Evensong is offered every day at the Three Choirs Festival and today’s service was sung by the (mixed) Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir with director Stephen Shellard and organist Richard Cook. For this service, everyone sits in the chancel area, and I got a good view of the very energetic conductor. Two men who must have been… Read More Evensong; A Child of Our Time
I took the train into Worcester yesterday, the site of the Three Choirs Festival this year. I booked my hotel, The Cardinal’s Hat Inn, a year ago at the end of last year’s Festival in Gloucester, because I so enjoyed the high caliber of the musical performances. The hotel is above a pub of the… Read More Back at the Three Choirs Festival
The last few days I have been preparing for my month-long sojourn in Europe which begins on Saturday, and in fact, I started packing and re-packing my suitcase about a week ago. I’m trying to take as little as possible, bearing in mind that I’ll be away from home and a washing machine for 30 days.… Read More Five countries, five currencies!
Every concert at the Three Choirs Festival begins with an announcement: In the unlikely event of an emergency, please wait for instructions from the verger and the ushers will direct you to evacuate the building. Then there is a prayer from the head clergyman—this week there have been prayers for the terror victims in Nice,… Read More In the unlikely event…
Today started off at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, only a few blocks from the hotel, where I heard the Rodolfus Choir, a group of 32 young singers. Their program consisted mostly of choral transcriptions of instrumental works such as the Barber Adagio for Strings. The group arranged themselves in smaller ensembles around the church, creating… Read More Allegri and Mozart
I have just come from a performance of Hector Berlioz’ Grande Messe des morts, and I was being helped to my seat in row F, and the usher said to me, “it is going to be very loud. Are you going to be okay here? Let me know if you want to change your seat!”… Read More Hair-raising and earsplitting
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
It is Day Three at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester and the music today was so incredibly beautiful and musically so perfect that I felt that I had died and gone to heaven! The first concert we attended was by Stile Antico, a 12-voice a capella vocal ensemble based in London whose voices were… Read More Died and gone to heaven!
Today marked the opening service of the 289th Three Choirs Festival, and I could not help but think the Brits do it best—the pomp, the pageantry and the sheer grandeur of it all. In many ways it was like the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, with the entrance procession lasting 20 minutes! As we… Read More Who can match the Brits?
This is the last weekend before I board the plane for 40 days away from Honolulu, and what a weekend it will be! Nine organ lessons, one piano lesson, two church services, one orchestra rehearsal and two concerts all crammed into the next four days. And today in addition to teaching three other organ lessons, I played a… Read More In the space of one weekend …