(no subject)

I finally did make it to a reading at Westminster tonight, the last reading of their summer series. It was Mozart Requiem, which was still basically fresh in my mind from Alumni Weekend. They brought in a pianist to play the orchestral reduction and had a professional solo quartet, including soprano Laura Heimes, voice teacher at Swarthmore. I had a nice time; I hadn't sung much of anything in a while. It sort of made me realize how, in the past four years, John Alston has been the only choral conductor I've worked with substantially (I'm not going to count Andrew Hauze/Debra Scurto-Davis for Elixir). I'd gotten used to his style, his mannerisms, and his eccentricities, including things like the German Latin pronunciations I still have pencilled into my score (Req-viem aeternum dona eis, k-vantus tremor est futurus, cor contritum qvasi tzeenis, etc.) Sometimes doing things a different way is nice for a change. Andrew Megill, the conductor tonight, handled the Rex tremendae very differently than John does, explicitly insisting that that it be done in strict rhythm rather than overdotted in the French overture style.

I hadn't been to Westminster in years, not since I was little and played in a piano recital or two there.

Bristol Chapel at Westminster was not the easiest venue to sing in. Tenors and basses filled the space on either side of the grand piano in front of the sanctuary, and sopranos and altos filled the pews almost to the back of the chapel. The space would have great acoustics for a solo recital or chamber performance, but because of the length of the room and the echoes it was not easy for a large chorus. Still, we managed to keep together well enough.

I also biked up there and back. First time doing night biking in real (ie non-Swarthmore) traffic -- it went well, although the heat and humidity were oppresive. But I figured it would be better to become accustomed to riding in substantial traffic in Princeton rather than jumping right into it in Cambridge.