Greetings from rainy Copenhagen! I’m here for a few days working with the Copenhagen Phil and Stephen Layton, and greatly enjoying singing Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with such a wonderful orchestra and fabulous choir. There are 70 or so choirboys singing their hearts out - off-by-heart! - and they make a fantastic sound. So, between that and the beautiful venues, it feels as though Christmas is definitely here!
It’s been a busy few months and pretty varied too. I was lucky enough to sing in the new RWCMD hall in October, in a recital with David Miller on lute, when we got to perform music from our latest CD in a gloriously intimate setting. Not only is the hall extremely beautiful, it has the most wonderful acoustic - clear and yet generous at the same time. And I had a whole week on home turf, as it were, because I also enjoyed a great concert of Bach with Rachel Podger in the Brecon Baroque Festival, and a thrilling recital of Vivaldi in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, with Florilegium. This last concert was a performance of repertoire from our latest CD, and it really is a feast of Venetian splendour, with dazzling instrumental music and quite a lot of me!
Also in October I was asked to film a programme for BBC 2 and John Rutter - ‘A musical nativity’, which will be broadcast on Christmas Day. Well don’t be fooled by how festive we made it look! We filmed during the Indian summer heatwave in sweltering 29 degrees! It was a lovely day, and as ever a total joy to work with John. I’ll be recording with him again in January and am already looking forward to it.
November started with a whirlwind staging of the Fairy Queen (Purcell) for the Brighton Early Music Festival, which was a brilliantly exciting performance with John Hancorn, and then recordings and concerts with Harry Christophers and the Sixteen in London, Bath and Manchester. Then came the concert I had looked forward to most all year: a Wigmore Hall recital with Emma Kirkby and Florilegium, singing Couperin’s glorious ‘Lecons de Tenebres’. It’s the most stunning sensuous music, and having the opportunity to perform it with so many of my favourite people was a real honour. I was fortunate to be able to sing it just before the winter lurgy knocked me down, and sadly I had to pull out of a concert in St David’s Hall with the Cardiff Polyphonic Choir and Neil Ferris - such a disappointment. If only there were a way of boxing up one’s voice and putting it in storage in case of an emergency! Well, fingers crossed the bug has had its day, because I have a full diary from now until the New Year: Copenhagen, Norwich, Amsterdam and then Zurich. Here’s to seeing in 2012 hearty and healthy, and not TOO full of mince pies 
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