Forte and piano

The high spots of last night's choral concert came in the first half, given a cappella by the Merton College Choir under Ben Nicholas (late of this parish). A taste each of Tallis, Victoria, Palestrina and Robert Parsons, followed by four Marian antiphons by four women composers. Of these, Kerry Andrew's Salve Regina stood out, though - as with Giles Swayne's Missa Tiburtina - I disliked the musical scrabble of "in hac lacrimarum valle".

80-odd voices in Gloucester Cathedral make a big sound, which is not always needed, in my opinion, for as subtle and mysterious a work as Duruflé's Requiem. Nevertheless, both chorus (three choirs combined) and soloists were magnificent. My photograph shows Ben Nicholas applauding organist Carleton Etherington, cellist Guy Johnston, mezzo Esther Brazil and baritone Nicholas Morton.

Not a good evening for Brazil though. I caught up later with the first half - it was enough - of their 7-1 defeat in the World Cup semi-final at the hands of the ruthless Germans: the crowd of 67,000 (mainly) stunned to silence.

Full houses at Pittville

The Pump Room was full both this morning and yesterday afternoon - all to the good for the Cheltenham Festival finances. And for the first time after a lengthy gap, we once again get free tea or coffee included in the ticket price - though seeing how much they have gone up, it's just as well.

This morning's programme opened with the Escher String Quartet playing mid-period Mendelssohn (32 minutes, but it felt longer). Piano prodigy Benjamin Grosvenor - only one day out of his teens - then gave us Gaspard de la nuit: this must be hard enough to play at the best of times, but made more so when a phone goes off: this happened four times - does anyone else harbour murderous thoughts as I do on these occasions?

After the interval, the five performers combined to give us the Brahms Piano Quintet, which will surely have sent our royal patron off to lunch in a good mood: I was wondering why police were there directing traffic before the concert.

Yesterday's event that I attended was altogether more unusual: the period instrumentalists Florilegium combined with the Arakaendar Bolivia Choir to give us a nicely varied programme of Bolivian baroque pieces. From the first entry by the choir, processing to the stage, it was clear we were in for something different - a sound we don't get from European singers, even those open-throated Bulgarians.

Not everyone was rushing back to watch Federer v. Murray: an impressive percentage of the audience stayed for the post-concert discussion: Piotr Nawrot SJ and Ashley Solomon (Florilegium's director) gave a riveting account of how it has all come together. Hearing these newly-discovered religious settings removed, at last, the nasty taste left by Swayne's Missa Tiburtina the previous morning.

Deerhurst

The rain more or less held off for our visit to St Mary's Priory at Deerhurst this morning. This wonderful church was the setting for a concert by the unaccompanied Wellensian Consort: looking back at this year's Festival, I confidently expect it to be amongst the highlights. I shall remember their Purcell in particular.

A school contemporary of mine, Giles Swayne was present for the performance of extracts of his Missa Tiburtina, dating from 1985. (I hadn't seen him for 50 years, so it's hardly surprising I didn't recognise him.) I don't know Giles' music, and I'm not sure - after today - that I much like it, unfair though it is to judge on such slender evidence. Granted that he has revolted against his Catholic upbringing, what is the merit in picking apart the words of the mass, to make of them some sort of musical scrabble?

My sanity was restored by a gaze upwards at the Deerhurst Angel: in real life, you don't see it like this, but I thought it would be fun to see what could be done using Lightroom's Vertical Transform tool.