CE Liverpool Cathedral 30th March 2011

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I would imagine it would be difficult to sing in such a building. York Minster is one of those buildings where it is said that you "hear the service/concert twice", but I think Liverpool must be even more extreme.

[Lizzie]

I would imagine it would be difficult to sing in such a building. York Minster is one of those buildings where it is said that you "hear the service/concert twice", but I think Liverpool must be even more extreme.

Just a tad! Great experience and having to slow everything down certainly makes one control one's breathing!

[Miles Coverdale]

All this talk of maestros reminds me of an amusing story about the harp-playing daughter of Sir George and Lady Solti, who arrived on her first day as an undergraduate at one of the Oxford colleges, only to find that the room she had been assigned was not on the ground floor. At this point the redoubtable Lady Solti explained to the college porter in no uncertain terms that her daughter must have a ground floor room because of her harp, as she couldn't possibly be expected to carry it up the stairs. At this point the porter, seeing no harp, enquired as to its whereabouts. 'Oh, it's coming with the maestro', came the lofty reply. 'I wouldn't have thought you could get a harp in a Maestro,' said the porter...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[Lizzie]

Oh MC, what a beauty. Thank you for cheering me up, despite the pain of a dental abcess! Bws. Liz

[Op. XXXIX]

I would imagine it would be difficult to sing in such a building. York Minster is one of those buildings where it is said that you "hear the service/concert twice", but I think Liverpool must be even more extreme.

Didn't Beecham say he always enjoyed giving a world premiere at RAH because the audience could hear it twice?

Great CE from Liverpool, though I did miss Kingsfold, a favourite. I used to visit Liverpool (and Chester) fairly frequently until I emigrated to the States last year. (Quite an adjustment, that.)

I understand your frustration with hearing The Apostles at Liverpool. Presumably you have heard it since in a more congenial atmosphere? Do tell.

[Miles Coverdale]

I believe he said that the RAH was 'the only place a modern composer can hear his music twice'.

[Keraulophone]

I heard Elgar's oratorio "The Apostle" under Sir Charles Groves in Liverpool Cathedral in the early 1970s, and the echo was very destructive.

That's because there weren't sufficient apostles present to reduce the reverberation.

[ardcarp]

The ultimate 'hear it again' building has to the the Abbaye aux Dames in Caen. With French Horn bells facing East, the chords hit the East end, travel down the nave, hit the West wall, travel back up the nave and enter the orchstra's ears. Deja entendu. Interesting. Fabulous building though...unspoilt Romaneesque.