I should be in bed – no, I really should, as it is after midnight and I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for well over 48 hours. Sunday night went straight into Monday morning as I had forgotten that I had not completed all the short scores, so at 4am I was just shutting Sibelius down. The rehearsal later that day was a wonderful experience – we had the new continuo team (Claire Williams and Kinga Gáborjáni joining Fanny Kelly) together for the first time, and also our other newcomer, mezzo Clare Wilkinson. Deb and I were overwhelmed by the beauty of the noise. Then this evening had another wonderful rehearsal with the choir. So looking forward to Sunday when we rehearse the choir with the continuo – then straight into the recording on Monday.
I’d like to say I have no idea about how this disc will be received, but I’m afraid I know all too well. Last time we had Know-nothing ClothEars saying in a national daily broadsheet that we performed the music without the bass line, even though there were three thumping great continuo instruments playing all the time. This time it will be, “How very dare they!” But you know what, I don’t care.
Palestrina’s music was made to be passionate, not sanitised. The Lamentations are some of the most agonised, vivid and searing verses in the Old Testament, and virtually every recording I have ever heard sounds as if the choir have been fed bromide for six months. Deb says Savonarola, and I agreed 100%. She has also written ornaments for the Mass that are so sexy they ought to be singing in basques, and we will make Palestrina into something that channels the overwhelmingly sensual love of God admitted by the early modern religious, and smacks the Doubting Thomases right between their disbelieving ears. So there.