Libera Dreams

maartendas wrote:

Yorkie wrote:Fauré's Requiem - excellent. Lucky you

Maarten, I see they are in Rotterdam in September - is that far from you?

Better yet - they are performing with WSK in October

I think that's Mozart's Requiem

Why would you think that?

Faure's Requiem


http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/events/choir ... html#e4005


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Yorkie wrote:

maartendas wrote:

Yorkie wrote:Fauré's Requiem - excellent. Lucky you

Maarten, I see they are in Rotterdam in September - is that far from you?

I think that's Mozart's Requiem

Why would you think that?

Oh blimey - I only looked at the Dubrovnik dates
Btw - I got tickets for the Rotterdam performance! Row 5, whoohoo it's my boyfriend's birthday present (his birthday is a week before the concert). He doesn't know yet and I'm considering keeping it a secret until his birthday
Only downside is that we need to skip the first day of choir weekend with my own choir. But more people usually skip some parts of it so I figured, why not

maartendas wrote:Oh blimey - I only looked at the Dubrovnik dates

And I guessed you refers to the 'excellent'.

maartendas wrote:Btw - I got tickets for the Rotterdam performance! Row 5, whoohoo

What ? Not queuing ? I'll try to get a place in the 1st row (as you know I'm well trained )

maartendas wrote: Btw - I got tickets for the Rotterdam performance! Row 5, whoohoo it's my boyfriend's birthday present (his birthday is a week before the concert). He doesn't know yet and I'm considering keeping it a secret until his birthday
Only downside is that we need to skip the first day of choir weekend with my own choir. But more people usually skip some parts of it so I figured, why not

Here's my review of last night's performance
http://choirfan.wordpress.com/2012/09/1 ... rotterdam/

I wrote this at home as we skipped choir weekend to take some well-deserved rest.

You've heard King's Maarten, now's your chance to hear a proper choir

http://www.sjcchoir.co.uk/events/NetherlandsTour2012/

Thanks, we were already planning to go Probably Nijmegen, we'll get tickets as soon as the sale starts.

It will make for an interesting comparison I think, although I do wonder if it will be a normal concert or a Christmas one.

Ow nice, they are also coming to Delft. That's my city.. So easy for me to go...

LennesSL wrote:Ow nice, they are also coming to Delft. That's my city.. So easy for me to go...

Please do It won't be anything like Libera of course but if you have any love of choirs then these guys are right up there amongst the best in the world. It would be nice to get a review from you and Maarten of the concert.

Yorkie wrote:

LennesSL wrote:Ow nice, they are also coming to Delft. That's my city.. So easy for me to go...

Please do It won't be anything like Libera of course but if you have any love of choirs then these guys are right up there amongst the best in the world. It would be nice to get a review from you and Maarten of the concert.

I want to. But I can't figure out how to get tickets.. Maybe Maarten can help me

--edit: There is now a link to the venue for each concert on the St. John's website
http://www.sjcchoir.co.uk/events/NetherlandsTour2012

Got our tickets for St. John's concert in Nijmegen on December 21!

The answer to this very much depends on time. I guess, looking back through my lifetime my favorite choirs would be

1. King's College Choir, Cambridge (as conducted by D. Willcocks)
2. Tölzer Knabenchor (as conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt)
3. Wiener Sängerknaben (regardless of conductor)

Right now, however, this list would look different. More like

1. Københavns Drengekor, Copenhagen
2. St John's College Choir, Cambridge
3. Cantores Minores, Helsinki

Trouble is, some of these choirs have made few recordings that show them in their present state though they will be searchable on youtube.

There must be hundreds of excellent choirs out there I haven't even heard of.

I love all the choirs everyone's mentioned so far. I have very minimal choral expertise , but I have always really liked cathedral choirs. My favorites have already been posted, but one I didn't see talked about too much is New College Oxford. I think they're brilliant and very professional.
The others I find myself attracted to are Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey
They both sound magnificent. Westminster Cathedral in particular has an amazing resonant sound. I agree with what was said about their repertoire though.
So these are my three favorites. I think every choir is exceptional in its own way, but these I happen to like the best.

P.S. I enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts!

I just realized all the good things people have been saying about St. John's Cambridge!
To be honest, I haven't heard much from them. I really must stay on top of my choirs here!

sillybear wrote: I just realized all the good things people have been saying about St. John's Cambridge!
To be honest, I haven't heard much from them. I really must stay on top of my choirs here!

This is one of my most beloved recordings by them, from a bargain CD on the Naxos label. It wasn't on Youtube yet so I just uploaded it
(p.s.: the picture was taken in the Fitzalan Chapel of Arundel Castle, during my visit to Arundel in May this year for the Libera concert )

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