It’s turned midnight. It’s now December first. WordPress has switched on its snowflakes. They’re teeming down my screen. It’s officially the Christmas Season then.

Here’s Britten’s There is no Rose, from his Ceremony of Carols.  I’ll be singing Ceremony (as well as Handel’s Coronation Anthems) with Eltham Choral on December 12th. If you’re in the area, come along.

And if you keep listening, the next vid just happens to be Britten and his life partner Peter Pears, performing Purcell’s I Attempt from Love’s Sickness to Fly, which I also sing, or as I prefer to say, “… have had a go at.” It’s from The Purcell Collection/Realizations by Benjamin Britten/50 songs.

I have the book. It’s published by Boosey & Hawkes (hence the American spellings) and it’s deliciously big and fat. I’ve had a go at quite a few of the songs, especially Fairest Isle.  There’s an article by Britten in the front, On Realizing the Continuo in Purcell’s Songs. He writes of his and Pears’ concert tours, the nice acceptance of the Purcell songs they included, by foreign audiences, mentioning “… the appreciative giggles at the end of ‘There’s not a swain of the Plain’ in Fauré’s home town … ”

Fabulous voice, Pears.  There’s also, on You Tube, an entertaining video on Britten and Pears by Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek, The Next Generation).

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Season. Keeks is hoping for snow, as long as she is inside looking out on it.

Ann