2011 is under way

The insurance people have been quite prompt - I had a visit yesterday from a man from the company who will be doing the repairs. As I suspected one of the doors will have to be replaced, the damage to the other one is minor enough for it to be repaired. The man said he would put the order in yesterday afternoon and, depending on supplies and how busy the manufacturers are, it would probably take about a week to ten days.

My singing year starts this afternoon with a rehearsal at St John's Southgate for Sunday's Bach cantata service; this week it's BWV 73, Herr, wie du willt, so schick's mit mir! in which we only have two chorales to sing. In another couple of weeks we will be starting rehearsals for Gloriana's first concert, which I think will include the Rachmaninoff Vespers.

Glorious Gloriana

Last night's performance by Gloriana of Bach's Mass in B minor was one of the high points of my performing life. The orchestral rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday had suggested to me that Friday's performance would be exciting, and this was ensured by the presence of nearly 500 audience members in St Mary's Star of the Sea, West Melbourne, which definitely boosted the adrenaline levels.

A fabulous baroque band, superb soloists Siobhán Stagg, Sally-Anne Russell, Timothy Reynolds and Nick Dinopoulis and the Gloriana choir, all under the direction of our director Andrew Raiskums produced an evening of extraordinary music. From the opening of the Kyrie I felt that this was going to be a night to remember. Aside from the forces involved performing there was also the attentive and supportive audience - at times you could almost have heard a pin drop.

I am very grateful to have been a part of such a performance, and think I acquitted myself well in what is very  difficult music to sing.

For me the Bach doesn't end with last night as today I had a rehearsal for tomorrow's (early) performance of the cantata Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe with all of last night's soloists but Nick. What a treat.


If anyone is interested, the service starts at 9am at St Johns, Southgate. Admission is free.

Rehearsals

So far this week I've had two rehearsals for Sunday's Bach cantata at St John's - Tuesday was a piano rehearsal, learning the notes and how it all fits together, then tonight we had our run-through with the orchestra. Graham always puts together a great collection of instrumentalists and this week's cantata, Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, uses the oboe da caccias (oboes da caccia?) owned by the church. Add an oboe and a bassoon for continuo and it's a wonderful reedy sound.

We only heard two of the soloists tonight, Robert Macfarlane, the tenor, and Nick ? a wonderful sounding bass who is also singing in the next Gombert concert. Sunday morning promises to be a most excellent performance.

Tomorrow afternoon we have a rehearsal for the Brumel Earthquake mass to be performed as part of the Ensemble Gombert concert the following Saturday. So I'm keeping myself out of mischief.

Flat profit

Rehearsals last night and this afternoon - last night with Graham and today with Marco and the orchestra (pity the poor tympanist). Overall everything seems to be going well; I suppose we'll find out in the morning.

But between both singing engagements I went to the Farmers Market with B (where I bought some yoghurt and feta) before catching the bus down to Elwood to act as moral support for the auction of D's flat. S&G were there as well as LH and DK (who I hadn't seen for ages) - in fact it was old home week really. We all stood around being the backdrop to the auction which went off very successfully - the flat brought $451,000!

Not surprisingly D is very happy (over the moon would be a better description). He had laid on a very tasty spread for lunch and others had brought French champagne, so it was a proper celebration.

Tonight D came around for dinner; I had made a vegetable soup/stew using up the rest of the chicken stock I made last weekend. We finished up with a slice each of some yummy chocolate cake D had brought to which I added the remaining slices of poached quince from last weekend.

Bach down, on to Handel

This morning's B minor mass Credo went off very well. The soloists sang well, particularly the bass (well, really a baritone), though the alto was interesting too. The choruses were certainly better for me the second time through (we rehearse before the service) - it's always hard to get properly warmed up so early in the morning.

This afternoon SP came around to discuss details for his moving in next weekend. He's looking forward to it; he's currently staying in Carlton and after his sojourn here will be moving to Richmond.

Tonight was a delicious-as-usual roast pork dinner at P&B's while we watched the usual Sunday night fare.

This week is all work and singing. We rehearse with the orchestra tomorrow and record on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm really looking forward to it.

The last week has flown with rehearsals and work and German in the evenings and mostly work during the day.

The exception was Thursday, which I had off because I'm at work today (Saturday). I managed finally to catch up with DC - we've been trying for weeks but something kept going wrong. We strolled down to the Convent and had a pleasant lunch in the cafe. It was great to hear how he's enjoying his retirement - it gives me ideas.

This morning we shopped as usual and I came into town a little early to get a 1Gb compact flash card for the camera. I also popped into Discurio and found a DVD of Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein; it's from the Châtelet in Paris with Felicity Lott and Yann Beuron who I have in a very enjoyable Belle Hélène so I couldn't resist. Marc Minkowsky conducts. I hope I'm not disappointed.

Tomorrow we have an early start at St John's for the Credo of the B minor mass. I was a bit disappointed last night by the attitude of some of the young players in the orchestra who seemed mightly amused by the efforts of us in the choir. MvP was a bit scratchy too, but he's full of a nasty cold.

Lots to do

It's been a full week. On Monday we had a rehearsal for the Bach B minor mass at St John's; as Marco couldn't make it we had Graham L. It's a big sing (and we're only doing the Kyrie and Gloria) but very enjoyable. I've found that I remembered it quite well from the previous times I sang it.

Tuesday night I had off and entertained myself by making quince paste using a combination of my own and bought fruit. It turned out very nicely and has been given to selected friends who seem appreciative.

On Wednesday night P&B and DG and I went to dinner for DG's birthday. We went to the Terminus Hotel which we were alerted to by Abbotsford Blogger; the food was excellent, though I did find the 70s music slightly disturbing as I seemed to know every track.

Thursday evening I met up with members of my German class (including Dr D) at the Kino to see Das Leben der Anderen, a film about life in East Germany in the 1980s, concentrating on a writer who was being monitored by the STASI and the obsession of the STASI agent watching him. Fairly depressing, but ultimately quite moving. Having just read Anna Funder's Stasiland I found it very interesting to see another view of life in the eastern bloc before reunification.

Friday brought a rehearsal for a communion service on Saturday morning. We sang a recovered mass by Norman Kaye (written for the Canterbury Fellowship(?)) which was quite lovely. The service was, in the words of the woman priest officiating, not a "blessing of a same sex partnership". But if it wasn't that it certainly was a fair facsimile. The two involved restated the commitment they officially recorded last year in Inverness - and most of the congregation were dressed for a wedding. After that Tat and I had to rush off as we had three more hours of singing to look forward to at St John's rehearsing for this morning's Bach.

Last night AR came for dinner and at his request, to listen to Wagner and other associated music. We had a lovely time and I got to listen to some stuff I haven't heard for ages - great fun.

The B minor mass excerpts at this morning's service at St John's went off really well - this year's VCA orchestra is excellent and includes an outstanding oboist. The singers were mostly good, except for the bass who as well as inventing his own speed seemed to be singing from a score with different notes in. But I don't think any of the congregation noticed. The last chorus, Cum sancto spiritu, went like a rocket and I for one left the church on a buzz. A wonderful experience.