Dear all
Huge apologies that these roundups have been few and far between this term – life has well and truly taken over!
Well don to all for the last two rehearsals, both of which have been extremely successful.
Last week (17th May) we sang through the concert repertoire in order. For those not there, this order is:
Vivaldi Gloria
Vaughan Williams Festival Te Deum
Faure Requiem
Vaughan Williams Antiphon
We identified the bits that needed most work and will focus on them in the remaining 3(!) rehearsals.
Today, we sat in the positions we will perform from and were accompanied from the organ, which really helped get into the concert mood! We focused mainly on the two Vaughan Williams pieces, especially the Te Deum, which is now starting to sound really secure. Please use the rehearsal resources available to learn this more thoroughly (Chris tells us that the basses have used these more than any other section… and it showed!)
We also took apart the Antiphon a little, which was really useful and this again is sounding very confident now. Enunciating the words as clearly as you can is the key to getting this piece across convincingly.
Before these two, we also sang through some of the Faure and Vivaldi, to get used to the organ behind us. In movement 2 of the Faure – keep the tempo steady through the unaccompanied sections (altos and tenors mainly) and sopranos – when you enter at the end keep it string but not too loud.
The next 2 rehearsals will finish at 9pm so I can work with soloists until 9.30.
That’s all for today – see you next week!
Dave