As promised, a short report on Les Adieux Parisiens, as James's concert was called. 10 singers: James (who also compered the show in highly competent and inimitably Bowmanian French), Michael Chance, Robin Blaze, Daniel Taylor, Lynne Dawson and me representing England and Canada: Philippe Jaroussky, Pascal Bertin, Bertrand Dazin and Jean-Paul Fouchecourt (I still can't find out how to do accents here) for France. Eight players, led by Florence Malgoire, with Kenneth Weiss at the hpschd. Lots of Handel and Purcell, with a side order of Jaroussky singing Porpora, James and Daniel singing Robert Jones and Mr Bowman and Ms Bott closing the first half with "Pur ti miro" from Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea." A fair amount of impromptu and affectionate speechmaking from the platform gave us finishing time of 11.15, but the full-to-bursting audience in the Salle Gaveau would happily have had us go on all night. We had prepared ourselves to be filmed "for archive" but apparently this didn't happen, so no surprises on Youtube....
Everyone was in good voice, but we were all agreed that James's singing of Purcell's Evening Hymn at the end of the concert was exceptionally moving. He is a very dear friend of mine, so perhaps I am biased, but his artistry remains not only undimmed, but unmatched in its humanity. Not that he would have me say anything soppy like that - he trod on the emotion perfectly by leading a unique encore, the carefully scored Sound the Trumpet a 10, by calling out our names one by one when it was our solo. And we didn't turn it into The Peanut Vendor - Pascal and Philippe winced slightly when I told them I'd watched that (thanks to this Forum).
The Salle Gaveau is quite primitive backstage, and very hot, but a delightful place to perform - like a cross between the Wigmore Hall and an 18th-century theatre. As I said, our audience was hugely appreciative of the special nature of the evening, but no more so than an English audience would have been. It was a terrific evening and we were all thrilled to be part of it.
PS In 1 minute my Pick of the Week starts on Radio 4 - one clip that had to go (assembling the programme is like doing a big puzzle, I have to choose more than I can fit in and sacrifice the odd thing) was from a Radio 2 programme last Tuesday which I do recommend.It's called Music in the Air, and includes former DG William Haley outlining his hopes for the Third Programme. Don't all sigh at once!
Everyone was in good voice, but we were all agreed that James's singing of Purcell's Evening Hymn at the end of the concert was exceptionally moving. He is a very dear friend of mine, so perhaps I am biased, but his artistry remains not only undimmed, but unmatched in its humanity. Not that he would have me say anything soppy like that - he trod on the emotion perfectly by leading a unique encore, the carefully scored Sound the Trumpet a 10, by calling out our names one by one when it was our solo. And we didn't turn it into The Peanut Vendor - Pascal and Philippe winced slightly when I told them I'd watched that (thanks to this Forum).
The Salle Gaveau is quite primitive backstage, and very hot, but a delightful place to perform - like a cross between the Wigmore Hall and an 18th-century theatre. As I said, our audience was hugely appreciative of the special nature of the evening, but no more so than an English audience would have been. It was a terrific evening and we were all thrilled to be part of it.
PS In 1 minute my Pick of the Week starts on Radio 4 - one clip that had to go (assembling the programme is like doing a big puzzle, I have to choose more than I can fit in and sacrifice the odd thing) was from a Radio 2 programme last Tuesday which I do recommend.It's called Music in the Air, and includes former DG William Haley outlining his hopes for the Third Programme. Don't all sigh at once!
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