New season, new music, new members...

19/09/2016 14:39

Nearly everyone is back from their villas in Tuscany and their caravans in Prestatyn and a new season of chorale music beckons.

We finished last season off with two superb concerts with lots of Shakespeare’s words set to music by different composers. The concerts were a week apart, so were essentially the same programme. The first was in the Chorale’s home city of Manchester at St Ann’s Church in the city centre. We travelled up to the Lake District for the second concert. The Parish Church in Hawkshead was the venue and saw a full house despite a day of rain; the last time we sang in Hawkshead was a day of brilliant sunshine, even on leaving the church at 9:30pm. The locals are obviously used to the extremes of weather and are not dismayed by a bit of rain.

Our first rehearsal of the new season was partly taken up with handing in old music and collecting new. It’s always exciting to see what our MD has in store for us and we sang through a few of the pieces (pretty good sight-reading from everyone). The next rehearsal coincided with Manchester being hit by flash floods and members dribbled in late, including this writer whose cellar was under water. What better way to forget about it than have a good sing! We sang some of the pieces we will be singing on our Belgian tour at the end of October, including Aston’s Alleluya Psallat and Lotti’s Crucifixus in the round.

A couple of weeks before Belgium, we are at the Bridgewater Hall again on 16^th October for the Grand Organ Gala. We get to sing some favourites, including the Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem. We would love to sing the whole Requiem if the Raymond Gubbay Organisation is listening!

We had two new sopranos join us for taster sessions and we’re expecting a tenor next week. Taster sessions are a great way to discover if we are the choir for you. The soprano I spoke to after our last rehearsal said she really enjoyed it, even sight-reading Alleluya Psallat, which has some diabolical rhythms in it. If you like a challenge and like singing a wide variety of chorale music, the Manchester Chorale could be for you.

GG