Day Nine - Cincinnati May Festival 2008

We had a little more time to ourselves on Day Nine. Only one of the three chamber choirs were involved in the Sunday performance, and we didn’t have to be at the Cathedral in Covington until 2:30. We worked with Bob in the Covington Latin School gym for nearly an hour to add breaths every three or four beats (for Conlon’s benefit – he seems to like short choppy phrasing) and then went to the Cathedral to rehearse.

The piano tuner had evidently taken longer than expected to finish his or her job, so the Youth Chorus got a late start. That meant we had a chance to listen to a part of their final rehearsal. These kids are amazingly talented. The soloists were superb (Dr. James Bagwell, head of the choral department at Bard College in New York, their director, says there’s something in the water in Cincinnati that produces great voices in adolescents).

When they were through, we ascended the risers behind the altar and started singing. It was awful. The acoustics were such that we couldn’t hear one another at all, so we shuffled ourselves around and sang in mixed positions. I was standing with a bass, a baritone, a first alto, another second alto, and a soprano. Somehow that worked and we could again sing in tune.

We’d only worked with Conlon on these pieces once, and everything he wanted on Sunday was different that what he wanted the week before. Then we had all those new breaths to remember. I did not have a good time at all (and standing on my recently injured ankle added to my misery).

The performance was better, thank goodness, and somehow we rose to the occasion. I can only say that it would have been infinitely better had Bob Porco conducted us. His phrasing – long flowing lines that insistently connect phrases – is much more beautiful. Fortunately, the church’s acoustics helped to make those frequent breaks in the line less apparent.

Day Ten will be a piano rehearsal at Music Hall, starting work on the Berlioz, Faure, Vivaldi and Bach. I look forward to the Friday concert. Bob Porco will conduct us and that means that the Friday concert will be the best of the five.