We're meeting in London with Claire and Nicola to chat about the plans for our fiftieth anniversary in 2018. Tomorrow we head to Berlin for our last concert before the Easter break, and as some of us have mentioned in our recent blogs, it has an interesting programme, inspired by the 1920s. We start with two works setting words by Bertolt Brecht written by Kurt Weill in 1928. The first is one of their most famous songs, taken from Das Dreigroschenoper, Mackie Messer, which introduces the character of the highwayman MacHeath, known as Mack the Knife. The other Weill/Brecht piece is Das Berliner Requiem. The rest of the programme combines music from the Great American Songbook with songs performed by the great German vocal group, The Comedian Harmonists. We will be joined the pianist Alexander Schmalcz for this concert.We got back from Germany yesterday after four varied concerts. Saturday's concert took place in the beautiful Schlosskirche in Blieskastel. The first half was our Pater Noster sequence, and in the second half we joined with the chamber choir Collegium Vocale Blieskastel to perform Bob Chilcott's Thanksgiving, and also his lovely arrangement of the Shaker hymn The gift to be simple. We often seem to do this at the end of a period of work - we programme a load of different repertoire. In the case of the last five concerts of the term, we have five completely different programmes. It has kept us on our toes, and it has been impressive to see how calm Julian has been in the face of so much new repertoire. For Wednesday's Berlin concert there is plenty of music that is new to much of the group, and even I have a few pieces that I've only done a handful of times.
We're meeting in London with Claire and Nicola to chat about the plans for our fiftieth anniversary in 2018. Tomorrow we head to Berlin for our last concert before the Easter break, and as some of us have mentioned in our recent blogs, it has an interesting programme, inspired by the 1920s. We start with two works setting words by Bertolt Brecht written by Kurt Weill in 1928. The first is one of their most famous songs, taken from Das Dreigroschenoper, Mackie Messer, which introduces the character of the highwayman MacHeath, known as Mack the Knife. The other Weill/Brecht piece is Das Berliner Requiem. The rest of the programme combines music from the Great American Songbook with songs performed by the great German vocal group, The Comedian Harmonists. We will be joined the pianist Alexander Schmalcz for this concert.We got back from Germany yesterday after four varied concerts. Saturday's concert took place in the beautiful Schlosskirche in Blieskastel. The first half was our Pater Noster sequence, and in the second half we joined with the chamber choir Collegium Vocale Blieskastel to perform Bob Chilcott's Thanksgiving, and also his lovely arrangement of the Shaker hymn The gift to be simple. We often seem to do this at the end of a period of work - we programme a load of different repertoire. In the case of the last five concerts of the term, we have five completely different programmes. It has kept us on our toes, and it has been impressive to see how calm Julian has been in the face of so much new repertoire. For Wednesday's Berlin concert there is plenty of music that is new to much of the group, and even I have a few pieces that I've only done a handful of times.
We're meeting in London with Claire and Nicola to chat about the plans for our fiftieth anniversary in 2018. Tomorrow we head to Berlin for our last concert before the Easter break, and as some of us have mentioned in our recent blogs, it has an interesting programme, inspired by the 1920s. We start with two works setting words by Bertolt Brecht written by Kurt Weill in 1928. The first is one of their most famous songs, taken from Das Dreigroschenoper, Mackie Messer, which introduces the character of the highwayman MacHeath, known as Mack the Knife. The other Weill/Brecht piece is Das Berliner Requiem. The rest of the programme combines music from the Great American Songbook with songs performed by the great German vocal group, The Comedian Harmonists. We will be joined the pianist Alexander Schmalcz for this concert.We got back from Germany yesterday after four varied concerts. Saturday's concert took place in the beautiful Schlosskirche in Blieskastel. The first half was our Pater Noster sequence, and in the second half we joined with the chamber choir Collegium Vocale Blieskastel to perform Bob Chilcott's Thanksgiving, and also his lovely arrangement of the Shaker hymn The gift to be simple. We often seem to do this at the end of a period of work - we programme a load of different repertoire. In the case of the last five concerts of the term, we have five completely different programmes. It has kept us on our toes, and it has been impressive to see how calm Julian has been in the face of so much new repertoire. For Wednesday's Berlin concert there is plenty of music that is new to much of the group, and even I have a few pieces that I've only done a handful of times.
We're meeting in London with Claire and Nicola to chat about the plans for our fiftieth anniversary in 2018. Tomorrow we head to Berlin for our last concert before the Easter break, and as some of us have mentioned in our recent blogs, it has an interesting programme, inspired by the 1920s. We start with two works setting words by Bertolt Brecht written by Kurt Weill in 1928. The first is one of their most famous songs, taken from Das Dreigroschenoper, Mackie Messer, which introduces the character of the highwayman MacHeath, known as Mack the Knife. The other Weill/Brecht piece is Das Berliner Requiem. The rest of the programme combines music from the Great American Songbook with songs performed by the great German vocal group, The Comedian Harmonists. We will be joined the pianist Alexander Schmalcz for this concert.We got back from Germany yesterday after four varied concerts. Saturday's concert took place in the beautiful Schlosskirche in Blieskastel. The first half was our Pater Noster sequence, and in the second half we joined with the chamber choir Collegium Vocale Blieskastel to perform Bob Chilcott's Thanksgiving, and also his lovely arrangement of the Shaker hymn The gift to be simple. We often seem to do this at the end of a period of work - we programme a load of different repertoire. In the case of the last five concerts of the term, we have five completely different programmes. It has kept us on our toes, and it has been impressive to see how calm Julian has been in the face of so much new repertoire. For Wednesday's Berlin concert there is plenty of music that is new to much of the group, and even I have a few pieces that I've only done a handful of times.
We're meeting in London with Claire and Nicola to chat about the plans for our fiftieth anniversary in 2018. Tomorrow we head to Berlin for our last concert before the Easter break, and as some of us have mentioned in our recent blogs, it has an interesting programme, inspired by the 1920s. We start with two works setting words by Bertolt Brecht written by Kurt Weill in 1928. The first is one of their most famous songs, taken from Das Dreigroschenoper, Mackie Messer, which introduces the character of the highwayman MacHeath, known as Mack the Knife. The other Weill/Brecht piece is Das Berliner Requiem. The rest of the programme combines music from the Great American Songbook with songs performed by the great German vocal group, The Comedian Harmonists. We will be joined the pianist Alexander Schmalcz for this concert.We got back from Germany yesterday after four varied concerts. Saturday's concert took place in the beautiful Schlosskirche in Blieskastel. The first half was our Pater Noster sequence, and in the second half we joined with the chamber choir Collegium Vocale Blieskastel to perform Bob Chilcott's Thanksgiving, and also his lovely arrangement of the Shaker hymn The gift to be simple. We often seem to do this at the end of a period of work - we programme a load of different repertoire. In the case of the last five concerts of the term, we have five completely different programmes. It has kept us on our toes, and it has been impressive to see how calm Julian has been in the face of so much new repertoire. For Wednesday's Berlin concert there is plenty of music that is new to much of the group, and even I have a few pieces that I've only done a handful of times.
We're meeting in London with Claire and Nicola to chat about the plans for our fiftieth anniversary in 2018. Tomorrow we head to Berlin for our last concert before the Easter break, and as some of us have mentioned in our recent blogs, it has an interesting programme, inspired by the 1920s. We start with two works setting words by Bertolt Brecht written by Kurt Weill in 1928. The first is one of their most famous songs, taken from Das Dreigroschenoper, Mackie Messer, which introduces the character of the highwayman MacHeath, known as Mack the Knife. The other Weill/Brecht piece is Das Berliner Requiem. The rest of the programme combines music from the Great American Songbook with songs performed by the great German vocal group, The Comedian Harmonists. We will be joined the pianist Alexander Schmalcz for this concert.We got back from Germany yesterday after four varied concerts. Saturday's concert took place in the beautiful Schlosskirche in Blieskastel. The first half was our Pater Noster sequence, and in the second half we joined with the chamber choir Collegium Vocale Blieskastel to perform Bob Chilcott's Thanksgiving, and also his lovely arrangement of the Shaker hymn The gift to be simple. We often seem to do this at the end of a period of work - we programme a load of different repertoire. In the case of the last five concerts of the term, we have five completely different programmes. It has kept us on our toes, and it has been impressive to see how calm Julian has been in the face of so much new repertoire. For Wednesday's Berlin concert there is plenty of music that is new to much of the group, and even I have a few pieces that I've only done a handful of times.
We're meeting in London with Claire and Nicola to chat about the plans for our fiftieth anniversary in 2018. Tomorrow we head to Berlin for our last concert before the Easter break, and as some of us have mentioned in our recent blogs, it has an interesting programme, inspired by the 1920s. We start with two works setting words by Bertolt Brecht written by Kurt Weill in 1928. The first is one of their most famous songs, taken from Das Dreigroschenoper, Mackie Messer, which introduces the character of the highwayman MacHeath, known as Mack the Knife. The other Weill/Brecht piece is Das Berliner Requiem. The rest of the programme combines music from the Great American Songbook with songs performed by the great German vocal group, The Comedian Harmonists. We will be joined the pianist Alexander Schmalcz for this concert.We got back from Germany yesterday after four varied concerts. Saturday's concert took place in the beautiful Schlosskirche in Blieskastel. The first half was our Pater Noster sequence, and in the second half we joined with the chamber choir Collegium Vocale Blieskastel to perform Bob Chilcott's Thanksgiving, and also his lovely arrangement of the Shaker hymn The gift to be simple. We often seem to do this at the end of a period of work - we programme a load of different repertoire. In the case of the last five concerts of the term, we have five completely different programmes. It has kept us on our toes, and it has been impressive to see how calm Julian has been in the face of so much new repertoire. For Wednesday's Berlin concert there is plenty of music that is new to much of the group, and even I have a few pieces that I've only done a handful of times.
