TOURS & TRIPS
Budapest, Hungary - May 2024
Our new upcoming tour in 2024 – Budapest in May. This is a city, rich in history, architecture, music and all sorts of arts. It is a romantic city, sitting astride the Danube, Buda on one side, Pest on the other. The Parliament buildings, Buda Castle, St Stephen's Basilica, Chain link bridge, Szechenyi Thermal Baths, Andrassy Avenue – the list of famous sights are endless here and it is no surprise that choirs, orchestras and bands flock to Budapest each year to perform, to entertain and to enjoy each other's company for a few relaxing days.
Preparations have begun, in fact, are full steam ahead. Return flights and hotel room are all in place and we are working hard on securing concert venues. St Stephen’s Cathedral is the jewel in the crown here – a gorgeous basilica where we shall thoroughly enjoy the acoustic and let Andrew loose on the incredible organ. And then, there’s the frolics; candidates for fun and games are many. Restaurants with great quality (and cheap!) craft beer as well as options for train lovers, thermal bath lovers, river lovers and (like me), just ‘mooching around in cafes’ lovers. Can’t wait…
Glastonbury & Wells - October 2023
October 2023 saw us heading for Somerset and Glastonbury Abbey - specifically, to the Abbot’s Kitchen. Yes, honestly. It’s one of the best-preserved medieval kitchens in Europe, a curious octagonal building that looks a lot like Hagrid’s Hut and stands in the grounds of the Abbey ruins. And somehow, we’d obtained permission to sing in it. Just for ourselves. No audience. Which was really rather special. Dodging the hanging bunches of herbs and suspended hams we stood in a big circle around the walls, took a deep breath and sang. First Lay a Garland, a heart-breaking Victorian madrigal by Luke Pearsall, then Palestrina’s, Sicut Cervus. Our voices rolled around the stone walls, up into the odd conical roof, and left via the smoke hole in the centre.
From Glastonbury we went on to Wells, six miles away, to the Cathedral. Normal if you’re a chorister of course, but for us, a rare treat. We loved rehearsing ‘behind the scenes’ in the specially-designed ultra-modern song school or the creaking and arthritic Vicar’s Hall that had been around since the fourteenth century. And working ‘out front’ dwarfed and amazed by the Cathedral’s famous scissor arches, was something else. What a glorious, soaring space. And the SOUND. Wow. Hearing the volume echoing down the nave after we’d stopped singing was AMAZING.
Tuscany - May 2022
Tuscany. Well late May in Italy seems a pretty good place to go for a sing. With concerts in Lucca, Montecatini Terme and Pistoia, the choir spent almost a full week tasting the delights of North West Italy. Few of us will forget the sun slanting through the window in Pistoia church, lighting up the swirling incense and rendering us ethereal-but-broiled.
There were many memorable moments: the old man singing ‘il est bel et bon’ as he wobbled away down the cobbled street on his bike after our evening concert at Lucca cathedral, the Chairman’s synchronised swimming team in the hotel pool, the soaring pillars and tinkling water of Montecatini spa as a concert venue. Not to mention our increasingly desperate efforts to learn that wretched ‘il est bel et bon’ off by heart and the choral exercise that Charlie somehow managed to morph gradually into a splendid version of Happy Birthday for Simon on his birthday, such that we didn’t realise what we were doing until we sang those very words. So clever.
One particularly lovely evening we enjoyed a spectacular dinner under the vines in the hilltop village of Montecatini Alto, then crammed aboard the little red funicular railway for our return trip back down again. As we set off, fireworks erupted from the town of Montecatini below. The dazzling display lasted throughout our descent, and as we got to the bottom, stopped. Some swift Googling revealed it was the Festa della Repubblica, the Italian National Day, but the timing of the spectacle was perfect, and we couldn’t help but feel it had been meant especially for us. Proper memories of such a happy week.
Mallorca - May 2019
“So, it’s Mallorca then, yes?” Five seemingly innocent words spoken back in early 2018 as the committee settled on extending our regular Cathedral tour to the near continent. Now the Singers are quite used to packing up our voices, music, shiny shoes, bow ties and heading off to Europe, but truthfully, it has been a few years. Springtime 2018 saw some serious planning – the main early effort focussing on finding venues, hotels, flights and transfers…
Hotel and flights secured, we decided on a recce. In November. In the cold. In the rain. Insane…! Over two days and two nights, we secured a fabulous line up of performance venues, including (after some embarrassingly plaintive begging), a full traditional Mass at the great giant gothic Palma Cathedral, La Seu. Added to this, we secured a singing day trip to pretty Soller, travelling there by original wooden train and a lovely musical Gala evening, complete with food and wine from the splendid people at the Anglican church in Palma.
Of course, there was plenty of beautiful sacred music including Bruckner, Gjeilo, Faure, Vierne and others - it is perhaps not surprising that the incredible setting of Palma Cathedral produced a memorable musical experience right across the choir. Our recessional ‘recital’ included Vierne’s Kyrie and when we had sung our final chord, like Oliver, the head of the Cathedral clergy asked for more. We were just delighted. We gave them Finzi’ s ‘God is Gone Up’ to finish. Gaudi’s famous altar piece trembled as Andrew found the swell box on the decidedly tricky Mallorcan organ…. Our conductors deserve a mention here; Nic Cummings, Julie Shaw and a budding young MD applicant, Joe Tobin shared the baton.
Please don’t think for a moment our repertoire was all sacred. No, no! The choir even rose to the challenge of a rather rapidly rehearsed hotel flash mob (Duke Ellington – ‘Don’t mean a thing’) that was billed as a male voice choir and followed a Tina Turner tribute act (don’t ask..), we performed some folk songs, spirituals and a fairly wide range of light music including Northern Lights, Ev’ry Time We Say goodbye, The Goslings, Lonesome Valley – you get the picture. For most of us, it will be the first, and possibly last time we sing ‘I do like to be beside the Seaside’ in full harmony to a packed breakfast restaurant. I did say, don’t ask.
The ancient train from Palma to Soller is gorgeous, wooden, charming and intrepidly weaves its mountainous way through orange and lemon groves. Rather romantic actually. The picture here is of a supremely happy choir all aboard, on our way to a sunny day of singing. Our audiences usually see us all dressed up, formal, serious, but our week in Mallorca this Summer reminded us that we also love colourful shorts, interesting shirts, strange hats, inane smiles and sunshine. Good for the voice you know – or was that maybe something to do with the local fayre… Either way, we will be off again on our choral holidays sometime soon.
Delores. Bass. Decidedly average travel consultant.