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End of the first concert season
Dec. 6th, 2015 01:37 pmGood bits:
Today my choir had our winter concert, featuring Vivaldi's "Magnificat" and accompanied by an incredible strings section. I think having soloists and fewer strings helped un-muddle the sound, which is a common problem with layering a lot of voices and instruments. (listen to a movement from Vivaldi's "Magnificat", performed by the Budapest Madrigal Choir and Budapest Strings). Also with the addition of the strings, which I didn't know about till the dress rehearsal, "Whisper to Me" by David Hamilton became an unexpected favourite. (listen to a performance by Bella Cantoris - it's taken faster than we did, and the recording quality isn't terrific, but you get the idea.)
In the "Magnificat", the conductor made a choice to slow down the vocal section, let the strings move past us, and then slowly picked up tempo again to catch us up with the strings as both of us went to a presstissimo. (we called it the "choo choo" section, referencing a runaway choo choo train. very technical, haha.) One guy in the audience looked like we had blown his mind, which was very rewarding, especially for the conductor, I'm sure, who had to learn how to conduct 2 different tempos with both hands.
I looked out into the audience at some point and thought I saw the manager for the professional-ish choir that I used to be a part of for a really long time, and I almost cried onstage at thought of everything coming back full circle, a pillar of the organisation I came from, now here to listen to me sing again in the city where I've ended up. Well...unfortunately, my mild face-blindness strikes again, and it wasn't him, just someone with a passing resemblance. Whoops. Awkward, but a nice fairytale moment while it lasted.
Reception later was wonderful, drinks later with the choir and conductor at the John Harvard brewery, underneath the stained glass windows of local sports legends, because that's who we are, as a city. Some of the audience members were also at the brewery and came over to chat with us, which was nice.
The one on the far right is Bobby Orr:
( Read more... )
Today my choir had our winter concert, featuring Vivaldi's "Magnificat" and accompanied by an incredible strings section. I think having soloists and fewer strings helped un-muddle the sound, which is a common problem with layering a lot of voices and instruments. (listen to a movement from Vivaldi's "Magnificat", performed by the Budapest Madrigal Choir and Budapest Strings). Also with the addition of the strings, which I didn't know about till the dress rehearsal, "Whisper to Me" by David Hamilton became an unexpected favourite. (listen to a performance by Bella Cantoris - it's taken faster than we did, and the recording quality isn't terrific, but you get the idea.)
In the "Magnificat", the conductor made a choice to slow down the vocal section, let the strings move past us, and then slowly picked up tempo again to catch us up with the strings as both of us went to a presstissimo. (we called it the "choo choo" section, referencing a runaway choo choo train. very technical, haha.) One guy in the audience looked like we had blown his mind, which was very rewarding, especially for the conductor, I'm sure, who had to learn how to conduct 2 different tempos with both hands.
I looked out into the audience at some point and thought I saw the manager for the professional-ish choir that I used to be a part of for a really long time, and I almost cried onstage at thought of everything coming back full circle, a pillar of the organisation I came from, now here to listen to me sing again in the city where I've ended up. Well...unfortunately, my mild face-blindness strikes again, and it wasn't him, just someone with a passing resemblance. Whoops. Awkward, but a nice fairytale moment while it lasted.
Reception later was wonderful, drinks later with the choir and conductor at the John Harvard brewery, underneath the stained glass windows of local sports legends, because that's who we are, as a city. Some of the audience members were also at the brewery and came over to chat with us, which was nice.
The one on the far right is Bobby Orr:
( Read more... )
