Messiah

I agree. It was lovely to see their faces at the end.

I thought it was excellent and hope the eight singers have some more opportunities to perform together.

The concert was wonderful. We were annoyed to have completely missed the training sessions. Story of my tv viewing life.

I watched it yesterday and wept through the first two episodes. I saw the whole “Messiah” dry-eyed today, and enjoyed it thoroughly.
Malone seems such a good, encouraging, positive teacher.

Really enjoyed it. Not a fan of Malone but thought he was good in this.

Loved it. I watched the first two episodes yesterday and spent the whole evening today enjoying the concert. Yes the blonde girl had a lovely voice as did the two basses. The choir. bass singer had a great voice too. The whole thing was quite an emotional watch. I like Gareth Malone and was impressed by the lengthy and very energetic conducting He doesn’t need the gym.

I have spent large chunks of my life putting into practice my passionately held belief that singing is the birthright of us all; that being inside a piece of inspiring music is a life-changing experience denied to many by the dearth of singing in school and the fact that some people are told they cannot sing. I run a community choir, and have done for 40 years, and singing workshops and much more over the years.

So this programme struck a chord ... a harmonious one! ... with me.

But I do find the artifical jeopardy that is introduced to these sort of programmes a bit irritating. There is no reason why they needed to be so time pressured... it could all have started a bit earlier and given them time to learn it with less stress.

Singing is for all! There is of course an important place for excellence and that too has been a major part of my life, but those with less talent and opportunity should not be excluded from performance, just in the appropriate context.

Well I did say it was a passion of mine!

What a lovely post! I think your observations are spot on Luckygirl13. There is always an element of fakery in this kind of programme- and at times it was more about the drama than the music.

However, I learned a lot from it and for me Handel was given rightful attribution for the continuing popularity of his master piece. One of the highlights of Easter for me.

And Roderick Williams is always worth a second glance! He is a lovely man as well as a brilliant musician.

Luckygirl, I have been singing Messiah and other choral greats for many,many years, and am so sad that what I call ‘proper’ singing is no longer being taught in schools. My (music teacher) son and I are very much at odds about this, and when I tried to tell him I thought it was sad that people would no longer want to sing Messiah, Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand or Beethoven 9, his answer was that they would sing something else!
I have only seen the first two episodes of this, and have enjoyed it so far. I do hope they will continue to sing in chorus, as there is nothing quite like the feeling of being part of a chorus singing these masterpieces.

I do so agree with you about the lack of ‘proper’ singing in most schools! I too have sung most of the choral greats, and it is such an enriching experience. My granddaughter has a really lovely voice, but her school choir sings almost no ‘classical’ music.

I enjoyed the programme on the whole, though I am not a fan of Gareth Malone.

The Music teacher at my children's school in Cornwall was (still is actually) very good and I still remember seeing my son in the school choir singing Unto Us A Son Is Born in Truro Cathedral.

Two of my GC go to a private cathedral school... they are not choral scholars, but the music opportunities are superb. One minute they are playing in a jazz band and the next singing Vivaldi and Mendelssohn with orchestra. Fabulous uplifting experiences denied to so many young people. They are very lucky, but the contrast with my other GC's opportunities makes me sad. Needless to say I try and redress the balance where I can

Isn’t it funny how things come back to you? When I watched the performance of Messiah, Gareth Malone directed the audience to stand for the Hallelujah Chorus, and I had completely forgotten how I used to always have a lump in my throat if the audience stood. Of course, full blown tears now watching it!

I am watching this at the moment, so uplifting and moving.
My 9 year old granddaughter has a beautiful voice and auditioned and was accepted into a professional choir. She loves it and is one of the youngest in the choir.
' We sing in Latin Nanny' she told me over the weekend.
I am very proud of her.

How lovely for your granddaughter Sar53

That sounds truly wonderful for your GD.

I still sing Adeste Fideles in Latin, because that's what we did at school.

Deeda, me too!