Christmas with the BBC Singers Dec 13

[ardcarp]

Well, I hope some of you did manage to tune in for the interval item.

I've just LA-ed the interval and thought the item by the blind and partially-sighted choir was excellent! It was an interesting piece for a start, with good idiomatic writing for the cello. The way they kept their ensemble tight, presumably without being able to see a conductor, was extraordinary. Thanks for the tip, Jean.
I could have done without that old war-horse, Quilter's Children's Overture though. It's not a bad orchestration exercise, but I'm not sure how many of today's kids would be diverted by it. (Dame, get up and bake your pies???)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, if it's a mistake, it's a pretty damned big one! Bit like the concert itself.

Today the BBC Singers were "entertaining" us on Afternoon on 3 "BBC Performing Groups Live.

It was quite dreadful:

Tweeting.

Audience asked to call out (by Petroc Trelawney) like a braying mob.

Which BBCS member can sing with the most prominent wobble?

"We can all wobble at the same frequency."

"We can now wobble on short notes as well as long ones."

This was the first time that the Willcocks descant for O Come, all ye Faithful actually had me squirming.

[oddoneout]

Today the BBC Singers were "entertaining" us on Afternoon on 3 "BBC Performing Groups Live.

It was quite dreadful:

Tweeting.

Audience asked to call out (by Petroc Trelawney) like a braying mob.

Which BBCS member can sing with the most prominent wobble?

"We can all wobble at the same frequency."

"We can now wobble on short notes as well as long ones."

This was the first time that the Willcocks descant for O Come, all ye Faithful actually had me squirming.

The tweeting and braying mob I was prepared to overlook as this is presumably part of the BBCS outreach stuff and so not a formal concert arrangement but, ye gods and little fishes, does no-one ever listen to a BBCS performance after the event to do a bit of 'evaluation'? Is it really acceptable to have a soprano wobbling from here to kingdom come almost as a solo line? I had the radio on and listened at a distance while doing other things, but even so it was difficult to ignore.
Apologies Jean for the hijacking of your original intention, I will try and listen to the item highlighted.

[ardcarp]

The Norwegian Soloists sing like a choir....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H75G6O7TN0c&list=PLF3t3frNyIX4ZxS0UfoPjSU4A7h8VQI_T

...whereas the BBC Singers

[Keraulophone]

The Norwegian Soloists sing like a choir....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H75G...PjSU4A7h8VQI_T

Grateful to have that in my head just before going to sleep. This (beautifully sung) choral transcription works surprisingly well.

[Gabriel Jackson]

The Norwegian Soloists sing like a choir....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H75G6O7TN0c&list=PLF3t3frNyIX4ZxS0UfoPjSU4A7h8VQI_T

...whereas the BBC Singers

Since the piece in question is for 16 solo voices, in what sense do they 'sing like a choir'? Or do you just mean you like the sound of these singers, which is a different matter?

[Nick Armstrong]

The Norwegian Soloists sing like a choir....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H75G6O7TN0c&list=PLF3t3frNyIX4ZxS0UfoPjSU4A7h8VQI_T

Wonderful. Thank you for this.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Since the piece in question is for 16 solo voices, in what sense do they 'sing like a choir'? Or do you just mean you like the sound of these singers, which is a different matter?

I understood ardy's comment to mean that, although the piece in question is for 16 solo voices, the Norwegian Soloists (paradoxically, perhaps) manage to blend and balance with each other in the way that choirs singing four-part writing achieve. His "whereas" suggesting (to me - apologies to ardy if I've misunderstood) the BBC Singers, whilst performing pieces with four-part writing, manage to sound (to him, and others) as if they were a collection of soloists?

[Pulcinella]

That was my understanding of ardy's comment, too.
And anyway, surely the designation 'for 16 solo singers' simply means that there are 16 independent parts, and should not be taken as an exhortation to 'behave like a soloist' (or rather, not blend with other voices).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Wonderful. Thank you for this.

It was

Also available sung by Accentus (whose version of the Fauré Requiem you greatly admire, IIRC) on their CD "Transcriptions":

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/CDs-Vinyl/Transcriptions-Laurence-Equilbey-Accentus/B00008GFOH

... the whole programme of which is rather wonderful: far more successful than I had "prejudiced"!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've just LA-ed the interval and thought the item by the blind and partially-sighted choir was excellent! It was an interesting piece for a start, with good idiomatic writing for the cello. The way they kept their ensemble tight, presumably without being able to see a conductor, was extraordinary. Thanks for the tip, Jean.

It begins at 58mins and 20secs into the programme link that jean provided in the OP (with a discussion of the piece immediately before):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084vwp3

[Nick Armstrong]

It was

Also available sung by Accentus (whose version of the Fauré Requiem you greatly admire, IIRC) on their CD "Transcriptions":

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/CDs-Vinyl/Transcriptions-Laurence-Equilbey-Accentus/B00008GFOH

... the whole programme of which is rather wonderful: far more successful than I had "prejudiced"!

Ooh good spot ferns!

[DracoM]

Liked the Pappenheim as a piece, not just for whom it was written and sung.

[jean]

I've just LA-ed the interval and thought the item by the blind and partially-sighted choir was excellent! It was an interesting piece for a start, with good idiomatic writing for the cello. The way they kept their ensemble tight, presumably without being able to see a conductor, was extraordinary. Thanks for the tip, Jean.

Liked the Pappenheim as a piece, not just for whom it was written and sung.

Were you all so interested in slagging off the BBCS than nobody else even bothered?

I thought it a good piece, which came over well. But I wanted to know a lot more about how they went about preparing it. They told us very little - there were interviews with two of the singers, no names given, but I think the second of them may have been the soprano I know; she reads Braille music though, as she said, she hasn't enough fingers to read more than her own line (a singer is in a better position than an instruentalist, though, who can't read anything and play at the same time, as the other performer interviewed said). Braille music is an adaptation of verbal Braille, not a sepatate system as ordinary musical notation is, and is therefore very clumsy. She said she was often asked how she knew when to come in - she replied that she could sense this from the breathing of the others, but observed that she sometimes kept better time than the sighted singers who should have been watching the conductor!

A blind singer will always be at a disadvantage when working with sighted musicians. It would have been good to know more about how this group evolved techniques which would not have needed to make any such compromises.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Were you all so interested in slagging off the BBCS than nobody else even bothered?

I didn't slag off the BBCS; I did listen; I had no strong opinions either about the piece or its performance; I thought it more considerate/diplomatic not to say this.