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We are attending the Christmas Early Music Festival in York. Our first concert at the National Early Music Centre (St. Margaret's, Walmgate) was a group of mixed instrumentalists playing on viols and a lute. The two chief musicians were "Pellingham" (mixture of the two last names) and they played several different viols and lute. The other musicians were part of a student concort and played different viols with one singer. When they started it looked to me like two cellos, but the sound soon told me - without even asking Kent - that they were bass viols. Mostly they played ground and divisions, and their music was played with intricate prescision. Their performance, on the other hand, was quite amateur. Instead of either wearing plain dark clothing like most professional musicians, or trying for renaissance outfits like many madrigal singers, they wore a mix of street clothes and things that looked like castoffs from a Dickens faire. There was a right mess of moving about, moving instruments, and tuning instruments (which I admit had to be done fairly constantly, but didn't add to the ambiance). There was a bit of dance music, again very nice but not done with the appropriate tempo for actual dancing.
The second concert was Ex Cathedra - a great Latin pun on several levels as the group's members used to be part of a cathedral choir. This was all vocal music with a little bit of percussion, and there was no lack of professionalism in this group of five men, five women, and a director. The men were in black suits and black shirts with open collars and the women in plain dark colored evening gowns. They processed in singing - to a drum beat - and moved about the small stage with smooth intent. Two of the men sang occasional countertenor and moved cleanly back and forth from that to tenor in other songs. One of the women sang tenor as well and added lovely color to the music. Their program was a combination of renaissance Christmas music and other early songs done both in solo and in harmony. The result was glowing musicality and an encore of "Gaudete" that left us humming all the way back to the hotel.
The third program was the young musicians group from the NCEM and was not part of our ticket series. So instead we went to an evening performance of The Messiah at York Minster. It was too late for seats in the main nave, but we went early and got "restricted view" seats at the side and ended up with a line of sight between two massive pillars straight at the conductor, the soloists, and the front of the orchestra. First, it was cold - really, really cold. Actually colder inside the minster than outside. Imagine a thousand people sitting snugged together in close seating dressed in several layers of anoraks, fur, hat, scarves, and heavy wool coats. I took off my coat, thinking that a shirt and heavy sweater would be enough, but I was wrong. I waited eagerly for the interval for an opportunity to put back on my long black wool coat, pull on my gloves, and pull the fur collar up around my ears. My feet stayed cold throughout the whole performance. But was it worth it? Oh MY yes!
The strings in the orchestra had problems (probably the cold) in staying tuned, and after a quarter hour you began to hear some of them begin to be a little off. The soloists were okay, but only the contralto and the bass had any hope of enough power to appropriately fill the "hall". The soprano had a lovely true voice (we were only about 50 feet from her, but no hope of raising her voice sufficently to the venue. And then the choir began it's first chorus and, dear God, I've never heard music like that in my life! It shouted to the heights and echoed back from the ceiling. "And the glory, the glory of the Lord..." You cannot -believe- the acoustics of that place for that kind of chorus! I've attended services in the minster, and carol concerts in both the main nave and in the chapter house, and I knew the acoustics were good, but it took a choir of this size (and magnitude) to actually ring the inside of the minster like an instrument. I asked Kent how they could possibly have known, in the 13th century, how to create acoustics like that and he said it was a happy coincidence of the Gothic building style. Still, I wonder. People must know what it takes to fully utilize that space, but they can't do concerts like that more than a couple times a year. I can certainly understand why every seat was sold and most of the sidelines were filled as well. The Messiah performance of a lifetime.
On the non-musical side, we are finding, as we did last year in London, that York is now full of little bistros with tables for 20 to 30 people (all sitting practically in each other's laps) that are run by people from France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and everywhere imaginable in the EU. The food is nouvelle cuisine, is usually excellent, and runs from moderate to pricey with good wine emphasized instead of beer and cider. The tables are bare wood and the chairs tiny and uncomfortable. It may be the season, but every place we've tried has asked for bookings and we've been turned away from several places (that looked empty) because they were entirely booked from half an hour on until closing time. We had good Polish food and poor service at reasonable prices at Barbakan Bistro on Walmgate, and great food and excellent service for premium prices at the last unbooked table at the Blue Bicycle on Fossgate. After the concert at the minster we had a very late dinner at Bella Italia (a chain, but a pleasant one - kind of the Olive Garden of the UK) on Low Petergate and closed them down - finishing our coffee and sweets as they set the other tables for breakfast and mopped the floors.
John David, bless him, and the marvelous Megan are holding down the fort in Colorado with the help of Karen, Erin, Ted, Robin, and my brother David. It is wonderful to have such competent and willing friends and family. I hear from Facebook that it is 12 degrees and snowing in Colorado. Hoping that everything goes well. More later, we have seven more concerts, and a dinner engagement Friday night with Caroline Weldham.
The second concert was Ex Cathedra - a great Latin pun on several levels as the group's members used to be part of a cathedral choir. This was all vocal music with a little bit of percussion, and there was no lack of professionalism in this group of five men, five women, and a director. The men were in black suits and black shirts with open collars and the women in plain dark colored evening gowns. They processed in singing - to a drum beat - and moved about the small stage with smooth intent. Two of the men sang occasional countertenor and moved cleanly back and forth from that to tenor in other songs. One of the women sang tenor as well and added lovely color to the music. Their program was a combination of renaissance Christmas music and other early songs done both in solo and in harmony. The result was glowing musicality and an encore of "Gaudete" that left us humming all the way back to the hotel.
The third program was the young musicians group from the NCEM and was not part of our ticket series. So instead we went to an evening performance of The Messiah at York Minster. It was too late for seats in the main nave, but we went early and got "restricted view" seats at the side and ended up with a line of sight between two massive pillars straight at the conductor, the soloists, and the front of the orchestra. First, it was cold - really, really cold. Actually colder inside the minster than outside. Imagine a thousand people sitting snugged together in close seating dressed in several layers of anoraks, fur, hat, scarves, and heavy wool coats. I took off my coat, thinking that a shirt and heavy sweater would be enough, but I was wrong. I waited eagerly for the interval for an opportunity to put back on my long black wool coat, pull on my gloves, and pull the fur collar up around my ears. My feet stayed cold throughout the whole performance. But was it worth it? Oh MY yes!
The strings in the orchestra had problems (probably the cold) in staying tuned, and after a quarter hour you began to hear some of them begin to be a little off. The soloists were okay, but only the contralto and the bass had any hope of enough power to appropriately fill the "hall". The soprano had a lovely true voice (we were only about 50 feet from her, but no hope of raising her voice sufficently to the venue. And then the choir began it's first chorus and, dear God, I've never heard music like that in my life! It shouted to the heights and echoed back from the ceiling. "And the glory, the glory of the Lord..." You cannot -believe- the acoustics of that place for that kind of chorus! I've attended services in the minster, and carol concerts in both the main nave and in the chapter house, and I knew the acoustics were good, but it took a choir of this size (and magnitude) to actually ring the inside of the minster like an instrument. I asked Kent how they could possibly have known, in the 13th century, how to create acoustics like that and he said it was a happy coincidence of the Gothic building style. Still, I wonder. People must know what it takes to fully utilize that space, but they can't do concerts like that more than a couple times a year. I can certainly understand why every seat was sold and most of the sidelines were filled as well. The Messiah performance of a lifetime.
On the non-musical side, we are finding, as we did last year in London, that York is now full of little bistros with tables for 20 to 30 people (all sitting practically in each other's laps) that are run by people from France, Spain, Italy, Poland, and everywhere imaginable in the EU. The food is nouvelle cuisine, is usually excellent, and runs from moderate to pricey with good wine emphasized instead of beer and cider. The tables are bare wood and the chairs tiny and uncomfortable. It may be the season, but every place we've tried has asked for bookings and we've been turned away from several places (that looked empty) because they were entirely booked from half an hour on until closing time. We had good Polish food and poor service at reasonable prices at Barbakan Bistro on Walmgate, and great food and excellent service for premium prices at the last unbooked table at the Blue Bicycle on Fossgate. After the concert at the minster we had a very late dinner at Bella Italia (a chain, but a pleasant one - kind of the Olive Garden of the UK) on Low Petergate and closed them down - finishing our coffee and sweets as they set the other tables for breakfast and mopped the floors.
John David, bless him, and the marvelous Megan are holding down the fort in Colorado with the help of Karen, Erin, Ted, Robin, and my brother David. It is wonderful to have such competent and willing friends and family. I hear from Facebook that it is 12 degrees and snowing in Colorado. Hoping that everything goes well. More later, we have seven more concerts, and a dinner engagement Friday night with Caroline Weldham.
