Tuning in

news, singers

I had my first full “In Tune” experience today. For those who don’t know, it’s a two hour show on Radio 3, the BBC’s classical radio channel, which highlights concerts and musical events which are coming up in the music calendar. Every day they have some guests who perform live in the studio.
I say my full experience because I have been on the show before but then all I had to do was chat about the St Matthew Passion from a studio in Bath. We were promoting a performance with The Bach Choir and luckily they already had a tape of a broadcast performance we had done a couple of years beforehand. I sat alone at the other end of an ISDN line while in Broadcasting House in London Sean Rafferty, the host, fired me questions over the ether and we listened to bits of the tape.…

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One last Bob story

news, singers

A story Bob Tear told about himself: Bob sang the Verdi Requiem only once in his life, in unusual circumstances, when he was quite young. “Once was enough, love.” Bernstein was conducting it at the Royal Albert Hall and Carlo Bergonzi was due to be the tenor soloist but fell ill. Bob was called in…

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Bob Tear – “sublime and celestial greatness”

news, singers

A neighbour of ours died last week and his widow asked me to sing something at his memorial next Friday. It’s always very hard to choose something for these occasions and I suggested Britten’s arrangement of “The Salley Gardens”. It’s short, it’s beautiful and it’s ripe with poignancy. The last time I sang it was just over two years ago in the dining hall of King’s College Cambridge, my old alma mater, at a dinner to raise money from fellow Kingsmen. It was a great evening. Philip Ledger accompanied me and amongst the diners were Stephen Cleobury (the College Organist), David Willcocks, and Bob Tear with his wife Hilary. …

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