Braveheart Anderson-Victorias y el Corazon Deportivo

It's a glorious week ahead,with basketball in the finals,and a prematch analysis for volleyball finals futile,it's all square for Symphony of Voices 2006,20th anniversary.just that it was Rachie's swansong,and quite a sweet one

well,actually I was slated to lose $21 but Matt came to the rescue with an extra where no one would be quite bothered...frankly speaking,I wanted an $84 treat and then seat at the VIP stalls,but a commandant's tactical view from circle 1 seems nicer anyway.shockingly,it's gladys,wini and 2 more i dunno showing up beside me...and wini seemed pleasantly shocked while gladys found an old fren once again.since she's got SYF for today,at this moment I think she's putting her best in her first and final performance...goodluck! whatever that is SOV is the highlight of the Concert Season. Almost everyone would make a beeline for the limited tickets available,and allegedly they pack the Esplanade

hell yeah!this time the first half is supposedly what they did in Verona,but it seems to me a very dark start,and brisk one...contrast this to the Whitacre monopoly...whereas a melange of different cultures(Jewish,Indonesian,CHinese) becomes passe...instead it's like as if you weren't even in the stratified atmosphere of Esplanade at all.

These 2 are from Luzzasco Luzzaschi
Alma Redemptoris Mater:quiet Gregorian that perfectly complements the march in by each member into stage.it looks like the emcee was going AWOL,so they went autopilot.It's the reflective sort of stuff which makes you want to pray to God
Ad Dominum cum Tribularer:Baroque?the brisk melody makes it seems like it was from another period
Factum est Silentium-Richard Derring:apparently it's about Michangelo and Satan doing a show battle in a somewhat Renaissance piece.actually it wasn't as majestic as expected of such a great victory
Hear my prayer,O Lord-Henry Purcell-that was a ballad.would have been a bit more attractive as the climax itself
The Shower-Edward Elgar:NOT the bathroom,silly.that was a sad piece,rendered in the expansive choir,it's a deadly combo
Ta-no-kusatori-uta-Michio Mamiya-1st of the Japanese trio.The delicate cru classe is quite suitable for this girly song,reminiscent of cranes in flight
Taue-uta-compared to the last one,whatever the high notes has been rendered neutral by the nasal bass that adds to the heft.same composer as the last sone
Ashita wa hare kana,kumori kana-Toru Takemitsu-another certain pattern in Nelson's choirs is the presence of at least a Japanese love song this year.this is more guy centric,but somehow as beautiful as it is,witht the bass as the old mature sound and the young boyish sound with the sops
Confitermini Domino-Alberto Grau-musica sacra moderna...or in spanish,for the convenience of the Venezuelan readers,musica sagrada moderna.Typical conquistador job with all the cut and pastes from Spanish style,varying rhythms and tribal funka,a trance like feel in the middle of this long piece where all the performers go on a trance...not kidding...and finally while all the sensations tease your brain and somehow manages to enthrall without being confused,a LOUD BANG ending jerks you back to reality.¡EXCELENTE!
Binnamma-same dude,same song,different choir.everything varies,and the guys unbuttoning the jackets and the sops trembling chests give a hint of what was to come,as an astonished matt was asking me what's up with the guys.it's a more sharper,more expansive and more crystal clear rendition with well defined rhythms...and the acoustics only play a small part!


Extended break from VJChoir and this is the following...Tu us Petrus is a long way from being chateau petrus from the music world but would suffice,Jerusalem Surge was quite surprising because there weren't a surge at all,surprisingly delicate for such a piece,and Reminiscences of Hainan brings us back to the boisterous villages of rural China,even as I couldn't understand the Hainanese lyrics(I'm Hakka by the way,a even more brusque bunch than the Hainanese)


月亮代表我的心-David Tao by way of Teresa Teng-accapella meets R and B meets Golden oldie?mushy?no...this was a classy rendition of those guys
解脱-A-Mei-a wispy feel from the sop-alto accapella,a stripped bare cover with more grace
Mein Kleiner Gruner Kaktus(auf deutsch.In english their typos aside it's My small green cactus)-Bremen,Bavaria,Berlin,whatever of Germany.not so cute as expected,but since this was without the oompah bands,I'd gladly trade my flagon of helles for something that tastes like a cactus(think Berliner Kindl with woodruff)
I Write the Song-Bruce Johnston-one of the more classy of ballads...absolutely love ballads to bits,a thousand emotions in a song

Rock around the clock-Freedman and de Knight and Bill Haley and the Comets,Jeremy Jackman remix-I realised that,with each passing minute,it looks as if we're less in a choir concert and more in Broadway.looks like you can boogie until 3am before trudging back to school,eyelids drooping.but it ain't an option,so it's getting funny.given that I've got Volleyball finals later,It's quite an apt term to use

Sit Down,You're rocking the boat,Frank Loesser,Grayston Ives remix-same as their December Christmas concert,even more opera with their tenor on tow
Bridge Over Troubled Waters-Paul Simon and Clay Aiken-Clay would have been proud of their beautiful rendition unplugged

Encore 1:(some Indonesian song that you'd have to rapid fire)-no so impact...actually
Encore 2:Pamugun.actually not the same encore as Rachie had told me,just that the screech was unexpected,so was the subtle nuance that sounds like a dove colony descending on the Singapore River outside Esplanade,or Nicoll Highway

By the time I finish my post right now,a massive army of AJCians will be storming Toa Payoh for the match of their lives,and not just the volleyballers.Some people wait a lifetime,for a moment like this,so without further ado,i don't bloody care if none of the J1 debaters are with me or not.and i don't bloody care if there's college day actually.Just cheer all the way.in a rarely seen scene in AJC,even the most hardened of mugger classes have pledged their allegiance to the blue-and-yellow of AJC by sending their mercernaries to assist the Council,and my hunch is that a 1000 man army will obliterate everything in front of them,just like the volleyballers do..ALLEZ AJ!!!