DR JoseSPiano...
Howell's Hymnus is wonderful and gorgeous, but definitely not for sight-reading...even for someone of your superior skills! And you're right; the reverb doesn't help. I assume that the National Cathedral has some sort of closed-circuit monitor for these kinds of situations?
I remember a friend of mine playing for a situation like that. He wasn't with the conductor during a rehearsal. She cut the choir off and yelled out, "What are you DOING back there with that monitor...watching DALLAS???!!!"
Aw, thanks. Well, I sure did not feel "superior" during that rehearsal. The conductor had warned me in advance about the acoustic, and the delay. He told me just to follow his baton and try not to listen to the sound.
You want me to do what?!??! Like I said, I managed to make it through the Dvorak "Te Deum" that started off that rehearsal, but after a page or two of the Howells, the conductor made his way off his podium and gently nudged me off the piano bench. "It's OK. You'll still get paid."
After the rehearsal was done, the conductor and the section leader who called me both thanked for me coming in, and for dealing with such a challenging score and situation. That sort of made me feel better. But, frankly, I have to say I was sort of relieved that I was nudged off the piano bench. If I had known that the sound delay was going to be that bad, I would have played with earplugs in my ears.
