Nicholas Freestone – young musician

My planned live-blog for this tour didn’t work due to technical difficulties, so I am making up for it by writing a detailed review here instead.

This was an excellent tour, very well organised with plenty to see and do, and magnificent venues to sing in.  There were also, however, some amazing stories from this tour, which I hope to relay here!

Wednesday 18th February

We spent this day travelling, and it was very smooth.  We left from the Crown Street layby at 8:45am, arriving at Heathrow Terminal 5 at around 12:00pm.  After check-in and security we had some time to roam the shops, before getting on our flight, which departed at 2:40pm.  The flight was a success, and we touched down after 2 hours or so in the air.  After a quick drive to our hotel, we settled in, and enjoyed an evening meal.  A great introductory day, the real action was to start tomorrow.

Thursday 19th February

After an enjoyable breakfast, we were off to the centre of Rome.  We met Massimo, who had organised much of the tour for us, and acted as an interpreter throughout, which was very useful.  We Choral Scholars carried the robes (a recurring theme of the tour) to the church where the evening concert would be held, All Saints, whilst the boys and some of the adults began sightseeing.  We soon joined them, and it was very special seeing many sights in the flesh, especially the Trevi Fountain (even though Joseph nearly jumped in it!).  After eating ice-cream from “Rome’s best ice-cream shop” (was Keith on commission?), we made our way to All Saints for lunch and an afternoon rehearsal.

It was now that we discovered that the organ did not appear to live up to the great billing it had got on the church’s website.  Although it sounded acceptable, it was not a joy to play, due to the lack of divisional pistons, a crescendo pedal, and many other quirks.  It reminded me of the St John’s organ in Ipswich, due to its slow speaking nature, but Ben Nicholas naturally made it sound like Rome’s best organ.  The singing was going nicely, and we were certainly all “up” for the concert that evening.

We all went to a very nice local cafe for Supper, before having another ice-cream from “Rome’s greatest”.  Straight away, it was back to All Saints to robe, and begin the concert.  This featured a lot of the same repertoire as the Story of Church Music concert, and I felt that it went very well, despite a few logistical things that would need to be ironed out (boys bending down to fiddle with music at the end of the piece whilst applause is given has always got on my nerves).  Particularly of note was the Purcell verse anthem My Beloved Spake.  I think that this was the best performance we gave of it, and congratulations to all of the solo quartet for such an accomplished performance.

After disrobing and transporting robes and music back to the coach, it was a journey back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep, to prepare for the next day.

Friday 20th February

This was the day that we had all been waiting for.  St Peter’s Basilica is a name that resonates with every Christian, whether a Catholic or not, and it would be a fantastic honour to sing mass there.  We began the day with a rehearsal at the Salesianum, before the coach journey to the Vatican, and it was very special to stand in St Peter’s Square.  We had free time, which for the Choral Scholars meant a trip to a local Pizza takeaway and then write some postcards and buy Vatican stamps (moral of the story: never buy stamps from anywhere other than a Post Office, otherwise you may end up with collector’s stamps, useless for posting letters).  We all met up again in the Square, before going up the Tower.  The view from the top was amazing, and it was also very exciting to see the interior of the Basilica from high up.

On our descent, it was straight into robes for our rehearsal.  We were in full flow, when the organist turned up, and instructed us that we were to be singing for another service prior to the Mass.  This involved singing a Plainchant melody to organ accompaniment at various points during complex liturgy.  This was actually a great way of settling nerves, and then it was time for the mass to start.  I was very pleased to have a good view of the organ throughout the service, and see what the organist had to do.  It was mostly accompanying chants in this service, but he was a very lively man, and showed his disapproval when the priest came in on a completely different note to the one he had just been given!  The main mass was chanted by six cantors, and we joined in for the occasional response.  We also sang four anthems on our own, which went very well.  After the service ended, we all met the British Ambassador to the Holy See, who I was very pleased to be introduced to as “Organ Scholar”.  He was very nice, and had many a story to tell.  His name-dropping was fantastic, and he told us that “[he] would have come to [our] concert last night, but [he] was entertaining Mr and Mrs [Gordon] Brown”, and when asked if he ever met the Pope, he answered “I was speaking to him just yesterday”.  It was a real privilege to meet the Ambassador and sing at St Peters, the highlight of the tour, without doubt.

Saturday 21st February

This was the day with the best stories, and the day when the tricky logistics expected of any foriegn tour kicked in.  We were to begin by singing Mass at the church of Sancta Maria Maggiore, highly recommended by the Ambassador the day before.  Upon arrival, we were told that we could no longer rehearse at the time we were given, since there was an extra service taking place.  This facilitated extra sightseeing around the church, and we eventually robed up, ready to sing the Mass without rehearsal.  It went remarkably well considering, the only let down being the electronic organ that was used to accompany the singing.  We were given a great reception, and after the service, we all processed outside to sing Bruckner’s Locus Iste on the church steps.  There was a crowd gathered taking photos of us, and we were famous for three (or so) minutes.  The main priest there was a friend of the Ambassador that we had met the day before, and he was very welcoming.

However, it was now that the logistical problems kicked in.  We were not able to leave the robes at Sancta Maria Magiore, therefore we carried them to the house of the (half-Italian-half-Welsh) Director of Music of the church of Chiesa degli Artisti, where she had kindly agreed to store them.  She had pnumonia, so was unable to attend the concert, and it was very nice to meet her.  It was here, however, where our plans for the evening concert began to disintegrate.  When Dr Nicholas asked her about how to get access to the organ, she replied “Oh, don’t you know?  A few days ago it went ‘poof’ and now it doesn’t work!”, she told us that the best way of getting to the church was by “the number 30 bus, it goes every 30 minutes, and takes about 10 people”.  But in her next sentence, she remembered, “Oh no, it’s a Saturday – the bus doesn’t run!”  We were just about to leave, when she said “the opera recording should be over by the time your concert starts, if not then kick them out!”.  “What about the rehearsal?” Dr Nicholas asked worredly, “Oh never mind, they shouldn’t be too loud, tell them that if they aren’t finished by six that they go, and they cannot use the church again!”.  It was going to be an interesting afternoon.

We then went to another pizza restaurant for lunch, before going into the Colessium.  This was a great site, and we managed to blag our way in as a school group, which was enterprising to say the least.  This building was fascinating to go inside, and it really was very enjoyable.  After our look round, we got the Metro to the nearest stop to Chiesa degli Artisti (four other Choral Scholars had gone to get the robes via taxi).  It transpired that the steps of the church were the meeting place for the “goths” of Rome.  Many were smoking and drinking alcohol on the steps, and we bravely made our way through them to witness an incredible sight.

Ben Nicholas had arrived, and the organ was not able to be fixed.  As a result, he was using an electronic piano on organ sound.  Whilst trying out various volumes and sounds, the opera recording team had come down to tell us that they were recording and we were too loud.  We managed to negotiate a half-hour delay to our rehearsal, and the negotiator then appeared on a balcony with the director of the recording, and had a massive argument.  It looked at one stage as if one was going to throw the other off the gallery!  We began rehearsing anyway, and things were going fine, considering the circumstances.

Before the concert, Dr Nicholas decided that we should perform to the “goths” outside, and try and persuade some to come into the concert.  We sang Bruckner’s Locus Iste again, but this time we had abuse shouted at us, and there was one bloke wondering around with a massive pair of scissors!  This was rather disconcerting, but we emerged in one piece, and thankfully none followed us in and made any noise.  The concert was a success, and we were just in the thick of Bruckner’s Christus Factus Est when the Rock Gig sound testing started up outside!  The concert was still enjoyed by the audience who were there, and we headed back to the hotel on a high note, knowing that we had got through the toughest day with flying colours.

Sunday 22nd February

This was our final day in Rome, and we were determined to make the most of it.  We returned to All Saints to sing a morning Eucharist there (the entire service was in English), and I was playing the organ, as Ben Nicholas had returned to the UK.  The organ was challenging to manage, as I mentioned earlier, but I was used to the slow-speaking action from playing at St John’s in Ipswich, and I soon got used to the tab stops, another feature shared with St John’s.  The rehearsal was going well, but Dr Nicholas spend a great deal of time on the hymns, including saying very disparagingly about Be Still for the Presence of the Lord, “It’s always done by a bloke called Dave, isn’t it!”.  The rehearsal over-ran, and we had the fantastic scenario of the Vicar and Dr Nicholas having the exchange, “It’s time for the service to start,” “Are you sure?” “Yes, I’m the Vicar!”  It meant that the Psalm especially was under rehearsed, but it all seemed to work in the service, and I didn’t make any stupid mistakes, apart from dropping down to the Great too soon in the Sanctus, but that wasn’t noticed by too many people.  I’m not sure whether the Vicar heard Dr Nicholas’ put down of Be Still, or whether it was a happy co-incidence, but he thanked afterwards “Dr Dave Nicholas”, which raised a smile in the choir stalls.

The church provided us with a lunch afterwards, and it was very nice to meet people connected with the church, some of whom had enjoyed my playing.  The Choral Scholars then went off to try and attempt a bit of busking, although we didn’t raise any money, and after one song the Rock Gig sound testing started up again, just like the night before (All Saints and Chiesa degli Artisti were on the same road).  It was then a ride back to the airport, check-in and free time in the terminal and a flight back to the UK.  After traffic problems on the M25, we finally arrived back at Crown Street at around midnight Monday morning, just 8 hours or so before the start of the school half-term.

Many thanks to all who made the Rome trip possible.  It was such an action packed trip, and I could have written so much more here, but I think that 2,100 words is quite enough!  Thanks to Keith for organising the sightseeing, Canon Charles for being  an overriding presence on the tour, Lis for organising music and all the choristers, Alan Way for looking after us Choral Scholars, Ben Nicholas for playing the organs (and electric pianos!) and Massimo for being our interpreter throughout the trip.  But most of all we have to thank Dr Nicholas who led a fantastic tour, my first with the Tower, and it was such an experience.  Thank you, all.