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The Really Big Chorus in Salzburg

What a tremendous weekend this was! In the first place, the idea of making a pilgrimage to sing Mozart in the town of his birth proved so popular that we ran out of flights and hotel accommodation. Late applicants were obliged to make their own arrangements, and many did so, undeterred by the additional effort, so that the total number of singers taking part in this truly delightful trip was well over three hundred. Such numbers might have created more than the odd logistical problem, but the Austrian side of the organising team (colleagues of TRBC’s travel partners, Specialised Travel) coped with great efficiency (and wonderful English!) and the weekend's only hitch was one rather squashed rehearsal.

You know you're in for a treat the moment you emerge from the plane: the encircling mountains have you humming 'The hills are alive . . .' before you set foot on the tarmac, while the first thing to greet you as you step into the terminal building is a statue of Salzburg's most famous son (after whom the airport is named)—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The old city, nestling between the fortress-topped Mönchsberg and the river Salzach, is the stuff of fairy-tales. Domes and towers and spires juggle for supremacy against the mountain backdrop, street performers entertain you from all corners of the squares, market stalls sell every variety of Brot and Wurst you could imagine, and the twin deities of Mozart and The Sound of Music are ubiquitous. (I wonder if any of us returned home without at least one packet of Mozartkügeln or a bottle of 'original Mozart Chocolate Liqueur' or 'Nannerl Schnapps'.) Even the weather, which had threatened cloud and drizzle in the days before our departure, changed its mind and remained largely warm and sunny.

In addition to rehearsals for the Requiem, Misericordias Domini and Ave Verum we had plenty of time either to go on organised trips or to explore on our own. The shops were a delight, and there were few TRBC Members who resisted the temptation of the Christmas shops selling nothing but seasonal decorations. Beautifully decorated baubles of every shape and size spilled out of baskets as you threaded your way through the various connecting rooms although, curiously (and rather disappointingly), the greeting Fröhliche Weinacht was noticeable by its absence: all was 'Merry Christmas'! Those of us who visited Mozart’s birthplace in the old city found it an incredible experience. Climbing the wide stone stairs of the old apartment block which Mozart would unquestionably have run up and down as a child, and touching the bare plastered walls where his hands would have trailed, sent a delicious shiver down the spine of even the most sceptical. The Museum authorities have resisted the temptation to stuff the birthplace full of treasures (more of these are to be found in a later family home—the Dancing Master's House the other side of the river) and have kept it very simple, enabling visitors more readily to imagine the building as it was when the Mozart family lived there.

Friday night, following a concert in our honour in the Archbishop's Residence, found almost the entire TRBC party crowded into the Stieglkeller, cut into the walls of the mountain, for our Scratch Feast and Cabaret. It can’t be easy to serve nicely cooked hot food to three hundred people, but our Austrian hosts rose splendidly to the challenge with three delicious courses. Entertainment was provided by our bass soloist Adam Green (a full-bloodied performance of the 'Toreador's Song' from Carmen) and our conductor Brian Kay (the tongue-twisting tour de force of 'The Nightmare Song' from Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe), not forgetting the rest of the company who joined in songs of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and got muddled over the time signature for 'Jerusalem'.

But we should return to Mozart, whose employment in the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg would have taken him frequently into the Salzburger Dom. This magnificent baroque cathedral, with its four-second acoustic, was a splendid setting for our performance of Mozart’s Misericordias Domini and the Requiem. the really big chorus was joined here by the Salzburger Domorchester and four home-grown soloists (Rachel Taylor, Anna Burford, Ben Hulett and Adam Green), and Brian Kay (on his first trip with TRBC) rehearsed us during the afternoon to a standard which we all hoped was worthy of our surroundings. It was awe-inspiring to sit there and look around, knowing that Mozart would have spent many hours in that very spot, singing, playing, praying and conducting, and many of us must have wondered how we could ever do justice to Mozart's music in such a place. But the evening had an additional surprise in store, one which increased our corporate determination to acquit ourselves well. Sitting in our seats under the dome, waiting for the hands of the clock to reach 7.00 pm, we watched in amazement as more and more people poured through the doors. By the time we started the audience had swelled to around 1,300—and a greater incentive to sing better than our best could not be imagined. It was a truly memorable performance to round off a memorable weekend, with soloists, chorus and orchestra responding to our conductor in a performance of the Requiem given in a spirit of true homage to its creator.

'I have just returned from a wonderful few days in Salzburg, singing in the Scratch Mozart Festival. Thankyou all for the organising of such a wonderful trip. Everything went so well, and we were very happy.'

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