My Advent Calendar – 1 December – Carols with the Symphony orchestra

OK, so I know I’ve been MIA* for nearly 4 months. There are reasons for that, but I won’t go into them today. Today is the first day of the NZ summer and the start of the festive season. Anything before December doesn’t count. So let’s get festive.

* missing in action

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Some old timers might remember the last time I was part of the pop up choir, singing carols with the NZ Symphony Orchestra – 2 whole years ago. You can read more about that here, and listen to some of my favourite carols and Christmas songs, including Little Drummer Boy and Joy to the World by the fabulous Pentatonix.

I didn’t get to go last year, as our choir had a concert that night. So I was keen as mustard to start my December with this fun festivity.

Our choir leader, Julian, was teaching and conducting the singers today, and as usual, there was a sizeable contingent of keen singers from our Community Choir. It was a nice surprise to discover a friend from out of town there, plus a bunch of new friends to make. I had a lovely chat with a grandma from the Kapiti Women’s choir.

The program started with just the orchestra playing The Dance of the Tumblers, from The Snow Maiden by Korsakov.

The first song for us was “O Come O come Emmanuel”. I hadn’t heard this before, but had a few listens ahead of time, and it’s a lovely carol. There are no recordings of us singing it, but here it is from a traditional choir.

Next was “Unto Us is Born a Son” (not to be confused with “Unto Us a Child is Born” from The Messiah). Again, the words were new to me, but the tune was a familiar one from other hymns, so that was easy to pick up.

Oh boy, next up was the Hallelujah Chorus, from The Messiah. Now remember I sing in a Community Choir, and we do lots of world music. We never do choral work, so we’re not in practice for that, and even the high sopranos seldom have a very high part. In this the soprano part is screechingly high, if you’re not in practice. So a bit of prep was required, involving heavy duty scales for three days beforehand. It’s gorgeous to sing and lots of fun, and I hit most of the notes…

This version from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir shows how it should be done.

Next up, from just the orchestra, was Polonaise, from Christmas Eve, also by Korsakov

Then it was time for a Christmas medley featuring Away in A Manger, Silent Night, O Holy Night, Deck The Halls and We Wish You a Merry Xmas. Having done our best on the Hallelujah Chorus, these were just a lot of fun. (Silent Night and O Holy Night are featured in my previous post).

The orchestra finished with a quirky and charming version of God Rest You Merry Gentleman.

See the Te Papa (our national museum) website - https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/visit/whats-on/events/nzso-te-papa for more about the full day’s activities and the venue.

Like my little Advent calendar? As you can see, it is free to use and designed by www.freepik.com.

What will my festivity for tomorrow be?

Thanks for reading and listening

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