Weddington Abbey
My bank holiday was a simple equation. Wedding in Oxford, Edington Festival (in Wiltshire) and evensong at Westminster Abbey = £££ in petrol, countless ales and vocal hooliganism aplenty.
Patrick and Anna
I had the honour of conducting the choir for my long-standing friend and former bass compadre, Paddy Ashcroft. The choir was comprised entirely of his friends but being a not very popular chap this meant it was only 8 people :-p
A great bunch of singers, and we made a good sound, but I confess to finding directing an octet less fulfilling than, say, 20 voices. It’s just a different beast; blend is harder, criticism requires ultra tact and the balance often favours the lower parts (really, with a few exceptions in my experience, you need 1.5-2 sops to each other voice).
The Oratory is an ornate building and we were blessed with both a good acoustic and good positioning, hidden as we were in the choir loft at the back of the church.
I had the daunting privilege of directing at the organ Christopher Gray — the new #1 at Truro Cathedral — whose tact, modesty and general amiability for one so precociously talented (he must now be the youngest Cathedral Organist in the country by some margin) is a rare thing, to be admired.
The high point of the singing was Brahms’ Geistliches Lied – not my favourite but we achieved a startling piano in the final section and built to (what felt like from where I was standing) an impassioned Amen.
In his speech, Paddy recited the exact line he said he would, but made us all laugh with an off the cuff bit:
“thank you to Tim Reader for drawing some spine tingling pianissimo moments from the choir. I told Tim I was going to use that line so he said he’d thrash the shit out them to show me up — I’m glad he didn’t!”
With the ceremony out the way, that’s me off duty and guzzling Pimms like it’s going out of fashion.
Oh, except for one thing. We’re singing Occuli Omnium as a Grace before dinner – and I’m conducting. Fookin hell!!I’ve never conducted quite so out of my head. I thought I was going to fall over, and I couldn’t see any of the notes on the page! Oh well – we got away with it and choir members were quick to point out “we couldn’t tell the difference“. The wags.
I took the time to talk to old friend Lucy Gaster who is currently choral advisor for BBC’s Last Choir Standing.
She, and much of the team, recognise the show’s shortcomings and the snobbery which it is received by the existing choral community. Nevertheless, like me, she feels the advantages of getting choral music to a primetime Sat night audience outweigh the unavoidable gawdy tackiness of it.
Edington Festival
So, with weddings out the way I whizzed down to Edington (near Trowbridge) to hear the tail end of the festival.
On Saturday evening – evensong of Ayleward responses, excellent psalm-singing by the Nave Choir at the hands of Matthew Martin, Buxtehude Magnificat sung by Consort under Jeremy summerly and interspersed plainsong by Schola/Andrew Carwood.
The latter provided a theatrical yet prayerful evensong ‘encore’ with Compline by candlelight. It begun with Messiaen’s Desseins eternels which caught me off-guard and then had me utterly rapt. Following the plainsong office, the gentlemen processed to the high altar (yards from where we were sat) and exploded into 4 part harmony in the shape of Bach’s Komm, susser Tod. This was quite excellent.
On for beers and celebrations. Inevitably, I ended up muscling in to sing on Sunday morning’s Eucharist — on alto, to my lasting regret! It was a good sing, the Consort being assigned a Poulenc’s Sanctus and Benedictus from the Mass in G (Nave Choir did the Gloria from the Missa Brevis and schola did a Tallis Agnus.), then O Sacrum Convivium by Guerero (new to me, and lushx5) and the festival’s new commission of Pater Noster by Muhly. Well, I don’t think I did my burgeoning counter-tenorism career any favours on this occasion but it was still nice to be part of it.
The highlight was probably the Muhly and thankfully it can be enjoyed again (at least for the next 7 days) over at iPlayer as they recorded as part of the R3 choral evensong broadcast.
London and Abbey
The mighty Serlo were in residence at Westminster Abbey on Monday and, though invited to sing, I opted to go and support from the pews.
I had rather hoped to make the most of the free afternoon in London and visit the Cabinet War Rooms (opposite the Abbey) but ended up having an extended, boozey lunch at Partridges near Sloane Square.
Evensong was excellent: Kit’s very own responses sounding as vivacious as ever, Nicholson in Db (new on me though suspiciously familiar) and a Philip Moore epic – All Wisdom Cometh from the Lord. I’ve yet to hear a duff composition from Moore. I hope he finds time to write more in his post-York retirement.
Copious alcohol were provided for the choir (and hangers on) after evensong and then we repaired to the Sanctuary for more London Pride.
More fun London activities planned for tomorrow…
Categories: Music, Travel, lifestyle
