Saturday 7 March 2009

Free concert, thank you.

We've just got back from a concert of choral music, with some recorder and organ works, paid for by you (if you do the National Lottery), so thank you very much. Admission to the concert, held in St. Peter Mancroft church in Norwich, was free.


We arrived early and got the best seats: as no-one was in front of us for the large choir items it felt like the whole thing was given just for us! During the smaller items the choir occupied the three rows of pews in front of us.


The performers here are the Oriole Singers, directed by Jody Butler. They received a grant of £2231 (precisely) from the Lottery's Awards for All scheme. The main work was Haydn's "Little Organ" Mass, with soprano Jennifer Sidebottom singing the solo in the Benedictus. Her voice was a little small, matching her stature: perhaps she should have sung from the pulpit. I particularly liked her almost complete lack of vibrato.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What were the Recorder pieces? I have a particular interest in Recorder music.

Vallypee said...

How lovely that must have been! Your photos are great too. What camera do you use, Halfie?

Halfie said...

Alan - the recorder music was Sonata Prima by Dario Castello (1590 - ca 1629) which Julie Black played on a descant; and the Largo from Vivaldi's Concerto in C (treble). Both pieces were accompanied on the chamber organ by Matthew Pitts. And very fine it was too. (I also play the recorder, but I'm not very good!)

Halfie said...

VallyP - thanks. My camera is a Fujifilm f50FD digital compact, which I use on manual setting at iso 100 when there's plenty of light; and on auto iso 400 or 800 when it's a bit gloomy. The photo in the church was actually iso 1600. The exterior shot was on its night setting which allows a longer exposure. I supported the camera on a low wall for the 2 second exposure.

Vallypee said...

Hey thanks for the comprehensive info about your camera and photos. What it all amounts to is that you clearly know what you are doing with your Fujifilm 150 ;-) Very good indeed!