Holy Week Around Europe: Sunday 9 April

[Nick Armstrong]

The BBC Singers really aren't too bad this evening, I have to say.

Jean, I agree - I switched on at random a while ago (not knowing the timings of the various segments this evening) and it was a pleasant surprise to look up which choir I'd just heard. For one thing, it sounded like a choir - rather than 'Singers'... Good for them.

[jean]

The sops particularly blended, and were not wobbly.

[Daniel]

The BBC Singers really aren't too bad this evening, I have to say.

I wonder why? Their distinctive oscillations have often had me running for the hills, but sometimes they can sound very good. If they don't produce that sound all the time it suggests that it's a conscious choice. Presumably there are people who like it. If they've turned off the wobble and blended tonight, is it simply because somebody's asked them to?

[jean]

They're quite often conducted by early music specialists, yet we don't always get the sound you'd expect those conductors to want to produce.

[Nick Armstrong]

They're quite often conducted by early music specialists, yet we don't always get the sound you'd expect those conductors to want to produce.

Indeed - in fact, I fear the worst when I see them listed to perform early music. But Nigel Short is obviously good for them and with them.

The pleasant surprise earlier this evening was the precise opposite of the surprise I recorded here when catching a spectacularly dodgy Tallis performance last year...

(Not that Stephen Cleobury could be described as an early music specialist, to return to your point).

[Nevilevelis]

And there I am (one of two tenors) in the Credo from Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, conducted by Bo Holten - a nice surprise!

[Nick Armstrong]

And there I am (one of two tenors) in the Credo from Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, conducted by Bo Holten - a nice surprise!

Was that following the scheduled concert; and taken from this:



?

[Nevilevelis]

Was that following the scheduled concert; and taken from this:



?

It may have been!

[Beef Oven!]

And there I am (one of two tenors) in the Credo from Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, conducted by Bo Holten - a nice surprise!

Which one is you? The one on the left, or the one on the right?

[Nevilevelis]

Which one is you? The one on the left, or the one on the right?

Woof-woof!

[Beef Oven!]

Woof-woof!

[DracoM]

Problem can be that if one bears in mind past experiences with the BBCS, one tends not to tune in at all.

And, jean, you've got to remember that Ian Skelley is there to GUIDE us [sic] through everything, so I'm afraid you're wrong because if Ian Skelley chooses to make a pig's ear of Latin, then that is how the Latin should be pronounced, even if the word he uses doesn't exist, at least in that case ending. He's our 'GUIDE'. We trust him to GUIDE us.


As if.


And that's even with mis-spelling 'Skelly'.

[oddoneout]

The sops particularly blended, and were not wobbly.

As a previous MD of the choir I sing with used to say, 'That was very good.....who's missing tonight?!'
Perhaps if the stand-out(for all the wrong reasons) soprano was not there, the rest were able to do a better job?

[jean]

Problem can be that if one bears in mind past experiences with the BBCS, one tends not to tune in at all.

Then one is the poorer! One must always try to keep an open mind, in one's own interest.

The pleasant surprise earlier this evening was the precise opposite of the surprise I recorded here when catching a spectacularly dodgy Tallis performance last year...

(Not that Stephen Cleobury could be described as an early music specialist, to return to your point).

But on last night's TTN it was Cleobury who was conducting what seemed (to me) a more than adequate performance of John Browne's O Maria salvatoris mater here, at 5' 19". (But I was half asleep at the time.)

...if Ian Skelley chooses to make a pig's ear of Latin, then that is how the Latin should be pronounced, even if the word he uses doesn't exist, at least in that case ending.

I'm guessing he thought the piece was about Salvatore Mundi, the well-known mafioso. It's a common forename in Sicily, after all!

.

[doversoul1]

But on last night's TTN it was Cleobury who was conducting what seemed (to me) a more than adequate performance of John Browne's O Maria salvatoris mater here, at 5' 19". (But I was half asleep at the time.)

TTN last Wednesday.
3:03 AM
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da (c.1525-1594) arr. Soriano, Francesco (1548-1621)
Missa Papae Marcelli arranged for double choir
BBC Singers, Bo Holten (conductor), unidentified organist

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08kyk17

I thought this too was very much more than adequate (to me).