Sometimes when in a concert we feel that the choir is not big enough for that venue. This time, the choir dominated the Cathedral of Auch so much that only a venue double its size could be worthy of their singing!
Not only did we have to go in a bus from Barcelona to near Toulouse in one day, we also had to do this the day after singing at L'Aldea! This obviously meant having about 5 hours of sleep on Friday night, which was a big change from my usual average of 9-10 hours!
The trip up to Auch, the town where the festival Eclats de Voix took place in which the boys would perform their last concert of the year, was dull, like most bus rides. However, Flaixbac, the major Catalonian radio station, saved us once more from eating each other alive. I'm joking, It was quite a pleasant journey, especially as so many of the younger boys fell asleep after the five hours' sleep from the previous night!
You might remember from the previous post that I had had a curse with the camera so far. Well, this time was no different. I somehow managed to miss my alarm in the morning, and so I left without the camera's battery. Very clever of me, I know. Unfortunately this meant that I have no photos of Auch or the last concert, or of my last weekend with the Montserrat boys, which is quite annoying.
Arriving in Auch, we were struck by the cleanness of everything around us. It looked more like Switzerland than France. The sloping fields and vineyards were the only giveaway. The most impressive building by far was the cathedral: its hard to imagine that such a big building could be in such a comparatively small town!
I'll skip most of the things we did and go straight to the concert: the last concert of the academic year and the last concert for the boys of the top year. It was certainly a memorable experience. The programme was much the same as other times, but three pieces in particular stood out.
The first was, yet again, Pau Casal's Nigra Sum. I will never ever get bored of listening to this. And the boys sang it with such passion in the cathedral that all I kept thinking of was that the largest cathedral in the world would not be comparable in grandeur to the Escolania singing this piece.
The “Cant dels Ocells” (see other “Music” posts) was once more a very engaging experience. I was not singing on the front row with other Escolania staff, but a few rows behind. I was positioned nearly underneath a pulpit. And when the “Cant dels Ocells” started it came from directly above me: the soloist really did sound like a bird in a tree!
As mentioned, this was the top year's last concert, and after a very emotional rendition of a traditional Catalonian dance song, they lined up at the front of the church with the rest of the choir spread around at equal distances from each other and sang the other of Pau Casal's most emotive pieces: la “Oracio a la Verge” (“Prayer to the Virgin”). Very soon sniffing started to be heard from aorund the naves and transepts, as the vibrato-filled voices of ten boys drifted across the church. Having listened to the boys sing so many times, all I can say si that a few of these vibratos were unintentional and entirely due to the fact that it was their last time singing together in concert. I know that for a person to sing their last piece in a choir is an emotional experience if they truly enjoy what they do, but for the audience to start to cry is a sign that the choir has really moved the audience!
No comments:
Post a Comment