When I heard of the Handel Messiah singalong, I was thrilled. I'd attended a public choral session at Wesley church once before, but not Messiah. I also wondered about playing bass, but the group was CSO and friends, brought together by Lindy Reksten, so perfectly capable and complete. I'd been in the house just an hour earlier to record, so I offered to record this too. Well, it's an interlude and interesting if not releasable, although listening back after I was surprised at just how presentable it was, despite the unrehearsed nature and the often twisty lines (I've been reading it at home the day after) and the interplay of parts. This is a great choral work, of course. I ended up in the small tenor/bass area trying to find my way listening to more experienced choristers around me. We sang the choruses and just a few solo passages and the various scores had different numberings so there was some confusion. There were a few stop-starts and chuckles when that happened but we got through and, as I said, I was surprised at the later listen while processing the audio and video recordings. There was obvious expertise here and very capable playing and decent voices who obviously knew the parts better than me and could spell the intervals and harmonies that the vocal parts demand. And there are some fabulous songs to sing, not just Allelujia. This is a great work for a reason. My read at home after had a melodic theme moving through degrees of the scale, so very clever. And the one felt to be on the three at times, but that's a baroque thing, I feel. I'm sure I've seen or counted that before. So the batteries lasted the longer session and the players impressed mightily, not least Dave's bass just near me, and John's jovial leadership brought a few laughs. After 90 minutes or so, we retired for supper with plenty of joy and some amusement. What a great outing, being amongst it all rather than watching on, even if I personally wished I'd prepared just a little. But that's Christmas for you.
Lindy Reksten gathered musicians and singers for an open singalong to Handel Messiah at Wesley.
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