Review: The Armed Man
Short version: We were great, the hall was (as usual) too hot.
The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO) are amazing. Far better than the adult, Leicester Symphony Orchestra. Worth special mention were the first cello and trumpet who did very well in their solo spots. The cello slightly better than dress rehearsal, the trumpet slightly less so unfortunately. Actually, there were a couple of minor things that went better in rehearsal which is always a bit annoying. The men in Movement 4 (Save me from Bloody Men) were less together to start with but performed the last few phrases spectacularly. Movement 6 (Hymn Before Action) had the extra colouring to the words that Malcolm had asked for and was, I think, even better than when we did it with Karl Jenkins himself. The alto nearly had us all in tears in rehearsal with Now the Guns have Stopped (Mvmt 11), I'm not sure if that came across so well with the audience in and the extra background noise that results from people fidgeting. Speaking of which, somebody in the middle of the front row took a phone call during the performance!
It's hard to know from the middle of the choir how we did on conveying horror at the end of Charge (Mvmt 7) or in Torches (Mvmt 9). I know the audience didn't have the words, so hopefully we were clear enough - it was supposed to be "bene pronunciato". Possibly they were distracted by the singers in the back rows passing out at intervals.
If you want a better idea of what I'm talking about, the CD is on amazon, where you can also find excerpts from most of the movements, although not the most appropriate excerpts in some cases.
The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO) are amazing. Far better than the adult, Leicester Symphony Orchestra. Worth special mention were the first cello and trumpet who did very well in their solo spots. The cello slightly better than dress rehearsal, the trumpet slightly less so unfortunately. Actually, there were a couple of minor things that went better in rehearsal which is always a bit annoying. The men in Movement 4 (Save me from Bloody Men) were less together to start with but performed the last few phrases spectacularly. Movement 6 (Hymn Before Action) had the extra colouring to the words that Malcolm had asked for and was, I think, even better than when we did it with Karl Jenkins himself. The alto nearly had us all in tears in rehearsal with Now the Guns have Stopped (Mvmt 11), I'm not sure if that came across so well with the audience in and the extra background noise that results from people fidgeting. Speaking of which, somebody in the middle of the front row took a phone call during the performance!
It's hard to know from the middle of the choir how we did on conveying horror at the end of Charge (Mvmt 7) or in Torches (Mvmt 9). I know the audience didn't have the words, so hopefully we were clear enough - it was supposed to be "bene pronunciato". Possibly they were distracted by the singers in the back rows passing out at intervals.
If you want a better idea of what I'm talking about, the CD is on amazon, where you can also find excerpts from most of the movements, although not the most appropriate excerpts in some cases.