July 2025 Playing Day

A surprisingly large number of us (18 by my reckoning) met for the last playing day before the autumn. Unfortunately Caroline was ill, so Mirjam arrived with arms full of music which she hadn't had a chance to look at, and the prospect of conducting the entire day! Fortunately though, Delyth also came along, and offered to conduct the late morning session.
Mirjam kicked off with a short piece, 'Abendlied' (Evening Song), by Josef Rheinberger. This was written in 1855 when the composer was 15, though not published as a revised edition until almost 20 years later. As usual for a piece written for voice, Mirjam asked us to take particular note of the breath marks.
We continued with a lovely set of pieces 'German Suite' by Eileen Silcocks, in which each part was played by a high and low instrument (i.e. Descant and Tenor, Alto and Bass, Tenor and Great bass, Bass and Contra bass). We were still getting to grips with this by coffee time, so put it aside to come back to later. 
After a short break, Delyth led us swiftly through 'Dances from "Der Lustgarten"' by Hans Leo Hassler, after which we were all ready for lunch.
After lunch, we continued the Eileen Silcocks suite which everyone really enjoyed.
A quick break for tea, then we finished the day with 'Variatonen uber "Der Winter ist vergangen"' by Heinz Joachim Zander.
We enjoyed our day of German music-making :). Thank you so much to Mirjam for stepping in at such short notice, and to Delyth for taking one of the sessions too. We all wish Caroline a speedy recovery!