Just something

Richter/Pärt
The Whitworth, Manchester
 
We had a long journey down to Manchester - in the rain.
We made slow progress in traffic queues on the M61 - in the rain.
We arrived at the Gallery and could find nowhere to park.
Eventually we walked through to the Gallery - in the rain.
 
Then we made our way to this big empty room - empty apart from a few people and some huge pictures. A few more people drifted in and wandered about and studied the pictures. And then suddenly one or two of the people, who had mingled in with everyone else, started singing. Then some more joined in. They sang from where they stood, in and amongst the rest of us. Absolutely mesmerising! The notes were so clear in the excellent acoustics of the room - they rose and fell and blended together, just like the colours in the paintings and the reflections in the huge panels of grey enamelled glass.

Then we knew why we had made the journey. It was just something one had to experience. 
 
This picture was in the afternoon, when we slipped back after lunch to listen again. It was a bit more static, as people were sitting down and it made it into more of a performance. In the morning, when we were there, it was more fluid as people carried on wandering about, you got reflections in the panels and the voices came from all parts of the room. But I did like the girl's rapt attention on one of the singers in this picture. 
 
ChrisF was at the same thing a few days ago and has explained what was happening better than I could. He was there in the beginning, when the Estonian choir Vox Clamantis were singing. Every day now a different local choral group performs. We heard Manchester Chamber Choir. They were so good and what an experience for them.