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Hi everyone,  all music and rehearsal files for the December 3rd Christmas concert have now been uploaded to the downloads page of the website.  Please download and print all files ready for rehearsals next week.  Thanks!  Chris

All,

Further to Lesley’s email at 16.00 today, please note that the Albert Hall Scratch concert will be using the Novello Prout score, NOT the score referred to in Lesley’s note which is the one we have previously used (the Novello Watkins Shore version).

The Prout score is widely available – I bought mine on Amazon Prime for £7.95 and it was delivered the next day! If you are searching for it online, it has a red cover and is smaller than the orange cover version we used in Salzburg.

It is absolutely essential to buy the Prout version, as there are some important differences in the versions and we will also need to use the Prout version for the rehearsal on 12 November.

Virtually all of you singing at the Albert Hall now have your ticket and singers’ notes (these are also available on the Scratch concert website).

Please take the time to go through the singers’ notes and mark up your scores in advance as there are some movements we will not be singing, etc, and there is no rehearsal in advance of the Albert Hall performance (except for ours on 12 Nov).

Some of you have inquired whether there are still tickets available for the Scratch concert.  There are not, but I am in touch with the organiser who tells me there are usually returns on the day, if you are prepared to come along on spec (you can always get an audience ticket!)

As Lesley confirmed today, Chris is kindly organising a special Messiah workshop at the church from 1.30-5.30 pm on 12 November.  Most of you attending the Albert Hall have confirmed already that you are attending this – on the day I will be collecting £5 per person to cover the extra cost of this practice.

Just a reminder that the Albert Hall Scratch concert starts at 7 pm and we have to be seated 10-15 minutes beforehand.  There are various bars and restaurants in the Albert Hall and I might suggest we meet in one of those for a drink before the concert starts (but we can discuss that nearer the time).

Dress code for the Albert Hall concert is explained on the website as follows:

Ladies normally wear dresses or skirts, and Sopranos should wear something including blue (aim for a ‘mid-tone’, please—not too pale or too dark or too green!) and Altos something with red. Gentlemen should wear dark suits and ties or dinner jackets with black bow-ties.

The main thing to remember for sopranos is the blue top, and for the altos the red top, as this is about all the audience will see!

Hope all is clear – see you all next week at choir practice.

Sue Eustace

sue.eustace@blueyonder.co.uk

Hi everyone, rehearsal files for the Finzi (I Praise the Tender Flower) are now available on the downloads section of the website.  Download and run the files on any media player software and you should be away!  Please try to do have a look at this by next week’s rehearsal as we will be cracking on with it along with some other more familiar repertoire for the concert on 3rd December.  More details soon about this later today.

Hope that you are all having a good half term.

Many thanks and best wishes,

Chris

Hi all,

Subs are due now and will be £60 for the term as usual since we now have Nelly on board. Please pay to the choir account or bring a cheque on Tuesday – but online banking is definitely preferred.

Choir account details to remind you: Nat West Sort code:60-01-39; account 47107324 ;  Sheen Gate Choir.

Also you will all be pleased to hear that Ravi Chelliah Gosden was born last Wednesday weighing in at 6.5lb and all doing well. Trish and I have photographic evidence to share on Tuesday if you would like to see him!

I’ve got a bit of time now for updating addresses on the website so if you receive this but still can’t hack into the site or don’t want to be on the list any more (sniff) please let me know to lesley.morley1@gmail.com.

Lesley

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Hi again everybody,

There’s an opportunity to sing the Messiah again with “The Really Big Chorus” in a Concert from Scratch conducted by Brian Kay at the Albert Hall on Sunday 27 November from 7 pm.  If you are interested in participating, let me know (sue.eustace@blueyonder.co.uk) as I don’t mind coordinating a group booking.

I’ve done one of these concerts before and would recommend giving it a go – it’s an amazing experience singing with a really huge choir that spontaneously comes together, and really fun to sing in the Albert Hall.

Singing seats looks fairly booked up already, but there’s still spaces for sopranos, altos and basses in the circle (tickets cost £26), and for tenors in the main singing area (tickets cost £37).

One thing to note is that the score being used for this event is the Novello edition by Prout, not the one edited by Watkins Shaw that we used for Salzburg, so you would need to invest in a new score in order to participate.

Details about the event here:

We are The Really Big Chorus

Sue Eustace

Hello everybody,

George is singing in The Magic Flute with the St Paul’s Opera at St Paul’s Church, Clapham, on 1 and 2 July at 7 pm.  It would be great to support him!  If you are interested in coming, I would be happy to organise a group booking.  Please email me at sue.eustace@blueyonder.co.uk, and tell me which one you would like to go to – if there’s interest across both nights, I am sure we can arrange two groups.

Tickets are £25 each, and for every 10 tickets bought in a single purchase, the 11th is free.  George is singing the part of Monostatos, the slave leader!

I understand there’s a Glyndbourne feel to the event, as there’s a large green field in front of the church and people are invited to bring picnics and drinks to enjoy prior to the performance.  If there’s a group and it doesn’t rain, maybe we could have a choir picnic beforehand.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Sue Eustace

Hello All,

Reminder that our rehearsal on Saturday starts at 3.30pm promptly.  Keep listening to the recordings!

After the concert we are going to enjoy Tuesday evenings singing a short repertoire of songs by George Shearing with a view to performing them at our end of year party.  Camilla has very kindly offered to host this on the evening of Saturday 18th June at 6 Bramcote Road SW15 6UG.  The idea is that members can bring their other halves and we can have a fun evening together with some drinks and a bit of food.  That last aspect is in the planning stage but please let me and Camilla know ASAP by email (see below) if you can make it so we have an idea of numbers.

Meanwhile after Saturday you can listen to George Shearing Songs and Sonnets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl5gfa4cjdA&feature=youtu.be

Lesley – Lesley.morley1@gmail.com

Camilla – camillahall@hotmail.co.uk

The Madrigal de Paris recording (the one with the gold mask) is still available on Spotify for those who were asking on Tuesday.

The LPO recording is also a good listen. It’s sung more the way it’s scored, with 4 true soloists and a backing choir and the solos done by the parts in the score where the French version has much of it allocated to solo soprano. Sounds quite different. The full choir entries in the Kyrie, for example, are really powerful. If you just listen to one bit, listen to the second half of the Dies Irae (about 5 minutes in). The offbeat descending scales are accented brilliantly. It sounds like a limping Inspector Clouseau leading into the sublime Quid sum miser harmonies. My only criticism of this recording is that the speed of some of the movements suggest that the conductor had somewhere he urgently needed to be. The Rex Tremendae on this recording is over a minute quicker than in the Madrigal one. Then he seems to regret his haste and takes the Oro Supplex reallllllyyyyyy slowwwwwlllllly.

The Spotify version I mentioned is this one:

Hi everyone,

It’s ticket time again (!) so could you please email me at patricia@joshifamily.co.uk to let me know how many you’d like.  For those of you who are new please note we buy a ticket for ourselves as well.  This is our contribution to the large expense of having the instrumentalists support us.

Please invite and bring along as many family and friends as you can.  The record still stands at 14 for Clare and Jerry, with Teresa a close second!  It’s too easy to just bring yourself.   Pull out all the stops this time so that we can try for a full church!  We get a huge buzz on the day which brings out the very best in all of us.  It’s good to share this feeling!

I’ll have my list and some tickets ready to start selling tonight. £8 each

See you later,

Tricia