Just got back from performing Mozart’s Requiem at St. Joseph’s in Subiaco with Collegium Musicum. It went really well.

Other times I’ve done the Requiem, there have been a hundred singers. This time — only twelve of us, three a part. It makes for a different sort of Requiem, more intimate. You have to be very confident on your part, and very precise; otherwise everyone notices every mistake.

Actually, the part I enjoyed the most was during rehearsal. It was during the ‘Benedictus’. The four soloists happened to be positioned all around me. I could hear each of them in perfect quadraphonic sound, and an orchestra on my left. Honestly, you couldn’t buy a seat to hear it the way I did.

We also did Bach’s cantata ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden‘. It’s BWV 4, so you can tell it’s one of his early ones. Not as singer-friendly as his later works. Very tricky runs, but lots of fun to do.

I love singing with a really good choir. I feel sort of connected with Mozart and Bach, and to all the people who have performed their works throughout history. The audience is in there enjoying it too. People like to hear a bit of history, especially when it sounds as great as this. And doesn’t everything sound better when you’re in the middle of it?