News, Reviews and Plans

Well, despite the heat we managed to perform creditably at the London Concord Singers' concert last night. The venue, St. Michael's Church, Chester Square, London, was new to us; it is a substantial cruciform Victorian church and the audience were very complimentary about the sound the choir made. But from the singers' point of view, it was tricky getting used to a new acoustic; everything sounded different and the internal balance of the choir was other than that we were used to at our regular venues like St. Cyprian's Church. Still, the concert was well received and as a recording was made, we should be able to hear the awful truth.

My motet, Respice Domine (from Tempus per Annum) was given a good first performance and was well received by both choir and audience. This is the 5th motet Tempus per Annum from to be premiered this year.

The review of the other premieres (at my birthday concert on 1st July) is now in The Church Times, Roderic Dunnett has written a very generous review and seemed to like the choir very much. The review is on the web, here but this link will only be valid for a week, until 21st July. There is a 2nd review on Classical Source

Further ahead, we are planning an orchestral concert with The Salomon Orchestra. The concert is planned for 23rd March 2006 at St. James's Church, Piccadilly, with the orchestra being conducted by Adrian Brown. The programme will include Elgar's Serenade, Haydn's Military Symphony plus my new pieces In the Barbarian's Camp and a setting, for baritone and orchestra, of Rilke's Second Duino Elegy, the one which starts Jeder Engel ist shreklich/Every Angel is terrifying. The barbarian piece is a corollary to my choral piece The Barbarian at the Gate which we premiered in 2002 at the Chelsea Festival with Philharmonia Brass. It set three rather serious poems by Helen Waddell, translations from Medieval Latin Lyrics, about how civilisation was being trampled on by barbarians. This piece is lighter as the poem it is based on is a satyrical one written by a Roman poet living with Attila the Hun, it tells how he can't write poetry amongst such galumphing, smelly but over friendly giants

Another plan, which is still a little in the air but looks promising is the idea to take Cranmer to Oxford next year, which would be very exciting indeed.