Saturday 4 June 2011

A pleasant evening

We have achieved Poland, and had a great evening watching Gaudium - a vocal octet from Bialystok, who performed the second concert in this mini a cappella festival here in Poznań... a fresh mix of Bach swingle-style, folk songs & classic standards... the highlight was for us the last piece... from Poland's Russian years about the love between the Soviet Union and Poland! - Zawsze niech będzie słońce - perhaps not a happy memory... but the piece was jauntily and jazzily arranged and the audience did not need irony lessons... For those who wish to know, the last word of this song title is pronounced "Swansea" - a bit confusing for us Brits...

I for one have only been to Poland once before for only 20-odd hours in 1990... a very different country back then. This was a hit-and-run concert with City of London Choir and Orch. performing the Bminor Mass in Wroclaw... we arrived to see crowds already forming before we had rehearsed, and then we did the piece without an interval... with the Cathedral so packed that many stood in the aisles and chancel for the whole performance... endurance for both performers and audience and they did love it so...
...but back to the 21st century...

Our turn tomorrow... we have a Polish coaching in the am, to make sure we do not introduce the next goat as a pong from Skitland... I promise to honestly report on the amount of blank faces after our introductions!

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