30 January, 2011

Drinking is good for you

This evening, I have sung for the first time in concert with the small vocal ensemble Les Métaboles, which I joined last September. It had been somewhat frustrating up to now as I had missed two previous concerts because of my travelling, although just rehearsing with the group had been very fulfilling.

We just gave a world premiere of Dimitri Tchesnokov's Concerto for Piano and Choir. The composer was at the piano and we were the choir. It is a very beautiful piece, reminiscent of the greatest Russian tradition: Mussorgsky and his musical frescoes with chorus, Shostakovitch and his piano fugues. In addition, a touch of Liszt for the virtuoso piano.

The words of the chorus part are rather desperate: a man so disillusioned by life the only thing he wants is salvation from God and vodka, lots of vodka to forget it all. It all ends in drunken abuse. Luckily, it is all in Russian, so hopefully not many people in the audience understood what we were saying...


No drinking before the concert! The piece was so difficult to master we had to be very concentrated to sing it well. However, after the concert, while I was enjoying a glass of red wine with a friend who had come to listen to us, I saw a group from the choir toast our achievement with the composer in the same bar. I joined them later.

I hope we get to sing this beautiful piece again.

Vodka
Korpiklaani, Karkelo, Nuclear blast

1 comment:

  1. Et bien toutes mes félicitations! A bientôt, dans le sud-est.

    ReplyDelete