Requiem

It’s another one of those days when experiences go from the sublime to the ridiculous - or in this case, ridiculous to the sublime. 

G’s playing in Bangor University’s Remembrance Sunday’s concert and there’s an afternoon rehearsal.  Rather than just hanging around Bangor on a wet Sunday afternoon, I decide to go to a screening of Paddington in Peru. It’s not had the best of reviews, and it really doesn’t have the charm of the first two films, but it’s a good way to spend a couple of hours when there’s little else on offer. Of course, it being a Sunday afternoon and the first weekend of a potentially Block Buster children’s film, the cinema is packed full of families - I suspect I’m the only adult there without a child in tow! Yes, it’s noisy - both from the chatter and the constant crinkling of sweet or popcorn wrappers - but I just get myself into a meditative mood of acceptance , shut out the background noise, and actually quite enjoy it! 

Then comes the sublime; the concert where the highlight is Faure’s Requiem performed by the university choir and orchestra - both supplemented by local musicians like G. In the first half, we have Elgar’s Enigma Variations - beautiful played with, of course, the emotional Nimrod. But the requiem has to be the high point - quite literally in the case of Pie Jesu. It’s such a beautiful and emotionally charged piece, and eminently appropriate to the occasion. 

So today’s blip is a double exposure of the cover of tonight’s programme and the choir and orchestra at the end of the concert.