For our Autumn 2022 programme, Simon has chosen the ever-popular Vivaldi Gloria and Haydn’s delightful ‘Maria Theresa’ Mass (Theresienmesse).
Tickets for our concert, which will be on 10 December 2022 at 7.30 in the Great Hall at University College School, are only available via trybooking, an online ticket service. Tickets are £20 for adults and £10 for students and trybooking charge a modest 15p fee per ticket. Tickets will be available until 6pm on the day of the concert.
The programme for this concert is only available in online form (suitable for reading on mobile devices) – available via this link
Performers in the concert should check their emails for arrangements for the day of the concert.
We are very grateful to Bross Bennett, family lawyers based in Highgate, for their sponsorship of this season’s concerts.
If you are not on our mailing list and would like to sing with us, please contact us via this website.
In-person and online rehearsals
We hope that with the declining incidence of serious Covid-related illness, this can be a more “normal” term. However, we will continue to be vigilant and we continue to provide online rehearsals (see guide to online rehearsals below). We ask members to be respectful of each other and not to attend if you are showing any symptoms of illness.
For reference our simple COVID guidelines on behaviour are here. We hope that compliance with these measures will make our rehearsals safer.
Subscriptions
The subscription for the term (whether in person or online) is £85 (of which the tuition element, for those who have kindly signed up to allow us to claim Gift Aid, is £17). You should pay online and details of how to do this will be sent to those who register.
Rehearsal Schedule
Here is the rehearsal schedule for the term:
autumn-hampstead-chorus-rehearsal-schedule-2022.pdf
Recordings
As always, the BBC Building a Library programme is a good source of suggestions. Their recommendations for the two pieces are as follows:
Theresienmesse: (c/w Kleine Orgelmesse Hob XXII:7)
Janice Watson (soprano), Pamela Helen Stephen (mezzo-soprano), Mark Padmore (tenor), Stephen Varcoe (baritone), Collegium Musicum 90 Choir, Collegium Musicum 90, Richard Hickox (conductor) – Chandos
This episode of Building a library for this music is no longer available online. However, helpfully, there are YouTube videos of this version with the printed music.
Vivaldi Gloria: (c/w Bach Magnificat)
Emma Kirkby, Tessa Bonner (sopranos), Michael Chance (counter-tenor), John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Stephen Varcoe (baritone) Collegium Musicum 90, Richard Hickox – Chandos
This recording is available on YouTube.
A BBC recording using all women’s voices is also highly recommended –
This episode of Building a Library is well worth listening to as it gives many useful hints for singers
Scores
We will provide music for the first two weeks but after this you will need your own scores.
We are planning to use these editions:
The links here are to Presto Music, but you should also be able to source scores from Amazon or local music shops such as Dot’s in Camden Town and Les Aldrich in Muswell Hill.
Learning aids
Many of the learning sites provide aids to help you learn your part. We find the following to be particularly useful:
- Cyberbass – a wide range of major works, including both the Vivaldi and the Haydn. You can listen to individual voice parts or all voice parts, you can select a short passage to listen to over and over again, or you can speed up and slow down recordings.
- John F’s Rehearsal Files – John Fletcher has an extraordinary range of music on his site, with individual files for each voice part or for all parts together. You need to set up a membership – this is free for out of copyright music. There is a paid for option if you want to access copyrighted music – there are various options, but the individual rate for one year is £10.
- Saffron Choral Prompt – you can order CDs at a modest price from saffronchoralprompt.co.uk
01799 586269. You tell them the name of our choir (for a discount); which piece of music and name of publisher; your voice part. You will receive a useful (though not beautiful) recording of a voice singing your exact line with a piano accompaniment playing the other parts. This is clearly most useful for large scale works.
How does Hampstead Chorus Online work?
There will be plenty of help on hand but most members have found it quite straightforward:
- download ‘Zoom’ to your computer in advance of the session – it’s free video conferencing software
- each week you are sent a link via email from Hampstead Chorus, which you use to join that week’s Zoom session from 7.15pm for 7.30pm start
- sessions are an hour long and will be led by Simon Walton with assistance from Heather Tomala
- sessions are typically a warm up, some rehearsal time in parts (you will be introduced to ‘break out rooms’!), a sing-through probably with a recording and finish with time for feedback and a catch up
- a point worth emphasising is that, when you sing in Zoom sessions the only person who can hear you is yourself.
If there are two of you in the same location, unless you are the same voice part, you may wish to sign in from two devices so that you are put in the right breakout room. If you are sitting near each other, please ensure both devices are kept on mute otherwise there will be a horrible feedback noise.
Further information on setting up Zoom and what to expect can be found here.