Interior, Birmingham Oratory

A review appointment for Len in Birmingham today. We  had time to cross the road to visit the church of Birmingham Oratory. I'm saddened to learn that the church no longer hosts concerts. I think the Vatican feared an encroachment of secular music. The likes of the Birmingham Bach Choir must also be very sad. The acoustics would be wonderful.

As might be expected, the interior is richly decorated. The coloured marble stands out in particular.

We visited the shop and had a cup of tea at ridiculously low price, before driving home through heavy rain, that stopped by evening.

Joy looked after Basil who was much more comfortable with her and Penny, her dachshund, than he has been in the past.

I dined on a salmon and lentil salad while Len went to play tennis, again. But that has given me the opportunity to listen to Britten's War Requiem broadcast on the BBC Proms. Fiendishly difficult at first hearing, but not SO much work for the chorus which presumably makes it more manageable for those choral societies aiming to perform it this Autumn, notably the combined forces of Leicester Bach Choir, Leicester Chorale and Leicester Philharmonic Society at De Montfort Hall in early November, and the Nottingham Harmonic Choir at Theatre Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham in late October.

Extras are of a side aisle in the cloister at the Oratory, and of the chapel of St Philip Neri, who founded the original oratory in Rome.