Last night members of the Choir assembled in the large hall at CPPS and sang together for the first time since June 2021.  What a wonderful feeling it was to be making music together again, from the discipline of learning new parts to the excitement of bursting into the opening chorus of the well-known Coronation Anthem, “Zadok the Priest”.

What is more, we fully expect to do the same next Thursday evening, and on all following Thursdays, until, at the end of May, there is the frisson of putting on our first concert in over two years.  Suddenly it seems that, despite all the awful things going on in the world around us, there is the opportunity to enrich our own lives and those of others by making music together.

Last Friday Anne and I heard an outstanding performance of the Fauré Requiem given by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir.  It was very measured, with the few climaxes standing out starkly against a marvelously restrained backdrop.  It was to have been the subject of this blog, but it was overtaken by the events of last night.

Somehow, the experience of singing together, however tentative and imperfect we may be, eclipsed that of listening to even the best of other groups’  performances.   Snatches of Handel have been with me all night and have been upmost in my mind as I write this piece.

Other choirs may provide us with inspiration to give the best of ourselves, but there is no doubt that the best feeling, the best tonic, the best therapy, is to be singing ourselves.  Long may it continue!