Yes – I know I blogged about this the other week. I’m not going senile, but it’s the only music I’ve listened to today. I’m beginning to wonder about the wisdom of my blogging strategy. Anyway, I turned on the car radio on my way home from work and this is what was being sung. It inspired me to put on the recording I have of it and follow along in my score when I got home.
At the end of the performance on the radio, the announcer mentioned that this is one of the pieces that will be included in this summer’s Proms. The line-up of concerts was announced earlier this month, as was the programme for next season’s RSNO concerts. So, after enough cheesy links to have a vegetarian barbecue, I have the chance to look ahead to the works that the chorus will be singing with the orchestra after the summer.
The big event will be The Damnation of Faust by Berlioz, which is based on the play by Goethe. It tells the story of Faust selling his soul to the devil in an attempt to save the life of his sweetheart (a bit like Liz Hurley’s masterpiece Bedazzled…). This concert gets a couple of pages to devoted to it in the orchestra’s brochure, so it’s obviously a big deal. We are also singing Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony.
Should keep us busy.
