May 2025 Playing Day

Around 15 of us gathered on yet another beautiful sunny day to play together. We were joined by Lesley Chapman from the Cheltenham & Gloucester branch, who was to conduct us in the afternoon.
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First though, Caroline kicked off the day with 2 beautiful Renaissance pieces:

​Ultimi miei sospiri by Philippe Verdelot 1470-1552
and
Vigilate, William Byrd 1540-1623

After a short break, Mirjam continued with another 2 movements from the Corelli Concerto Grosso we started last month.
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When we stopped for lunch, Lesley re-organised our seating, so that the basses sat in the middle next to the descants, with altos at one end and tenors the other. She explained that this was her preferred format, so that we could all hear the basses - and altos and tenors face each other so can also hear each other. Everyone can hear the descants of course!
After an enjoyable al fresco lunch, she led us expertly through the following pieces: 

​La Feliciana by Banchieri - SATB
Andante in D Major - Mendelssohn SATBGrB
An Wasserflussen Babylon from Three Chorales - JS Bach, arr. Helen Hooker
Lazy Bones - Hoagie Carmichael - SATB

Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the whole day. Thanks as usual to all our conductors, and a special thanks to Lesley for coming over to Wales; we hope you will come again!