I am fortunate enough to sing in the chorus of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. One of the great things about this is that I – a humble, amateur singer – am allowed to share the platform with some of the most talented musicians in the country, if not the world. From time to time, we are only involved in part of the concert and are able to sit back and enjoy the rest of the programme.
Tonight was one such occasion. We were singing in Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, which took up the second half of the concert. For the first half, we could slip into the auditorium and listen to Roussel’s Symphony No.4 and Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No.1 as performed by Steven Isserlis. Steven is one of the world’s greatest cellists and the passion that he has for music shines through his playing. Hearing him play live was a fantastic privilege.
The less said about the chorus’s performance the better, but the band were in top form. Special mention must go to flautist (flutist? fluter?…) Katherine Bryan who played beautifully.
PS: Lynsey thought I was being overly critical of the chorus in my original post, so here is a review of the concert which is actually quite complimentary to the chorus.
Five stars all round for Stephane Deneve’s all-French programme
It just goes to show: you can fool all of the people some of the time
[...] All-Night Vigil After the Daphnis et Chloé concerts at the weekend, it was time leave behind French impressionism and sing some words and tunes at our RSNO chorus [...]