I can’t be absolutely sure, but I think I first heard this phrase at a rehearsal of the work we are preparing at the moment, JS Bach’s Magnificat.  I seem to remember that some of us from a local choir were joining a bigger choir to sing in the chapel of a local public school – this being England, of course a public school is anything but public and this one demanded huge fees from financiers, stockbrokers, country gentlefolk and the like, no doubt in exchange for a very good education for their sons and, latterly, daughters.

Curiously, this said chapel is not unlike the Cardinal Cerretti Chapel where we sing – rows of tiered seats facing each other down the side with forward facing seats in between; an organ at the wrong end of the building; but without the altar or canopy (which I have recently discovered is called a baldalcino – useless fact no 9938a) which add to the atmosphere and are beautiful but prove rather impractical when arranging a choir.

Anyway, that must be why I was reminded of the phrase last night.  Our conductor back in England was a lovely man called Murray.  In many ways he was like Carlos – modest, gentle and unflustered, a consummate musician who was never happier than when sharing his deep knowledge of the music with us amateur singers, neither talking over our heads nor dumbing us down.

At one of the early rehearsals the singing was rather tentative, perhaps a bit like us last night.  “Come on”, said Murray, “let’s have a bit more.”  Nothing happened.  Then “molto, molto”, he urged us.  Again, nothing happened.  “Can you give it a bit more welly?” was his next encouragement, but yet again to no avail.  In desperation, he uncharacteristically spoke quite loudly over the singing, “CON MOLTO WELLY!!”

It had the desired effect.  Everyone responded to this ridiculous combination of high Italian and slang English.  “Thank you,” he said.  “Now I can hear what you are singing – the right notes and the wrong ones – and I am pleased to say that there are many less of the latter than I was expecting.”

Maybe there is a message for us.  After all, rehearsals are for making mistakes – it’s only in the performances where we need to be perfect.

So, let’s carry on making lots of loud mistakes – and of course, correcting them – as we learn this exquisite music in the capable hands of our friend and wonderful musical director, Carlos.