Great Malvern Priory

We did not do very much this morning except to go into town for a few items from Morrisons. In the afternoon, Christine took a short walk up the locks to the junction and then a short way along the towpath towards Birmingham. However, she soon found that the recent rain had helped turn the ground very muddy. Meanwhile, Mike was making a start on a recipe for tomorrow's evening meal which Christine had picked out from a Delia Smith book that she had found in the Boaters' Lounge book exchange.

We had an early evening snack because we had booked tickets for a concert in Great Malvern Priory this evening. In fact it is not too far away, about 40 minutes drive or less if no traffic. As a former priory church it is almost cathedral-like in size and proportion, a splendid and impressive building on one of the higher parts of the town.

The concert was being given by The Elgar Chorale, a choir of about 30 singers, some amateur and some professional musicians. They were conducted by Piers Maxim, amongst other things the musical director for the Priory church. The headline work was Psalmfest by John Rutter and the rest of the programme followed a similar psalm-based theme. The concert began with short anthems by Elgar, Samuel Wesley, Howells, Vaughan William and Lennox Berkeley. The first half concluded with the first performance (a self described world premiere) of a work by the conductor himself, De Profundis which is also based on a number of psalms. The performance was of a good standard and we were pleased to have found something yet again different. There has not been a  lack of things to do whilst holed up in the marina.