Klosters Concerts 2012

Klosters Christmas Concerts
14,15,16 December 2012

Philharmonia Orchestra
University of Lund Student Singers
Oliver Gerrish - Countertenor

St Jakob's Church Klosters

I had the honour to be asked to perform as soloist alongside the Philharmonia orchestra in Klosters, Switzerland, last weekend. The Lund Student Singers were also there, and it was wonderful to perform with them too. The concerts took place at Hotel Vereina and St Jakob's Church to capacity audiences.

                                       The audience at St Jakob's Church

The organisers of the festival were Geoff Richards and Claude Schauerte, who both put in considerable time, effort and energy in to making it all happen. This was no small feat when one considers the fifteen strong orchestra, choir of twelve and all the trappings associated with a lot of English and Swedish musicians plonked in the the middle of the Swiss Alps!

Self with the Lund Student Singers and Geoff Richards, Claude Schauerte and David Whelton, Managing Director of the Philharmonia, at Hotel Vereina

We all stayed at the historic Hotel Vereina, the forerunner of which my Grandmother had stayed in in the 1930's when it was known as the Grand Hotel Vereina. She looked like she had a huge amount of fun and I'm pleased to say that we all did too. It was a delight to get to know the Lund Chamber Choir, who apart from being brilliant are also incredibly fun and charming and I now have quite a social life mapped out for me in Sweden!

             Granny and my Great Aunt making merry at The Grand Hotel Vereina in the 1930's

The first night was a great success, despite some of the orchestra being delayed for eight hours by a late plane and some others getting stuck on the piste somewhere. Anyhow, it all went off with a bang and the re was a wonderful mixture of Swedish, British and other European music. I sang 'But who may abide' from The Messiah, which somehow went to double or even treble speed in the 'fast' section, so that was rather scary, but it went off alright in the end.

I managed to get some skiing in and even a little off piste. The scenery in Klosters, especially at this wonderful uncrowded time of year, is stunning. Lunch was predictably merry and the Swedes serenaded the assembled skiers with a song about gondolas in Venice...all very fun and quite unlike any other day's skiing I'd had before!

The painted stone vaulted roof of the Chancel at St Jakob's Church

That night it was to the historic church of St Jakob, with its wonderful sixteenth century painted stone vaulted chancel, for the formal concert, in which I performed 'Va tacito e nascosto' from Handel's Giulio Cesare alongside Alastair Mackie, one of the World's great trumpet players.

                Oliver Gerrish with the Philharmonia and the Lund Student Singers

 The Chamber choir belted out some wonderful airs and then came the Philharmonia with Vivaldi's Four Seasons. This was like a musical firework display, which left us all feeling exhilarated and in awe of the playing of the orchestra and in particular Zsolt-Tihamer Visontay, violinist and Concert Master of the Philharmonia, who raised the roof and gave us all a performance we will never forget. The whole piece had the energy of the best rock concert, the finesse of Baroque Italy and we were all taken through the emotions of this extraordinary piece with utmost joy and intrigue.

David Whelton

Saturday night's concert was full of Christmas music and the Swedes gave some brilliant and unique renditions of well-known English carols. I performed 'O Thou that tellest' from The Messiah and the brass section of the Philharmonia raised the roof with their playing.

Oscar Nekking and David Magnusson of Lund Student Singers embrace Swiss Alpine Life!

The whole weekend was exhilarating and inspiring. I relished the chance to sing alongside the Philharmonia, one of the great orchestras of the World, and also the Lund Student Singers, who were superb and so welcoming and encouraging.

I will miss Klosters, and hope to be back there in the Summer for the festival there.

All images in this blog are under the copyright ownership of Oliver Gerrish

My London at Christmas

The musings of a singer and architectural boffin!



London at Christmas time can be very magical and Christmas itself, to me, has always been an enchanted time of year. I have never actually spent Christmas Eve or Day in London, apart from a very very late televised Midnight Mass once at St George's Cathedral Southwark which I'd got my Mother and Brother along to. They were happy that the service was nice and short with very little talking...that turned out to be just the congregational practice...oh dear! Anyhow, it is a wonderful time of year, and I am very lucky to spend most of it in such wonderful buildings.

The great early Nineteenth Century 'Commissioner's' Church St Luke's Chelsea

Since leaving school, now over a decade ago, I have sung in most of the great London churches. Those that are particularly special at Christmas to me are The Oratory Church, which is really London's answer to the great Baroque churches of Rome, though it is in itself a wonderful Victorian fake. I sang there every Christmas and throughout the year for six years until July this year, when the lay clerks were sadly dismissed. It really was like a home from home to me and the long corridors leading from the song school in to the cavern-like interior of the church are positively Vaticanal...if that is a word! It truly is a very wonderful place.

                               The Oratory Church looking towards the High Altar

St James's Spanish Place is like a French cathedral plonked in the middle of Marylebone. The choir sings perched high above the arcades in a dark Victor Hugo-esque gallery and the organ is one of the best in London. I love the climb from the song school, deep in the crypt of the church, up to the triforium. The different vantage points to view the interior are endless. At night time the interior of St James's sparkles in gold, blue and red and the little Lady Chapel to the south of the apse is, in my humble opinion, one of the most perfect Victorian gothic spaces in London. 

Marylebone's French Gothic Cathedral-like church of St James's Spanish Place

St Paul's Cathedral and its fully fledged Baroque swagger never fails to send chills down my spine when we have to process down the Nave. It is so grand and vast that one feels appropriately unimportant and in awe. The Queen dislikes the festival trumpets in the west gallery organ being played, but they sound awesome from far off...bit of a shock just underneath admittedly!

The great Baroque West Front of St Paul's

Self in the Martial Arts style robes of the Choir

The Nave full to the brim for Handel's Messiah

Holy Trinity Sloane Square is a spiritual home to many, including me, and full of the most amazing array of artworks from the time of Burne-Jones and the Pre Raphaelites...it also has the best Christmas card pop-up shop in town.

The Great East Window of Holy Trinity Sloane Square - one of the biggest windows in London

St Etheldreda's Ely Place is still officially part of Cambridgeshire, despite being slap bang in the middle of Holborn. The reason was that this was the chapel for the Bishop's of Ely's London palace. The chapel remains the chief example of a Mediaeval private chapel in London. The sombre glass, pious statues and the approach via a narrow corridor and stair make this a very secret and mysterious and beautiful place to sing in or visit.

The famous tower of Marylebone Parish Church with its gilded angels

St Marylebone Parish Church - this is like some cross between a New England church and a Palladio basilica. The gilded angels gaze down lovingly from the dome across the village-like meandering Marylebone High Street. Once inside one is inside a grand space a little like an opera house, particularly at the organ end. The green and gold throughout makes the place feel like a giant Faberge box. The positioning of the church makes such sense of John Nash's grand scheme for Regent's Park.

The opera house-like interior

The church looking positively Venetian above the Christmas Market

The Vicar awaits the Bride...over half an hour late!

The Choir doing the same...

Westminster Abbey - I spend most of the time between singing in the services staring around me at the 104 foot high vaulting, the amazing stars carved in to the walls around the arcades, the mysterious spaces of the ambulatory and the gold and blue of the choir stalls. I never cease to be enthralled by the Abbey. The cloisters and the warren of buildings beyond them are a whole little World to themselves. It is ran like a wonderful ocean liner and it is always a privilege for me to 'Dep' there.

Hampstead's village-like Parish Church

London is famous for its contrasts. As we lost so much architecture during the Great Fire and the Wars, the Georgians, Victorians and later architects created for us an extremely varied Cityscape. One can walk along one road in the City and see from Norman right up to the present day. St Bartholomew-the -Great is an extraordinary, if not somewhat reconstructed, survival of the major portion of a great Monastery a stones throw from the financial centre of our great city. It has survived the Dissolution, bombings, bad City planners and even a factory being erected in the lady Chapel and remains a sacred, quiet spot amidst the the non-stop buzz of the City.

               The interior of St Stephen Walbrook - Wren's mini masterpiece

St Stephen Walbrook is a church of World importance for its architecture as it was the forerunner for Wren's great dome nearby at St Paul's. St Stephen's is one of the most perfect expressions of English Baroque architecture and can holds its own against any piece of church architecture on the Continent. The acoustic is divine to sing in and the light and plain way the interior has been restored lets the sublime architecture speak clearly for itself.

The Dome

Some early Nineteenth Century gothic wallpaper in the Vestry at St Luke's Chelsea

I am constantly deeply humbled and honoured to be able to sing in these beautiful buildings at Christmas time, when the City comes to life in laughter and light. Christmas will always be magical for me!

A bit about some British architecture:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcLYkJOmooY

                        All images in this blog are under the copyright ownership of Oliver Gerrish



Chelsea Concerts

Christmas Concert 2012

In aid of the Rhinology and Laryngology Research Fund

Holy Trinity Sloane Square

Tuesday 11th December

Yesterday was our Christmas Concert. This year we were joined by yet more marvellous musicians; famous soprano Meeta Raval and pianist Lynn Carter, and the chic and well-known Duo Diez.

Alexandra rehearses with Violeta Barrena and Dimitris Dekavallas

Alexandra and I were so honoured that Meeta Raval, Lynn Carter, Violeta Barrena and Dimitris Dekavallas wanted to perform for Chelsea Concerts and help raise money for the Rhinology and Laryngology Fund, a charity close to my heart as my Grandfather, Godfrey Bostock, was a patron and also had his life greatly enhanced and saved by the amazing work of the surgeons encouraged in their ground-breaking work by the charity.

The Great East Window

As ever it was an architectural thrill to preform in Holy Trinity, 'The Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts', which was so nearly demolished after damage caused by the Blitz. It really is a treasure house and contains the finest craftsmanship of the period, not to mention one of the best organs in the country, which has recently been restored in a most splendid way.

Self rehearsing 'Hark the Herald' and making far too much noise!!

Alexandra was feeding her ten week old baby in the corridor underneath the organ loft, which I hadn't registered, so poor things got a mighty shock when I decided to play a very very loud chord...chord ended and wailing ensued from baby!!

Sopranos Alexandra Kennedy and Meeta Raval

Meeta and pianist Lynn Carter

Self rehearsing Handel's 'Va tacito e nascosto' (Giulio Cesare) with Lynn and Violeta

Meeta and I have been best friends and worked often together since we were students at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and we formed 'Ravishyn', alongside Lynn, in 2008, so it was a thrill to perform together again last night. Meeta has been taking the World by storm; last year she was finalist in Cardiff Singer of the World and she has finished touring with Opera North as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

Lynn

Dimitris

'Ravishyn'

It was a real privilege to perform alongside and listen to Violeta and Dimitris, both of whom are very well-known in their own right. They brought a new exotic touch to Chelsea Concerts with their magnificent rendering of various Tangos and their unique accompaniments.

As ever, the evening would have been impossible were it not for the tireless help of the Committee, who welcomed at the door collected ice in the freezing cold, opened champagne, poured even more of it, wore Father Christmas hats...etc. Complete stars!!

Some of the superb Committee of Honour

I think you can tell I can't play the guitar!!

Meeta, one of the great sopranos of our generation

Meeta at Alexandra's 'Lakme' was wonderful, their voices combining to make a magnificent result and filling the great church from floor to ceiling.

The concert ended with 'O Holy Night' and a moment for the assembled throng to let rip to 'Hark the Herald', which I had been looking forward to playing all night on the four manual monster that is the newly restored organ at Holy Trinity!

As ever, we would wish to thank very much everyone who performed, came along and made the evening possible. We raised well over £1500 for the Rhinology and Laryngology Fund.

For more information on Chelsea Concerts please see our websitee: www.chelseaconcerts.com

                       All images in this blog are under the copyright ownership of Oliver Gerrish