Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra Tour of Northern Italy
July 3-10 2009
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Lake Garda and its environs provided the ideal location for the first Hampton choir tour in six years. Within striking distance of the hotel, between Verona and the south eastern corner of the lake, we had access to superb concert venues, magnificent mountain scenery, brilliant sunshine, and a wide range of entertainment and cultural pursuits to enjoy when not actually performing. Even the 24 hour coach journey, patiently endured by 40 cramped and hot boys, provided handsome compensation in the form of a procession through a majestic succession of Alpine lakes: Lausanne, Interlaken, Lugano, Locarno, Maggiore, Como…...
The tour wasn’t just about music; after all, singing the whole day long isn’t so good for the voice! To loosen up stiff limbs after the coach journey, our first day in Italy featured a trip to Gardaland where the more intrepid (or foolhardy) took multiple turns on the vertiginous ‘Blue Tornado’ big dipper.
Other activities included a scenic tour of Lake Garda itself by cable-car and boat, and a day in Verona that featured a visit to the renowned Roman amphitheatre once everyone had dried out after a torrential downpour that had reduced our packed lunches to balls of mush.
On the final day we explored the city of Vicenza and visited the ‘Teatro Olimpico’, the earliest surviving enclosed theatre in the world, built by Palladio in 1580.
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After each day’s sightseeing the hotel swimming pool provided welcome relief and an opportunity to relax before the evening concerts.The real draw of the trip, however, was the opportunity to perform in some of Northern Italy’s Ḁnest churches. Our concert programme had an international mix, although the principal work we performed was Vivaldi’s Gloria, chosen to provide a local flavour. We also performed English music by Purcell and Tallis that featured the full range of Hampton vocal ensembles. We certainly felt well prepared after the ‘Pre-Tour’ concert at All Saints Twickenham, where resonant acoustics and hot sunny weather provided a foretaste of things to come! Both tour concerts, at the lakeside town of Bardolino and in Verona itself, were very well attended and received, and the inspiring surroundings, including paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese, certainly helped our music making to a new level. But the highlight for most was the great privilege of singing Mass in St Mark’s in Venice.
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The choir responded magnificently to the challenge of singing without any prior rehearsal in the Basilica, and we received a spontaneous round of applause at the end of the service. It was also very special to have twenty minutes by ourselves to wander around this marvellous building with the evening light gilding the Byzantine mosaics at the west end: all this on top of a full day’s sightseeing in this most atmospheric of Italian cities, including both the Doge’s Palace and the Campanile.Congratulations to all the performers, in particular our team of distinguished soloists (Louis Watkins, Julius Haswell and Michael Craddock) and excellent instrumentalists, notably Mark Kahn who led the orchestra, and the fine continuo team of Robbie Stanley-Smith and Mr Donald. And many thanks to the staff and helpers who made this tour so enjoyable; Mr Donald, Miss Jacobs, Andrew Martin and Lulu Chivers.