Garden, Welsh, Tate Britain and Meistersinger!

Tidied up and then to visit church warden Cynthia's garden at 43 The Vale Coulsdon in aid of the centenary appeal. Lots of the congregation there. A beautiful garden on a slope and nice tea and cakes - she has a gardener. To the cathedral for ecumenical celebration of St John Roberts martyr. Welsh bishops and Archbishop of Canterbury preached. Hymns in Welsh to sight read tenor part! Harp. Stuart Kale sang a special piece with choir by Brian Hughes. William Mathias Toccata Giocosa at the end. We were acolytes. What a joy to talk to 2 Belmont brothers and hear Dom Brendan is off to Syria this year. They knew my SSG articles and I urged them to attend PMM! To Tate Britain to see "Rude Britannia". This did not even raise a smile and the really rude bits were oddly unimpressive. An erection is just that - funny I suppose in a way. The video of Sarah Lucas the woman artist eating a sausage and a banana was intriguing. Preferred the 2 wonderful fighter planes in the Duveen gallery. Saw a bit of Alys's Guards video. Had tea in the members room. Walked back past the Westminster school grounds where cricket was in progress - a lovely day. Vespers and Mass with Fr Tim. The high altar is walled off for the improvements. Lees choir sang Byrd 4 part Mass and Stanford Coelos ascendit and Brahms. Eucharistic prayer 3 as at our wedding 35 years ago. Meistersinger on BBC4 from Proms. Bryn Terfel and the Welsh opera chorus were superb and the orchestra too. A standing ovation at the end. All the soloists were excellent. Great to conduct it from my reclining sofa!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Clergy supper and outreach at Coulsdon

Guernsey 2