Concert 3: Bad Schmiedeberg

After a day in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, a delightful concert hall awaited us in Bad Schmiedeberg. Part of a spa hotel it is decorated in the German art nouveau, or jugendstil  style. It's unusual for us to perform in a hall on tour, our usual venues are churches. This meant that there was no organ, but a good grand piano instead. We were also able to do some non-sacred music, so the anthems by Barstow and Ireland were put aside in favour of Elgar's From the Bavarian Highlands, of which we did four.

We opened with the Hallelujah Chorus, a hit as usual, and then the unaccompanied Mendelssohn motets. Rosie Asher was a great success with her three musical theatre numbers, and then the Elgar, which went down well. After Byrd's Ave Verum and Gjelo's Ubi Caritas we raised the roof to finish with O Thou the Central Orb by Charles Wood. As always, John had to shout to announce our encore!

The audiences have been wonderful on this tour. Not only have they been large (we had about 120 tonight), but really appreciative. You could tell this not only by the length of their applause, but by the looks of pleasure on their faces!

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