Chelsea Festival Concert

Despite a variety of alarums and excursions, we had a most successful concert at the Chelsea Festival last night, with a most enthusiastic audience. My Nunc Dimittis (which we first performed in 2004) was probably the biggest hit, but a number of people were complimentary about the new Tagore settings, Crossing, some said it was very moving. This was doubly gratifying as the piece had been tricky in rehearsal as the communication between organ and choir in St. Mary's leaves a lot to be desired. Our 3 soloists sang the Byrd 3-part Ave Maris Stella, which the 5 of us in the FifteenB Consort had sung last year. It was fascinating, and lovely, hearing it sung again by professionals.

Rowena and I sang one of Gavin Bryars's Laudas; it went pretty well I think, but I need to listen to the recording to see how we did. The 5 of us also repeated my Salve Regina a 5, it will be nice to have a recording of this. The other Salve Regina, adapted from the Sanctus of my first mass was, for me, a great success.

We did a Palestrina Salve Regina for 4 male voices (though I suspect it is adapted from a piece for female voices). It seems very striking, though there are possible errors in the edition. Still, it was rather fun to have a men only piece to complement the women's pieces by Faure and Saint-Saens.

When the recording arrives I hope to post some of successful items on audioblog, they'll be on this blog in a week or so.