Yesterday’s concert

Very many thanks for your excellent singing at yesterday’s concert in Hambleden. I thought that the concert went extremely well – it was a lovely venue to perform in, and it was good to have received such a generous welcome at the church. It was pleasing, too, that we had a substantial audience present.

I felt that you had all work extremely well as a group to bring the music up to a very high standard in a very short space of time. In particular, I thought that the new pieces by Batten, Byrd and Purcell were all extremely well done – especially the rhythmically lively and very engaging singing at the opening of the concert. Some audience members (choral singers themselves) commented to me afterwards on how clear the diction was, and how much they had enjoyed the concert.

Many thanks are due to Charlie for his excellent playing throughout – the audience will have been unaware that he was unable to see me from where the console was.

I was sorry that because of preparations for Palm Sunday duties here at the cathedral, I was unable to afford the time yesterday to spend the earlier and later parts of the day with you on this occasion. It sounds as though you had an enjoyable morning and I trust that the evening meal was equally good. Huge thanks are due principally to Loretta for all her work co-ordinating the arrangemnets. Many thanks to those others of you who have also assisted along the way with arrangements.

I hope that you all have a good break over the next couple of weeks and a Happy Easter when it comes. I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday 2nd May when we begin work on our music for the summer term’s concert.

With all best wishes,

Tom