BBC Choir of the Year 2014

[ardcarp]

As I write, the Final is happening:

http://www.choiroftheyear.co.uk/

Have I missed something or is the BBC not broadcasting it live anywhere?

I gather something (highlights?) will be on BBC4 TV next Friday, December 12th

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04tt2h2

[Mary Chambers]

I've just noticed it's on BBC 4 tonight, 7.30 to 9. I suppose I shall watch it, but I already feel mistrust. Hosted by Gareth Malone and Josie D'Arby, adjudicators Paul Mealor, Angel Blue, Mary King and Greg Beardsell.

Highlights on Radio 3 on Sunday, apparently.

On, all that's in your links.

[ardcarp]

We'll have to watch it with our Glitz Filter button in the ON position.

[Mary Chambers]

Feeling slightly cross after the first five minutes. Moreover I was stupid enough to look on Twitter, so I know who won. I'd give the first prize to the choir that stands still - if there is one.

[ardcarp]

It does seem that corybantics are a pre-requisite. Having said that, there was much to enjoy in the fizz and vitality from all the choirs. That CF1 won is quite re-assuring, in that 'proper' voice production..and standing still most of the time....paid off. I love the Qxford Gargoyles, though I wish they didn't have to be competitors in a show like this. And hats off to the sixth form lads. Good to know there's a new generation of T&B out there. The acoustic of the Bridgewater Hall (I don't know it first hand) didn't help Northern Spirit in their 'straight' piece, the Poulenc O Magnum Mysterium. Maybe if they'd taken it a tad faster it would have paid off. Neither did the acoustics help the children from the Welsh Performing School. Many were singing chins upwards to produce their voices, a trend all too common, alas. There were a few moments of 'head-voice' singing, and I'd have loved to hear them in gentler mode. But whatever, (or should I say whateffer?) I'm sure they had a terrific experience taking part in the final.

Gareth was not too awful, I thought. I chose to rustle my bag of toffees for the backstage stuff.

[DracoM]

Absolutely spot on! No demur. part from the toffees. My 'toffees' were more liquid and in a glass.

[Mary Chambers]

Yes, the right choir won, I think.

I thought the Oxford Gargoyles were very good, though that style isn't really my thing.

[bach736]

It does seem that corybantics are a pre-requisite.

Music and movement? Surely not!
I'm told that quite good singers even go walkabout in opera.
That thar tellyvizzun - iss wat they calls a 'visual medium'.

On the other hand, isn't it rather strange that few would have known what the winning choir was singing about?

[VodkaDilc]

Gareth was not too awful, I thought. .

Well that's a first. I always think that the man who did the first of the "let's make a choir from nothing" series was so much better. I remember that it was from Blackbird Leys in Oxford, but have forgotten the conductor's name - Ivor something? He had charisma - something missing from later versions of the format.

(I've now discovered that he was Ivor Setterfield:

http://www.blackbirdleyschoir.org/about.html )