Originally posted by ardcarp
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Being a wordier cove, I might have added that the Leighton was a very tasty hors-d'-oeuvre. I would certainly, like Draco, complain that cat Jeffrey had turned into a panther - still a noble beast, but not quite the elegant, every-day familiar that inspired Smart and Britten. Worse was to follow: boys fling themselves at the words "Silly fellow! Silly fellow!", and create pathos out of bathos in doing so (as Britten surely intended); that point was somehow missed today. Similarly, Walton knew he was writing for boys at Chichester, and played to their strengths as well as his own. Why do the mixed choirs elect to trespass so gratuitously? Clare have an impressively handy choir that delivered some gorgeous moments, especially at pianissimo, but I felt they suffered all the disadvantages of singing away from home.
Yes, Draco - I too thought the engineering extraordinary. The spoken parts shook my neighbours' brickwork, while the choir were at times all but inaudible.
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