There were these three choirs

I've had a week of marvellous music at the 281st Three Choirs Festival. The Cathedral Choirs of Worcester, Hereford, and Gloucester (and their friends in other choirs, orchestras, and small ensembles) have been doing it for some time now, so perhaps you'd expect it to be good.

• Opening service: Howells Collegium Regale Te Deum and Jubilate; Vaughan Williams Lord, Thou hast been our refuge and Old 100th (Although Howells is still probably my favourite composer, I'd forgotten just how amazing some VW music is.)
  


• Choral concert: Elgar The Apostles


• Baroque Splendour: Handel Zadok the Priest, O Praise the Lord with one consent; Garth Cello concerto No 5; Purcell Hail, bright Cecilia!
  


• Messaien Quatuor pour la fin du temps. Heard it before, but this was an outstanding performance. Clarinet crescendi were brilliant.


• Passion and Pomp: Tchaikowsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-overture; Elgar Pomp and Circumstance March No. 6; Ferguson Amore Langueo; Gant A British Symphony.


• Cathedral Lay Clerks in Concert: Madrigals, songs, spirituals, and close harmony. Most entertaining - I wished that I could have been in one of those choirs.


• Vespers for St Wulfstan (for the 1000th anniversary of his death, using old Worcester plainsong).


• Bach and Bells: Bach Christmas Oratorio (What interesting instruments the Academy of Ancient Music have - baroque trumpets, with finger holes not valves, and funny curved oboe da caccias.


• Saintly Visions: Elgar Overture Froissart; Mussorgsky (arr Stokowski) Pictures at an Exhibition (don't think I've seen 7 french horns in an orchestra - fantastic performance); Britten St Nicolas.


• David Rees-Williams Trio: piano, bass, and drums with improvisations on works by Debussy, Bossi, Vivaldi, etc.


• Seascapes: Messiaen Les offrandes oubliées; Britten Four sea interludes from Peter Grimes; Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony. (The VW again was splendid. I felt very lucky to have had the chance to perform it before.)


• Acoustic Triangle: improvisatory jazz based partly on contemporary European music. Core trio of piano, sax, and bass, augmented with a string quartet and two additional violins.


• Gillian Weir Recital on the brand new Worcester Cathedral quire organ. Reger, Bridge, Whitlock, Parry, Messiaen L'Ascension, Handel, Messiaen, Charpentier, Mulet, and Bovet.


• Christopher Allsop recital: Shostakovich Festive Overture, Alain Deux Danses à Agni Yavishta, Liszt Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen.


• Evensong: Spicer Responses, Howells New College Service, Harris Faire is the heav'n.


• Love and Lust: Ferguson Overture for an Occasion, Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Orff Carmina Burana.


• Fireworks (percussion?)


• Angela East Cello Recital: Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites 2 and 3.
  

18 concerts in a week was a great thing to be able to do. I don't think it would have been possible to attend all 64, as some events were on at the same time, but maybe I could aspire to more "next time"! If my annual leave quota hadn't been such a carefully managed commodity, I'd have used some this week - except that then I'd have been due to go on the Peak District jaunt with Joanna, Stephanie, and Helen. I only had the cheapest (unreserved) seats, which meant that I had a good view of the proceedings on a TV screen. But the stewards invited us to move to better seats at interval, which I did many times. The stage was at the West (rear) end of the Cathedral, and there was a stand of tiered seating in the crossing. That meant that seats in the Quire and the transepts couldn't see the stage.