Today is the last day of the Three Choirs Festival and we have only scratched the surface on the number of events that are presented. I didn’t want to give you the impression that the only events I wrote about are the only ones that happened — quite to the contrary! I just counted up… Read More Last days in Gloucester
Yesterday there was a rail strike which “derailed” our plans for getting from Edinburgh to Gloucester efficiently where the Three Choirs Festival is being held. Instead of a 5-3/4 hour journey we had to endure a 9 hour bus ride. I was trying to determine which was worse, a 9-hour plane ride or a 9-hour… Read More On the way to Gloucester
Last night I stayed up late, to take advantage of Priority Booking for reserving tickets for the Three Choirs Festival, billed as “the world’s finest choral music.” The booking office opened at 10:00 am in Gloucester, UK, which is 11:00 pm in Hawaii. I logged onto my computer at 10:55 pm and didn’t finish booking… Read More Three Choirs, here we come!
My friend from the Three Choirs Festival, Rich Arenschieldt, after reading my last post about being grateful to have an organ at home to play, observed that musicians are posting videos of themselves playing at home and sharing them on the Internet: “I love how much music is taking place and how supportive musicians are… Read More In quiet joy
Readers of this blog know that for the past four years I have attended the marvelous Three Choirs Festival in England. In talking with scores of festival-goers I have come to find out that many are musicians in their own right, but that they come yearly to be inspired by the heavenly music, “the world’s… Read More Who knew what people do in real life?
It’s now 10:04 pm on Thursday London time and I have been awake since 2:30 am Wednesday Hawai’i time and I’m so excited that I have heard (and seen) the a cappella Choral group Voces8 live in Cadogan Hall. The large room was acoustically as dead as a doornail, requiring the group to be perfectly… Read More Effortless perfection
I have just come from the Three Choirs Festival concert called “The Planets,” in which Gustav Holst’s suite of seven tone-poems was on the second half of the program. It is one of my favorite works, and even though I have heard the work live on several occasions, this is one performance that I will… Read More Pure magic
Just six days ago, we received this notice: Dear Ticket Holder, We are delighted to announce that we will be welcoming His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to the performance of Dream of Gerontius on the evening of Tuesday 25 July. As President of the Three Choirs Festival since 2001, Prince Charles’ picture was on… Read More A royal visit for The Dream of Gerontius
I was intrigued by the listing of the organ prelude at Worcester Cathedral’s Sung Eucharist today: Prelude and Fugue on BACH —J.S. Bach (1685-1750). As far as I know, Bach never wrote a prelude and Fugue on these four pitches: B-flat, A, C, B-natural. As the organist began, however, I immediately recognized the Franz Liszt… Read More Sunday at Worcester Cathedral
I am at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester and today I gained an understanding about the music that is being presented. Yesterday I heard Evensong which featured music of Herbert Howells, whose early musical education took place at Gloucester Cathedral. Tonight’s Evensong was all music by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, a former organist-choirmaster of Gloucester.… Read More The building and the music