Concert day involved the usual mad dash to get all my normal Saturday chores done before I had to go over to Campden for final rehearsal, with the added complication today that we needed to make up beds for the Offspring, both of whom were due to arrive this afternoon while I was out. In the event, by the time I buzzed back in, full of excitement because the rehearsal had gone so well, only L was there – her brother having been caught on the wrong side of an emergency motorway closure on the M1, between Leicester Forest East and the M69 exit. R, L and I spent the rest of the afternoon poring over live traffic maps and fretting, but obviously there was nothing we could actually do to help, and by the time the police eventually reopened the road it was obvious that H was going to have to come directly to the church, and was going to be at least twenty minutes late.
Despite my ongoing worry about the whereabouts of my biggest best Boy, and the distraction of needing to keep one eye on the church door, in the hope that he’d walk through it in one of the breaks between movements, singing in this concert was one of the happiest musical experiences of my life. The orchestra and soloists were terrific, and the choir really stepped up: R, who’s been to nearly all our concerts, said that he’d never heard us sing better. L said that the piece made her cry in a couple of places, and I have to say that when the BBB finally walked in and sat down, I felt pretty emotional myself. H – who’d actually sat in the freezing church porch through most of the piece, listening through the door, until his sister realised he was there and ushered him in in time to properly hear the last three movements – was very kind and complimentary about the performance, as well as quite unnecessarily apologetic about his lateness.
Back at home we all sat in the kitchen chatting for a couple of hours, while I gradually brought myself down from the concert high, and drank a little more red wine than was strictly good for me. But after a day of emotional highs and lows I had a greater than usual need to unwind, and if I’m hung over tomorrow, I guess I’ll just have to take the hit.
R: L2, C7, D9.
