Welcome to the July newsletter ...

Desert island discs:

• Handel Messiah (Sir Malcolm Sargent heard as a baby, now Gabrieli Consort)

• Elgar ‘cello concerto (saw Jacqueline Du Pré and Sir John Barbirolli at the Hallé)

• Stockhausen Stimmung

• St John’s College Cambridge Andrew Nethsinga, Psalm 88 (makes me weep)

• David Bowie Let’s Dance

• Julia Doyle, Clare Wilkinson, vocal goddesses, Bach Wir Eilen (only part available here)

Favourite warmup? the phrase I was taught early on that captures all vowels from front to back and reverse ‘He who would know aught of art must learn and take his ease’ sung on one note very slowly!
Best advice I was ever given? ‘You are a better administrator than conductor’. Jerzy Maksymiuk said to me after conducting the Polish Chamber Orchestra. 20 years later I booked him for the RLPS!
Best performance I ever gave? Least awful. As a man with huge social and performance anxiety this is tough. Maybe my school vocal group in Liverpool Cathedral or last year’s Passion co-conducted with the wonderful Michael Haslam.
Best I attended? Jacqueline Du Pré (see above), or Singcirlce doing Stimmung in moonlit Holywell Music Room, or recent Solomon’s Knot in Trinity or London Gay Men’s Choir, or ….. the next one …
Favourite venue? For chamber music the Wigmore or St George’s Brandon Hill, for organ Liverpool Cathedral or just round the piano after a glass or two.
Favourite piece at the moment? Calligrammes, Carl Unander Scharin (heard at Cork Choral conducted by the genius Sofi Jeannin (Chamber Choir of Ireland)
Tea or coffee? Tea in the morning and coffee all day everyday.
Bach or Handel? Ridiculous question. Who thought of it? Oh wait … but Bach wins.
Beatles or Beyoncé? Beatles. I was born in Liverpool so what else can I say?
What will I be doing in 5 years’ time? Hopefully have just run my final and best Bedford Sings (and written an opera about Greta and Malala)