times is probably the most scathing.

You know how Google likes to brighten our days with occasional special logos? Tom Service noticed that early on Friday they had a 10 Downing Street logo, but they replaced it with this lovely one for Tchaikovsky's birthday.

Hebden Bridge is celebrating the 500th birthday of its packhorse bridge. (They've even got a special font, which you can download from the site.) As part of this, they're trying to get 500 singers on the bridge on Sunday 4th July. Contact them if you want to be involved.

The Manchester Day celebrations (on 20th June) look as if they're going to be spectacular. Which is great, but I've yet to find anyone who previously knew that there was any such thing as Manchester Day... do you think they just INVENTED it?

Via Free Range Kids, it seems that a nursery in Wigan confiscated a cheese sandwich from a two-year-old on the grounds that it had neither lettuce nor tomato in it and therefore breached council guidelines. And the council BACKED THEM UP. *boggle* Even though my reaction to cheese sandwiches (with or without extras) will always be "eww, cheese!" this seems a bit excessive!

I know I probably bore people with why I avoid Facebook, but I want to be sure that you know about the implications of their most recent changes. Here's an article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation about the Connections feature.

I'm intrigued by this: in Japan, blood type is an everyday topic of conversation and is believed to influence personality traits.

I'm sure you're all well aware of Snopes as a reference site for checking the validity of urban legends and forwarded email horror stories, but this is something it never occurred to me to check: the derivation of the word "posh". I was told when very young that it was from "port out, starboard home", and it's never occurred to me to question this... yet when I read the points made by Snopes, I realise that I actually knew most of them but hadn't connected them to the derivation of the word.

And finally... never mind "Komm!", my current favourite German word is Triple-Trottel-Fluch. It means something like "triple idiot curse", but in current German football terminology it refers to Bayern Munich, and means something along the lines of "they're up for a treble, but there's a good chance they won't actually win anything at all". But I don't really care what it means - I just love the words :-)