It was lovely to see you all again, especially following our success on Saturday at the Music Festival. I think I’m only just beginning to come down off the high of the day! Well done to our second candidate, and to you all – safe to say you made both of our candidates feel incredibly welcome and comfortable during their auditions, welcoming them with warm smiles and responsive singing.
We’ll hopefully have a decision by this coming Wednesday, along with some other news, so stay tuned!
What we did on 09.03.22
What a good way to start the rehearsal, by refreshing the Sanctus. This easy movement was remembered well, and it got us nicely into the Puccini mood. We then did some excellent work on the Credo, pages 60-67, before consolidating the opening of the Gloria and working on the Fugue in the Gloria. At the end there was some brilliant singing in the fugue, and I’m so pleased with how we left it at the end of the rehearsal.
What we will do on 16.03.22
We’ll be catching back up with the Verdi for a lot of the rehearsal, as well as running the Credo and the end of the Gloria. Lots to get done, but we’re in the final push now!
19:30-20:00 – We’ll warm up with the Agnus Dei from the Messa – let’s refresh our memories on this.
20:00-20:25 – Credo – starting with a run of the movement, followed by bits of work on the sections we’re not quite as comfortable with.
20:35-21:00 – We’ll run the Gloria from page 33 to the end, ie the fugue that we worked on last week.
21:00-21:30 – Finally we’ll finish with the Verdi bars 89-158.
Long evening, I know, but it’s so exciting to be doing such great detailed work on all of this now.
Piece of the Week
I was listening to the morning programme on BBC Radio 3 on Tuesday morning and, being International Women’s Day, they were playing music exclusively by female composers. There was one piece that really stuck out to me, due to its beauty and incredible harmonies; a piece by Ukrainian composer Galina Grigorjeva called In Paradisum. I just found listening to the piece profoundly moving, almost welling up as I sat in my car about to teach. One doesn’t need to believe in God, but the text was striking, especially when listened to in the current crisis, as set by a Ukrainian composer:
“May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.”
Do please have a listen to this absolutely gorgeous piece HERE.
Marked Scores
As always, the marked scores are here. If you haven’t yet put the markings in, I’d greatly appreciate it if you would.
Spotify Link
And the Spotify playlist is HERE.
Have a lovely weekend.
– Ben