More from GOAT

I have managed a couple of practise sessions this week (2 March), on Monday I managed half an hour going through exam pieces and Pat's accompaniments. This session was for my long suffering husband Chris although he excused himself to the garage so he wouldn't have to suffer too much that evening!

Tuesday's practise was dedicated to my Dad. While he has his preferences when listening to music he will actually listen with an open mind to any genre. This session was yet another reflective one deciding on where I am at and what I still need to do. Playing through basically! As quite a few of my recent sessions have been like this I realise this is not really progress so I have written down some questions that I have, mainly to do with technique. I saw Rohan at school yesterday and we have provisionally booked a lesson so I will make sure I bombard her with my queries when we do manage to meet up.

One highlight from this week was playing Sea Symphony by Vaughan Williams, over an hour of music for two vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra. I was on E flat clarinet for this one (the little one) and didn't have to work too hard. When I did play it was high, loud and with the piccolo so just added to the overall effect. It was made all the more enjoyable as we performed it in King's College Chapel. I don't play there very often so when I do it is a great experience. The waves crash all around for a few movements but at the end of the final movement, itself 30 minutes long, the violins and cellos get quieter and quieter alternating notes high and low, almost like a ship disappearing over the horizon and you not quite being able to tell when it has gone. The cellos finish with a long drawn bow and the piece ends when the last cellist's bow can go no further. No one knew when the piece had finished and we sat there. After an age conductor Stephen Cleobury did a gentle sigh and brought his baton down. This is usually the cue for the audience to relax and applaud but it was such a magic moment they stayed silent! It is always difficult to tell how long that sort of silence goes on for but it must have been a good 45 seconds before Stephen moved again, more exaggerated and someone did start the clapping!

More from Goat!

Living outside of the city walls means that we don't get the local paper around here so I missed this last week:

This is a lovely picture of clarinet and sax player, and good friend and colleague Sally giving it all she's got on the trumpet! The journalist was not one to let the truth get in the way of a good story so there are some inaccuracies but I like the way he has written "the winners were Brassed Off, who were hilarious - they won the people's hearts...possibly for the wrong reasons!" That could so have been one of the wind or strings saying that!

(Thanks to Cath for buying the paper, and Kirsty for sharing!)

There is now a clip available on Youtube from the concert. This is the end of the Finale. I like that the audience looks excited but that might be because they know they can nearly go home!
 
https://youtu.be/dAfIGFd8D4g

The total amount raised is around £25,000 although this will continue to creep up. There is news of photos as well and one of my future practise sessions will be for Celia George who spent the whole concert day photographing everyone. Twice! I now have my photos and will post them in a later blog.