Mike writes about our concert in SJSS and the last day of The Gesualdo Six’s 2016 season:
Saturday morning brought with it something not yet experienced on this tour: a lie-in, and a much needed one, after a lively wine and perudo evening after our Salisbury concert. The group stumbled blinking from their dens at times between 10 and 11, to enjoy a delicious Wicks family breakfast, before heading off to Salisbury station and back to the big smoke. Three pieces of left luggage and one slightly broken family car later (Sam is stronger than he looks), we were on the train to London.
We got to Smith Square just before 3pm, and rendezvoused with our sleep-addled director, who was already one concert down for the day, having travelled 200 miles to conduct Cambridge Chorale in a Christmas carol concert at 11am that morning (glutton for punishment that he is). With that in mind, we had a leisurely rehearsal getting used to singing in the venue again, which after 5 concerts there this year, feels like home for us. A couple of hours later, we went for the customary pre-concert Pizza Express, and hurried back afterwards to try and dodge the miserable weather.
No such misery in the concert, which was a tremendously enjoyable experience. The SJSS audience, bolstered by friends and relations, was wonderfully appreciative, and it felt quite sad to bid farewell to a programme which we are all hugely fond of. I’m sure some of these pieces will be getting many repeat G6 airings! Post Jingle Bells (which included some classy Santa hats from our tenor section), we retired to the crypt to indulge ourselves in a bottle of prosecco or five, before going our separate ways. It has been a most enjoyable first Christmas tour, and as I sit writing this blog on the way to my Sunday singing on a beautiful winter morning, I’m already looking forward to the next one!
A photo from the curtain call of the final concert of our Christmas Tour on the 10th December in St. John’s Smith Square, featuring Joseph’s Santa Hat.