Nine Lessons and Carols 24th Dec 2011 [R4 4 live ] 25th Dec [R3 / 2 p.m. ]

[DracoM]

Much discussion upthread about the very conservative material KCC use in the Nine Lessons service.

http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/chapel-and-choir/listen-to-chapel-services

Well, try New College as indicated above if you want real innovation interspersing your readings.

[ardcarp]

Heard it. Interesting Celia Mc Dowell piece sung from ante-chapel. Otherwise, Richard Rodney Bennett, Judith Weir and, sung between lessons, chunks of Britten's Ceremony of Carols, with harp. The latter is a strange choice because it left the men sitting idle for a long time and they, IMO, are among the best choral scholars/clerks around at the moment. This is a hugely competent choir, and the music was a joy to me. I think though that Jo public might have found it a bit rarefied; and I can just hear my old mum saying, "Hmmm. Not very Christmassy". This was fine for its setting, but a place such as KCC does have to consider its world-wide audience. One can see why its 1954 programme would appeal.

[DracoM]

Oh, ardcarp, I can. And in a sense that is both a blessing and a curse in its way.

Once you establish 'the brand' as they and the BBC have between them, it is very hard, nay impossible to retreat from that for a whole variety of reasons. I seriously do not envy SC or indeed any DoM at KCC, who has to live under a spotlight like no other in the choral world.

As you trek silently up across the Cam, to see the tourists alone queueing for pretty well any evensong, and know that most of them have no or very little Christian interest but every interest in photographing anything that moves, and that KCC is just another stop on a tourist route must be [ well, actually, I KNOW it is ] fairly wearying from time to time. Not all the time, of course, just sometimes!!

[ardcarp]

Years ago Mrs A. and I shared a Cambridge pub table with a random American tourist and when asked about his travels he replied (and I'm not making this up, I promise you) "Edinborough [pronounced 'borrow'] this morning, Cambridge this afternoon and London tonight".

[decantor]

Years ago Mrs A. and I shared a Cambridge pub table with a random American tourist and when asked about his travels he replied (and I'm not making this up, I promise you) "Edinborough [pronounced 'borrow'] this morning, Cambridge this afternoon and London tonight".

I had a similar off-topic experience. Pupils in the school where I taught regularly won places in the IAPS National Orchestra (now sadly defunct) which held its summer concert in The Maltings. Thirty-odd years ago, we sent a young lad who was a fine musician and very promising flautist. His American mother attended the concert and remarked afterwards: "Gee, this Addleberg sure is a pretty place. Is that why they put the concert hall here?" Boy visibly squirmed.

[mangerton]

Years ago Mrs A. and I shared a Cambridge pub table with a random American tourist and when asked about his travels he replied (and I'm not making this up, I promise you) "Edinborough [pronounced 'borrow'] this morning, Cambridge this afternoon and London tonight".

ardcarp, I think I met that American when he was in Edinborrow. I remember he complained that the castle should have been built nearer the railway station as it would have saved time, and a steep climb.