Jauntiness of step, a lightness of heart, a full night’s sleep. Ever so slightly less pain getting up in a morning. Some short term benefits of a weekend away. If only you could bottle it.
Problems with orientation – a mirror crack’d. We were light the first morning for the first rehearsal, light even of the musical director so Graham went for a recce. He found them in the downstairs ballroom, setting out the chairs and wondering where the rest of us were. After coffee, Elizabeth thought we’d have sectionals, so the ballroom would now come into play for the tenors. Basses and baritones would stay on the ground floor. Mackie had other ideas. He ignored the ballroom and waltzed in with us, not a care in the world and sat waiting in his usual front row spot, oblivious of baritones on either side. Elizabeth gently disabused him, otherwise he’d still be there.
The new song for the weekend was ‘Luve is like a Red Red Rose’. A Scottish air. Funny, we’ve a new secretary and two new songs if you include ‘Annie Laurie’. All three are from Scotland. Getting his influence in early. Ann was shopping in New York so Sheila Asquith stepped in as accompanist. She needs help in the keyboard button department though. We were never entirely sure what sort of piano, organ, harpsicord, banjo or whatever was coming next. It was a relief to get the metronome.
Quite charming and she did us proud in Betwys. Brian Higginbottom sang a solo, voluntarily – a message in itself. He sung it beautifully, with a twinkle in his eye and modestly accepted the rapturous applause. One of his colleagues in the basses immediately withdrew from the Annie Laurie auditions.
Elizabeth’s conducting, direction, teaching or all of those things continues to develop. She’s singing all the parts now so we can get a sense of it. All except the top first tenor notes, which she freely admits are just out of her range. Out of their range too? She must spend huggins of time preparing. Maybe it’s why we sing better and try harder. Very thoughtful about her jokes too.
The Betwys concert was a triumph. As we waited, I felt much as I used to prior to a big match. The longer the delay the more ready I was to rip their heads off – or in more politically correct terms, focused and in the zone. We nailed it – or in more politically correct terms, we were technically competent and passionate in performance. Rod Gooch, who’d sat in the audience with Alan Dalgetty, had a wobble in his voice when he spoke at the next rehearsal – so proud he was to be a part of the choir.
Clive Hetherington and Ged Faricy resumed their free and frank mathematical discussion over the cow pie and kept it simmering gently during the weekend. Index fingers to the fore and robust dynamics – con belto. This will run and run.
