Libera Dreams

filiarheni wrote: ↑<span title="Mon Jul 15, 2019 11:44 am">4 years ago</span>

Yorkie wrote: ↑<span title="Sun Jul 14, 2019 4:27 pm">4 years ago</span> That's not how it works; I ask the questions

Well my favourite to hear live is St John's. I have to confess that I don't get the chance to hear too many choirs at the moment due to other commitments so my favourite choir to listen to on CD is New College. Third place is tricky because it could be one of a few - Westminster (Abbey/Cathedral), Magdalen, St Thomas, Truro. Tricky.

Question set, question get.

I accept your reply to your second question. And now there remains the first one which country sings better (not: is liked best). I say it's impossible to wholeheartedly decide for one, because the matter is too diverse for a general judgement. What do you say?

Which country sings best? Is that even a question that requires an answer?

Yorkie wrote: ↑<span title="Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:06 pm">4 years ago</span>

filiarheni wrote: ↑<span title="Mon Jul 15, 2019 11:44 am">4 years ago</span>
I accept your reply to your second question. And now there remains the first one which country sings better (not: is liked best). I say it's impossible to wholeheartedly decide for one, because the matter is too diverse for a general judgement. What do you say?

Which country sings best? Is that even a question that requires an answer?

You are right. An extra reply is not needed anymore, as mine is sufficient for both of us.

I've been listening through a rather unusual recording called "Water & Spirit" which was recently released by the Windsbacher Knabenchor from Germany. Besides the choir, it features a percussionist by the name of Simone Rubino. Not all the tracks feature the percussionist, and not all tracks feature the choir. There are a decent number of tracks that feature both at the same time. I don't like everything on the recording, but it's interesting nevertheless. Here's a Youtube link where you can check it out:

This piece of music is new to me, but the Trinity College Choir does a magnificent job with it. The composer Richard Marlow is a former director of the group.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=HSfZGkIGi1A

Last Sunday on the 4th Advent the "Lübecker Knabenkantorei"
went online for their traditional Weihnachtssingen during Advent
due to actual restrictions in Germany.

Since they haven't had a chance to do many concerts this year they
ask for donations.

bachmahlerfan wrote: ↑<span title="Tue Dec 22, 2020 10:02 pm">3 years ago</span> This piece of music is new to me, but the Trinity College Choir does a magnificent job with it. The composer Richard Marlow is a former director of the group.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=HSfZGkIGi1A

I saw that too. In case the video can't be accessed, it's "The Advent Responsory". It's very moving with a haunting final part.

Trinity College Choir is one of my top favourite choirs. I'm super glad to have heard them in concert at my place and very warmly recommend to attend a concert if you have the opportunity.

Recently I started listening to Sela, a Dutch Christian band with a very rich and diverse sound.
They have many beautiful songs but today I want to share this one. I love the orchestration and the melody could even be turned into a Libera song, I think. I am also sharing it because of the message of the lyrics, which talk about the suffering of the world and holding out through a time of darkness. The song is from 2016 but sounds like it could have been written for the covid 19 crisis.

Wow, I just saw the three choirs concert in Oxford. New College, Christ Church and Magdalen together in the Sheldonian Theatre.

The opening Zadok the Priest is maybe the best version I've heard live. The clarity in the vocals was outstanding, I was grinning throughout the whole piece!

That sounds like an amazing concert!

It really was! All three choir directors conducted pieces, but in addition the three directors played together in J.S. Bach's Concerto in C for Three Harpsichords. Never seen more than one Harpsichord on stage before!

A nice sample of the concert for sure! Three harpsicords? Wow

Sitting in the bar of the Royal Festival Hall watching the sun shine on the Thames, which reminded me to say that on the 8th April the Southend Boys Choir will perform in Carmina Burana at the RFH. This is the choir founded by Britten. Never heard them before, but has to be worth a punt considering their provenance, right?

While I didn't make any of the recent Schola concerts I did make it to Carmina Burana with the excellent Southend Boys Choir. Apparently their president is now Bob Chilcott! They had a lovely sound, and are certainly a choir to look out for. Carmina Burana was stirring and fantastic as usual and we had Rossini's William Tell Overture in the first half!
I also made it to the Choir of Westminster Abbey's St John Passion last night. It was a bit of a last minute purchase, which meant taking one of the unreserved aisle seats. I managed to get a seat just forward of the soloists, so I could hear them properly, but with direct line of sight/sound to about 1/2 of the choir. I've sat further up before, but then the soloists are singing away from you which is no good for a piece were most of it is recitatives or arias. But pretty much anywhere you sit in the aisle you are going to have a massive pillar blocking some part of the view!
Now, as much as I love CVMS, who sang the St John Passion excellently 3 weeks ago, the Choir of Westminster Abbey were once again a step above, with an absolutely wonderful sound and fantastic soloists. (including two treble arias and a third treble as Ancilla)

Heads-up for those living in Germany or close by, the Trinity Boys Choir are on tour starting next week in Germany and Luxembourg. I can highly recommend checking them out. They will be touring as Trinity Boys NINE, which as the name suggests is their tour group of their best nine singers.

http://www.trinityboyschoir.co.uk/events/

I heard them in their pre-tour concert a week and half ago (their first public concert since 2019!) and they were in fantastic voice. They also have an exceptional soloist, Leo Jemison, who is frankly worth hearing on his own. Here he is two years ago. I had a ticket to hear him live as Miles, before it was cancelled... #covid

Thinking about the competition that Libera have for audiences in the UK reminded me of my trip to Canterbury at the end of April, where I was delighted to be able to attend evensong which was, purely by coincidence, boys voices only. Here is the Anthem from that day, RVW's The Call. ~at approx. 25 mins



Salisbury Cathedral Choristers are coming to London in June, which is a cathedral choir I have not managed to hear yet! Looking forward to hearing them!
As I posted recently, I was lucky enough to attend the three choirs concert in Oxford, featuring Magdalen, Christ Church and New College all singing together! Here is one of them, New College, singing in their own chapel, coincidentally also RVW. They posted this video today, presumably a clip from a recent evensong.



I mean, when you can freely hear such voices at evensong every week, it's easy to understand why Libera get lost in the crowd in the UK.