After a 3-hour coach journey that included various degrees of boredom and lack of things to do (aside from card-games, sleeping and listening to Jack Bazelgette’s ukelele), the choir were not ungrateful to finally step off the bus outside “Hotel Riga” and breathe some mercifully fresh air. Although it was around 10 o’clock in the evening, it seemed that the last thing on every treble's mind was to go to bed as soon as they found their room as key cards were distributed outside the hotel. From as little as 3 seconds of being inside the reception, everyone could tell that the standards here were very much higher than those of “Hotel Shnelli.”
Breakfast the next morning was very much a delicious and pleasant affair. That morning we had a guided tour, as we did in Estonia. We passed many interesting sites, including the “The Statue of Independence” and the “National Occupation Museum” which we would visit later that day prior to our opening concert in the “Riga Dome;” home to one of the world’s largest organs on which I am sure Mr. Jaekal was more than happy to use his talents.
The concert that evening was fantastic, the only downside being the lack of the giant audience for which we had hoped and expected. After an encore of “Riu Riu Chiu” the choir made their way back up to the organ loft where we had left our bags. After congratulations from Mr. Toyne, we walked towards the restaurant where we would eat our dinner. It was raining. A promising sign that, if it carried on through the night and into the next day, we would go to a water-park instead of the beach!
Alas, it did not. Whilst on the coach on our way to the beach, we passed the water-park which we may have gone to had the rain continued. A collective groan was let out as it came into sight, a groan that carried on until the water-park had disappeared from view. But many of us had groaned too soon! We arrived at the hotel in which we would eat our lunch and walked through it to the beach behind. It was incredible. The sand was white and warm and the water itself was also at a comfortable temperature. Soon a large game involving a rugby ball and sixth-formers giving piggybacks to trebles was entertaining almost the entire choir. After some time spent as such and a few choir members going back to shore, the remaining choir members in the sea eventually returned as well. When everyone was ready to go to lunch, it seemed as though a considerable portion of the beach's sand had made its way into the choir’s shoes.
Lunch in the hotel was very good. After many attempts to sit with counterparts and two incidents resulting in to broken glasses from the same Year 8 table, the choir managed to settle. After lunch was over, the choir drove further down the coast to a town where a large music festival was taking place. We were allowed 2 hours of free time around the town and the beach. Many people decided to spend their time in the ocean once again whilst others decided to spend it in the towns’ boulevard. Once our time was up, the choir met at the rendezvous point, where the coach was to pick us up and take us to our dinner venue. That day being Mr. Toyne’s birthday, after rehearsing in the restaurants car park, a Close-Harmony group including two trebles, two basses, an alto and a tenor performed a harmonized version of “Happy Birthday” inside the restaurant. After doing so, Mr. Toyne was presented with a series of awesome presents and a large cake!
Upon returning to the hotel after dinner at about 11 o’clock, all Years 7, 8 and 9 made their way to their rooms. The next morning seemed to have come too quickly: we had barely arrived in Riga before having to leave it. After room checks and quick excursions to the corner-shop just down the street, the choir boarded the coach that would take us to Vilnius in Lithuania...
Edan Umrigar (Year 7)
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Estonia
As we are now well settled into tour routine – the unintelligible vocabulary to anyone who hasn’t seen this year’s Youtube sketch, and the nicknames that inevitably arise with eight people in the choir named Tom, well in place – here’s a look back at the lead up to the tour and what has happened so far.
Months of rehearsals and a phenomenal amount of effort on everyone’s part finally resulted in a highly rewarding Gala Concert in Southwark. It was great to see some old faces back in the substantial audience along with many of the regulars. As many of the pieces were are doing this tour are well known by some members of the choir but were brand new to the newer arrivals at the start of the year, one of the challenges in the lead up to Southwark was to make sure that no-one got left behind, which would have had a negative effect on the sound in Southwark and a lot more time would have to be spent on tour rehearsing pieces such as Britten’s “Rejoice in the Lamb” and Finzi’s “Lo, the Full Final Sacrifice”. However, these two presented little difficulty in Southwark, and even the punishing “The Twelve” by Walton was tamed.
Southwark was an excellent concert and one which set expectations for the approaching tour high. With the addition of a couple of pieces to the repertoire (old favourites, “Salvator Mundi” and “If ye Love Me” – Tallis, Ave Verum Corpus – Byrd and the 5 Spirituals from “Child of Our Time,” – Tippett) the Founders' Day service on the last day of term approached. This is always one of the most unnerving events in the calendar for the choir as the congregation is made up of friends. Ignoring the suggestion by one member of my form that we sing everything at triple speed so that everyone could go home early, the service went without a hitch, and the choir helped to produce an excellent finish to a very successful year of Tiffin music.
After the Founders' Day service came to an end, and we said goodbye to those members of the choir that would not be joining us on tour, we boarded the bus for Gatwick, realised there weren’t enough seats and waited for the minibus to arrive to take the remainder. After a short flight with “Estonian Air” awaited with thankfully unfounded apprehension, we got our first view of Tallinn, capital of Estonia. Having rescued Ed Tan’s camera and attempted – with varying degrees of success - not to stare at the group of middle-aged men wearing lederhosen at baggage claim, we met our tour guide, Lina, and were herded briskly to “Hotel Shnelli.” We were reasonably close to the centre of Tallinn, especially our concert venues, and had anyone wanted to take the overnight train to Moscow that would play Russian Opera at five o’clock in the morning when it arrived just below the windows of those fortunate enough to be on the right hand side, that would have been even more convenient.
The first day in Tallinn was spent mostly in the old town with guided tours of the centre of Tallinn including the town hall, parliament building, venue for the huge Estonian festival of song and main Russian Orthodox Church. Also during the course of the tour we got a good idea of the way the country’s turbulent recent history (including three occupations in one century) has affected it. It was almost surreal to see ornate churches, brightly coloured buildings and traditional architectural styles surrounded the with dull, square concrete blocks of the Soviet Union, built to house the many Russians resettled in Tallinn in exchange for the mass deportations of Estonians to Siberia.
In the first rehearsal of the tour, in the Matkamaja Hall, we began to learn to compensate for the various changes in acoustics, humidity and temperature we would be dealing with in the various venues during the tour. This would prove to be one of the main challenges over the next few days. After this, we headed across town for a buffet dinner and – the evening’s entertainment – “Toy Story 3” in the Solaris Kino. The film was surprisingly deep with some amusing characterisation, one character in particular bearing remarkable resemblance in mannerisms to various people in the choir of the hair-product persuasion.
Our first concert took place on the following day, in the Niguliste Museum. We had heard on many occasions that the Estonian people were very into choral music, but it wasn’t until now, when so many people showed up, the choir had to give away our off-stage seats to the audience that we really gauged how much. Our main challenge in this concert was communication with Peter Jaekel at the organ, which was at the other end of the museum concert hall, the distance producing tuning and timing issues, one eventually sorted with some careful listening, the other by, I quote, “Peter Jaekel’s mad skills”. It was very gratifying to have such a full house and especially at the first concert of tour. When combined with the great musicality and some excellent solos in the pieces, this seemed to bode extremely well for the rest of the tour.
The following day began with a rehearsal, followed by a church service in Kaarli Church. The service itself was an interesting insight into the religious system that has played a major part in Estonian culture and history; although not being able to speak any Estonian may have had some effect on the quality of the hymn singing on our part.
The journey to Rakvere Castle which followed was accompanied by Jack Bazalgette’s ukulele which has received various death threats throughout the course of the tour. After lunch in the castle, we split into two groups and were given an eventful – if somewhat surreal – tour of the castle, involving making and burning gunpowder, putting Matthew Edmunds in the stocks, using various torture devices to the point of mild discomfort on Adam Mirsky and Toby Hasler-Winter and a short trip to “hell”. We were also told a fair bit about the history of the castle: its various additions over the years; the three times it was occupied; its destruction – twice – each time by different sides to prevent it falling into enemy hands, and its eventual partial reconstruction. The main attraction for many of the trebles was yet to come however, as they spent the remainder of the afternoon staging mock fights with foam swords and riding a small and heavily overburdened wheeled wooden horse down a hill, whilst the rest of us sat around watching and pretending not to be amused.
Dinner regrettably marked the end of our stay in Tallinn, and after a last look round for the older members of the choir, we returned to the hotel and packed for Pärnu and eventually Riga. Upon arrival in Pärnu the following morning, we gave what was to be our final concert in Estonia (in the Eliisabet Church) before crossing the border to Latvia. Although in a smaller venue, once again we were gratifyingly greeted by a full house. The concert produced an excellent pianissimo sound, particularly in the unaccompanied pieces contrasted by a very powerful one in numbers such as Handel’s “Zadok the Priest.” Peter Jaekel – aided by Adam Mirsky, regrettably hors de combat – also wrestled with a particularly difficult organ to produce a fantastic conclusion to the evening in the form of “Rejoice in the Lamb”.
This marked the end of our time in Estonia. After dinner we boarded the bus and crossed the border to Latvia. If it produces a similar experience to what we have experienced so far, it’s shaping up to be a brilliant tour.
Peter Lidbetter (Year 11)
Months of rehearsals and a phenomenal amount of effort on everyone’s part finally resulted in a highly rewarding Gala Concert in Southwark. It was great to see some old faces back in the substantial audience along with many of the regulars. As many of the pieces were are doing this tour are well known by some members of the choir but were brand new to the newer arrivals at the start of the year, one of the challenges in the lead up to Southwark was to make sure that no-one got left behind, which would have had a negative effect on the sound in Southwark and a lot more time would have to be spent on tour rehearsing pieces such as Britten’s “Rejoice in the Lamb” and Finzi’s “Lo, the Full Final Sacrifice”. However, these two presented little difficulty in Southwark, and even the punishing “The Twelve” by Walton was tamed.
Southwark was an excellent concert and one which set expectations for the approaching tour high. With the addition of a couple of pieces to the repertoire (old favourites, “Salvator Mundi” and “If ye Love Me” – Tallis, Ave Verum Corpus – Byrd and the 5 Spirituals from “Child of Our Time,” – Tippett) the Founders' Day service on the last day of term approached. This is always one of the most unnerving events in the calendar for the choir as the congregation is made up of friends. Ignoring the suggestion by one member of my form that we sing everything at triple speed so that everyone could go home early, the service went without a hitch, and the choir helped to produce an excellent finish to a very successful year of Tiffin music.
After the Founders' Day service came to an end, and we said goodbye to those members of the choir that would not be joining us on tour, we boarded the bus for Gatwick, realised there weren’t enough seats and waited for the minibus to arrive to take the remainder. After a short flight with “Estonian Air” awaited with thankfully unfounded apprehension, we got our first view of Tallinn, capital of Estonia. Having rescued Ed Tan’s camera and attempted – with varying degrees of success - not to stare at the group of middle-aged men wearing lederhosen at baggage claim, we met our tour guide, Lina, and were herded briskly to “Hotel Shnelli.” We were reasonably close to the centre of Tallinn, especially our concert venues, and had anyone wanted to take the overnight train to Moscow that would play Russian Opera at five o’clock in the morning when it arrived just below the windows of those fortunate enough to be on the right hand side, that would have been even more convenient.
The first day in Tallinn was spent mostly in the old town with guided tours of the centre of Tallinn including the town hall, parliament building, venue for the huge Estonian festival of song and main Russian Orthodox Church. Also during the course of the tour we got a good idea of the way the country’s turbulent recent history (including three occupations in one century) has affected it. It was almost surreal to see ornate churches, brightly coloured buildings and traditional architectural styles surrounded the with dull, square concrete blocks of the Soviet Union, built to house the many Russians resettled in Tallinn in exchange for the mass deportations of Estonians to Siberia.
In the first rehearsal of the tour, in the Matkamaja Hall, we began to learn to compensate for the various changes in acoustics, humidity and temperature we would be dealing with in the various venues during the tour. This would prove to be one of the main challenges over the next few days. After this, we headed across town for a buffet dinner and – the evening’s entertainment – “Toy Story 3” in the Solaris Kino. The film was surprisingly deep with some amusing characterisation, one character in particular bearing remarkable resemblance in mannerisms to various people in the choir of the hair-product persuasion.
Our first concert took place on the following day, in the Niguliste Museum. We had heard on many occasions that the Estonian people were very into choral music, but it wasn’t until now, when so many people showed up, the choir had to give away our off-stage seats to the audience that we really gauged how much. Our main challenge in this concert was communication with Peter Jaekel at the organ, which was at the other end of the museum concert hall, the distance producing tuning and timing issues, one eventually sorted with some careful listening, the other by, I quote, “Peter Jaekel’s mad skills”. It was very gratifying to have such a full house and especially at the first concert of tour. When combined with the great musicality and some excellent solos in the pieces, this seemed to bode extremely well for the rest of the tour.
The following day began with a rehearsal, followed by a church service in Kaarli Church. The service itself was an interesting insight into the religious system that has played a major part in Estonian culture and history; although not being able to speak any Estonian may have had some effect on the quality of the hymn singing on our part.
The journey to Rakvere Castle which followed was accompanied by Jack Bazalgette’s ukulele which has received various death threats throughout the course of the tour. After lunch in the castle, we split into two groups and were given an eventful – if somewhat surreal – tour of the castle, involving making and burning gunpowder, putting Matthew Edmunds in the stocks, using various torture devices to the point of mild discomfort on Adam Mirsky and Toby Hasler-Winter and a short trip to “hell”. We were also told a fair bit about the history of the castle: its various additions over the years; the three times it was occupied; its destruction – twice – each time by different sides to prevent it falling into enemy hands, and its eventual partial reconstruction. The main attraction for many of the trebles was yet to come however, as they spent the remainder of the afternoon staging mock fights with foam swords and riding a small and heavily overburdened wheeled wooden horse down a hill, whilst the rest of us sat around watching and pretending not to be amused.
Dinner regrettably marked the end of our stay in Tallinn, and after a last look round for the older members of the choir, we returned to the hotel and packed for Pärnu and eventually Riga. Upon arrival in Pärnu the following morning, we gave what was to be our final concert in Estonia (in the Eliisabet Church) before crossing the border to Latvia. Although in a smaller venue, once again we were gratifyingly greeted by a full house. The concert produced an excellent pianissimo sound, particularly in the unaccompanied pieces contrasted by a very powerful one in numbers such as Handel’s “Zadok the Priest.” Peter Jaekel – aided by Adam Mirsky, regrettably hors de combat – also wrestled with a particularly difficult organ to produce a fantastic conclusion to the evening in the form of “Rejoice in the Lamb”.
This marked the end of our time in Estonia. After dinner we boarded the bus and crossed the border to Latvia. If it produces a similar experience to what we have experienced so far, it’s shaping up to be a brilliant tour.
Peter Lidbetter (Year 11)
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Soutwark and beyond
As our more grown-up contingent of the choir face the varied challenges of this summer’s musical program, their public examinations must seem laughably easy. However, these exams are (apparently) almost as important as music, so the sixth-formers and year elevens had to juggle their growing commitments in order to attend necessary rehearsals, which of course continued regardless.
As the choir sound continues to develop for the better, and real blend and colour begin to emerge, the treble line were confident in facing one of their first major tests – a professional engagement sing as the treble line (or “third chorus” ) for Berlioz’s Te Deum with Twickenham Choral Society, the Brandenburg symphony orchestra, conducted by the inspiring Christopher Herrick. Following this success, a cut down ‘chamber choir’ sang at the Rose Theatre’s Youth Arts Festival. As last act of the night, we were able to fully enjoy the varied and eclectic program which we were required to follow, with the Orlando Gibbon’s beautiful Songs and Canticles taken from the original, hymns and songs of the church, with Alto and tenor lines by the contemporary composer Anthony Pitts. We have been told that our performance was exceptionally well received.
As the impending dates of the Southwark Cathedral Concert and (incredibly it seems) the tour to the Baltic States draw ever nearer, one can visibly see the change in intensity during rehearsals which now are spent preparing a wide variety of pieces that we will soon be performing to paying audiences. The sheer amount of music being performed and the closeness of the deadline certainly seem to have a focusing effect on the choir; a drastic change in the alto line sees a form of religious zealousness etched on their faces during rehearsals and many a time can one wander upon a group of countertenors fervently practicing their parts in a dark corner of the music department.
Musically, challenges are provided by several of our upcoming pieces, namely Walton's the Twelve and Rejoice in the Lamb (Britten), both of which are unfamiliar to many of the choir's youngest members. If rehearsals are sometimes tough, they are outweighed immeasurably by those rare golden moments of true unity whilst singing, something the choir can work towards, a constant reminder in the collective memory of the choir of what can be achieved.I personally am now working hard at solos in The Twelve and Orlando Gibbons' songs ands canticles. The solo singing is a unique facet of the varied experience provided by the choir, and one that was relatively new to me. Facing a full house with nothing left to do but sing the piece –all preparation aside – is a thrilling, terrifying and yet calm experience. With less than a day until curtain up its time to knuckle down and finish final preparations; and afterwards all that’s left is a 10 day concert tour to three countries...easy!
Jack Hawkins
As the choir sound continues to develop for the better, and real blend and colour begin to emerge, the treble line were confident in facing one of their first major tests – a professional engagement sing as the treble line (or “third chorus” ) for Berlioz’s Te Deum with Twickenham Choral Society, the Brandenburg symphony orchestra, conducted by the inspiring Christopher Herrick. Following this success, a cut down ‘chamber choir’ sang at the Rose Theatre’s Youth Arts Festival. As last act of the night, we were able to fully enjoy the varied and eclectic program which we were required to follow, with the Orlando Gibbon’s beautiful Songs and Canticles taken from the original, hymns and songs of the church, with Alto and tenor lines by the contemporary composer Anthony Pitts. We have been told that our performance was exceptionally well received.
As the impending dates of the Southwark Cathedral Concert and (incredibly it seems) the tour to the Baltic States draw ever nearer, one can visibly see the change in intensity during rehearsals which now are spent preparing a wide variety of pieces that we will soon be performing to paying audiences. The sheer amount of music being performed and the closeness of the deadline certainly seem to have a focusing effect on the choir; a drastic change in the alto line sees a form of religious zealousness etched on their faces during rehearsals and many a time can one wander upon a group of countertenors fervently practicing their parts in a dark corner of the music department.
Musically, challenges are provided by several of our upcoming pieces, namely Walton's the Twelve and Rejoice in the Lamb (Britten), both of which are unfamiliar to many of the choir's youngest members. If rehearsals are sometimes tough, they are outweighed immeasurably by those rare golden moments of true unity whilst singing, something the choir can work towards, a constant reminder in the collective memory of the choir of what can be achieved.I personally am now working hard at solos in The Twelve and Orlando Gibbons' songs ands canticles. The solo singing is a unique facet of the varied experience provided by the choir, and one that was relatively new to me. Facing a full house with nothing left to do but sing the piece –all preparation aside – is a thrilling, terrifying and yet calm experience. With less than a day until curtain up its time to knuckle down and finish final preparations; and afterwards all that’s left is a 10 day concert tour to three countries...easy!
Jack Hawkins
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