Anyways, we crashed on with a run through of most of our repertoire for the Portrait Gallery concert. A couple of highlights for me: Oliver2 and Kay2’s faces when confronted with the delights of the Gaelic Set certainly was one of them. I forgot how mad (and complicated) this piece sounds when you don’t know it. I remember back through the mists of time in Mummy Elaine’s car on the way to Arran, going through the first (third?) Gaelic set and desperately trying to bash the words into our heads. Now we are on the second (second?) Gaelic set (I’ll get complaints from some of our older Rudsambee-lets who will probably claim that this is the 29th Gaelic Set they have attempted, but heigh ho!) and it still proves a bit of a workout. Oliver2 and Kay2 looked as if someone had bashed them from behind with a large carrot - startled and ultimately confused as to the meaning of it all.
We went swiftly through the Tormis (rather brilliant comment from Anne – the end of Kanarbik has an Estonian word that sounds like ‘leek’. Anne could not remember this part on our final run-through but could, and I quote, "remember it was some sort of vegetable" – the mind boggles; what was going through her mind? "Turnips, carrots, runner beans, ah no - leeks!") which sounded quite good (may I say in another unnecessary parenthetical moment that there are now two whole references to carrots in one blog post - pretty impressive vegetable promotion for you there). And so on to Ae Fond Kiss. Despite the fact that Diva Helen will not thank me for it, I’d like to point out that her first verse always sounds beautiful. It must also be said, it sounds infinitely more beautiful when the rest of the choir sing the accompanying parts in tune. Alison had some trouble with the words and ended up with "Deep in heart wrung tears I’ll wedge thee" - "wedge" being a combination of the words "wage" and "pledge". Goodness, that adds a whole different image to proceedings!
All in, a good pre-gig rehearsal and, although "Green Fir Forest" still felt a little like holding on to a high ledge by your fingertips while trying to play the banjo, we were quietly confident.
And so to last night. It is a great shame that the Portrait Gallery will be closing for so long because it really does have a great acoustic and we enjoy singing there, even if the audience are all forced to perch somewhat precariously on what look to be camping chairs - it adds a little excitement to the event. The audience was, as always, large - in the number sense, I am not making any comment about individual size, particularly after drawing attention to the camping stools. As usual we warmed up in the old library, a room with the best acoustic in Edinburgh. The concert itself went very well. The opening two Tormis pieces seemed to shock the audience into submission from the off, indeed, surely this was the first time that Estonian folk musical clashes were teamed with classic Irish folkie number Star of the County Down. We are nothing if not eclectic! "Envoi", as always, was a terrifying journey of horror for the Soprano2 part and we nearly made it intact. A number of people were impressed by our attempt at Mandarin in "Green Fir Forest" and "Crucifixus" was great in spite of the exhaustion that suddenly came upon a number of us after a seriously big sing. The key with this latter piece is to get your third note bang on key. Miss it and you’re dead. Fortunately we all hit the third notes and the relief was palpable. The audience seemed to appreciate it and Maestro Boy looked like the clichéd cat with cream.
A couple of important notations – this was Kay2’s first concert with us so hoorah for that. And it was Rachel’s first since the arrival of Baby Bel. Great to have you back.
Now there is only the impending delight of wiping the floor with everyone using my favourite Guitar Hero riffs at the Rudsambee party on Saturday night. I’ll write something (probably less than profound) after that.
Until then, thanks to all who came last night.
CSW
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