So far we have somewhat neglected the cultural side of life in Dublin but last Thursday we went to the National Concert Hall to hear The Tallis Scholars. This is a choral group of 10 singers who specialise in early music (15th to 17th century) although the concert we attended also included works from contemporary composers. They are absolutely at the top of their genre in the world and this is perhaps another benefit of being in Europe where first class musicians offer concerts at regular intervals. It was an evening of pure delight as their unaccompanied voices took advantage of the excellent acoustics of the hall. Probably my favourite piece of the evening was Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus (he was roughly a contemporary of Shakespeare) and I have managed to find it on youtube sung by The Tallis Scholars for your delectation. Even if this sort of music is not your thing, I recommend that you still play it, if necessary skipping through to the 3min 12sec point and listening to the end (about 1 minute). Glorious. The score shows up on the screen, so you can even sing along!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFZZMF7SRRo
The Concert Hall itself is a splendid building and although it looks old, it was built as recently as 1981. We had perfect seats on the balcony in the middle, second row, and the seat in front of us was unoccupied so we had a clear view to the stage. I took the photo as soon as we arrived but the hall was packed for the concert.
DELECTATION ! Now THAT”S a word not often used my friend ! Glorious indeed to hear the singing…sorta reminded me of St Mary’s schola !!! (sp ?) of which your dear wifey was a member . I was too naughty to be invited into that holy of holies ( also not top notch at the singing either ) and only made the choir as an alto, so my
claim to fame was to play 3 blind mice on the organ in the basclica ( again… sp?) . We were rehearsing for a wedding I seem to recall. Sally Lindsay ( daughter of the famous in Wellington conductor) had the most glorious soprano voice and she was a friend of mine so I trailed along listening to her.
Great getting your blogs and photos and sorry I didn’t reply to the last one . Got alotta stuff happening with BAD tenants and the cops, but that’s another story.
xx
Sounds like heaven. Can almost hear the music. I’m sure it was a most uplifting concert.