This morning, after Werner's warm-up session, I ran a last rehearsal of the Rollright Stones, which we did on the stage so as to be sure how the balance and acoustics worked. All sounded good, I was told from those on the floor of the auditorium. We sang through the piece complete, while I took a high-tech recording on my iPhone, which I placed in the acoustically perfect location on top of a pumpkin (don't ask). Werner arranged for the whole concert to be recorded properly with proper microphones and things, so a decent recording will come along eventually.
This was followed by the ensembles singing each of their pieces for the evening concert, in whole or in part. This confirmed that everything was ready for the evening.
The plan was that Werner, Marie (his wife), John and I would go to Ingelheim this afternoon to go for a walk, but as we arrived at Werner's house, the skies opened and put paid to that. Instead, after coffee, Werner drove me back to my hotel in Saulheim, which gave him the opportunity to go back to the hall to look for his wallet (which he told me he eventually found at home!).
At tea, coffee and cake time, the Jubiladies Quartet presented John, Werner and me with chocolates and lots of thanks. My package included a Playmobile knight on a horse. Perfect!
The concert was quite well attended, considering it was just an end-of-course concert, but there were plenty of friends and relations of the singers there, and people from the Sangehalle and Singakademie organisations. The first half and the start of the second consisted of performances by the three ensembles, of which Nobiles as the biggest professionals took the lion's share. All the performances were excellent (including performances of my "Sanctus" and "Agnus Dei") and were nicely varied. Nobiles also sang an old German song with Werner on guitar and John singing a tenor part, which was greatly appreciated.
Then we all took to the stage for "The Rollright Stones". Werner told the story, briefly, in German so that the audience had a fighting chance of understanding what it was all about. We then performed the piece with great gusto (and, to fair, a lot of subtlety too) and we were treated to a standing ovation from the audience. After a good number of photos of the ensembles, plus John, Werner and me, we had a good chat over a glass of wine, before Nobiles left to drive to Leipzig, the Trio and Quartet left for their homes and the rest of us back to hotel/home/accommodation.
Finally, here are the various participants of the five-day masterclass:
Ensemble Nobiles
Christian, Paul, Felix, Lukas, Lucas
Trio Avijo
Viola, Aaron, Johanna
Jubiladies
Marianne, Sandra, Hanna, Carolin
Jubiladies presenting John, Werner and me with gifts
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