Monteverdi for choir, ensemble and trains
Friday, March 18th, 2005 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthGorgeous concert in Southwark Cathedral tonight:
I don't think it was very well advertised: I only heard about it because M (WINOLJ) sings with Goldsmiths Choral Union -- though didn't this evening, as she is off sunning herself somewhere. Nevertheless (and despite extortionate ticket prices; unreserved seating off in the transept, with a side view of the choir and not a glimpse of theorbo, was £18) there was a plentiful, if creaky, audience.
The performance was splendid. GCU, Hertfordshire Baroque Soloists with Quintessence, and solo singers including Richard Wyn Roberts, a counter-tenor who used to be in I Fagiolini (a vocal consort specialising in Italian Baroque: I saw them several times at the Wigmore Hall, I think, with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brisingamen). The acoustics are great, even in the transept, and the splendour of the building lends itself to exultant thoughts and thoughtfulness in general. (Some of the music was also very restful, or so ladymoonray assures me.)
But in the quieter passages I could hear the grinding screech of trains braking as they approached London Bridge station. The track's level with the windows, and many's the time I've stood on a packed train, gazing at the stained glass lit from within, wondering what was taking place.
The soloists sang on, unperturbed; uninterrupted, too, by sirens and shouting and the general noise of Borough High Street.
In the cathedral, by the way, is a memorial to William Shakespeare, lounging. Tonight there was a fresh sprig of rosemary in his hand: remembering what?
tomorrow: what I did on my holidays.
I don't think it was very well advertised: I only heard about it because M (WINOLJ) sings with Goldsmiths Choral Union -- though didn't this evening, as she is off sunning herself somewhere. Nevertheless (and despite extortionate ticket prices; unreserved seating off in the transept, with a side view of the choir and not a glimpse of theorbo, was £18) there was a plentiful, if creaky, audience.
The performance was splendid. GCU, Hertfordshire Baroque Soloists with Quintessence, and solo singers including Richard Wyn Roberts, a counter-tenor who used to be in I Fagiolini (a vocal consort specialising in Italian Baroque: I saw them several times at the Wigmore Hall, I think, with
brisingamen). The acoustics are great, even in the transept, and the splendour of the building lends itself to exultant thoughts and thoughtfulness in general. (Some of the music was also very restful, or so ladymoonray assures me.)But in the quieter passages I could hear the grinding screech of trains braking as they approached London Bridge station. The track's level with the windows, and many's the time I've stood on a packed train, gazing at the stained glass lit from within, wondering what was taking place.
The soloists sang on, unperturbed; uninterrupted, too, by sirens and shouting and the general noise of Borough High Street.
In the cathedral, by the way, is a memorial to William Shakespeare, lounging. Tonight there was a fresh sprig of rosemary in his hand: remembering what?
tomorrow: what I did on my holidays.
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Date: Saturday, March 19th, 2005 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2005 08:29 am (UTC)(Did you really make this comment at 5am, as LJ alleges?!)
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Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2005 12:54 pm (UTC)