Florence Week in the Chapel Below

In the chapel below my apartment, there’s a recital or concert almost every evening but they don’t seem to advertise them until the day itself. When I go to an event elsewhere, I’m probably missing something here.

Last week we had a couple of large American choirs. This week,when I’ve been around, I’ve popped in to performances by countertenor with flute and organ, an English cathedral choir, a Welsh mixed voice choir, and finally a recital by a trio consisting of soprano, oboe and organ. This week seems to be an ‘off week’ for concerts but the people performing below me haven’t been told.

Some of the concerts are paid for by organisations which patronise musicians. Some seem to be paid for by sales of CDs. Others are simply given by musicians which have time to spare on tour. The acoustics are SO kind that you cannot lose unless the singing or playing is too loud. The marble walls then begin to reflect too much and the result is a rather muddled over resonant sound.

Ah!! I nearly forgot the phantom. This is a chap whom I’ve never seen but I hear constantly from my apartment but VERY loudly from Via del Corso. The chapel door is usually open while he plays .. and plays … and plays … I was so impressed when I heard him the first time but, since then, I have become used to hearing ‘that’ Passacaglia bass line from my apartment almost every day/ He plays it well with varied registrations but he plays it often. Sometimes he plays all day but he mercifully stops before midnight. It’s a good organ and I normally enjoy listening to it.

The countertenor recital was great as he sang all the ‘pops’ except ‘Music for a While:. He had a very hard almost metallic, very well controlled sound. It was an excellent start to the recital week combined with a few popular flute pieces and sonatas. BUT unfortunately we just had to have the organist perform yet another Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Ah well! That’s the price you have to pay. (And it’s probably the price he demanded from his fellow performers).

The following day, the Derby Cathedral Choir turned up. Derby Cathedral does not have the enormous resources of the better known establishments but it does do services a few days a week so it covers the year calendar of anthems and services. They were due to do a Byrd Mass and anthems at Montecatine on Sunday but they volunteered to come here before. So I was able to hear them rehearsing the Byrd in the afternoon and perforning the inevitable ‘pops’ in the evening.

Having sung in a similar cathedral choir myself, they brought back many happy memories. Not only have I sung a lot of this repertory but I also visit various cathedrals around England where I would go sit in the quire normally behind the countertenors (best balance against the tenors and basses there) in the canon’s seats for any services I could get to.

When the Derby choir tackled the Britten ‘Missa Brevis’, I was sure that it would sound good with the extra resonance, necessary to enhance this particular piece, and which this chapel provides. The choir is following the present fashion of having girls and boys doing services. The girls sing without vibrato evincing a very definite ‘English’ sound even in this continental environment.

A favourite verse anthem “This is the record of John” was also on their programme. They even sang a favourite Tye which was not in the programme.

But it was the organist who brought back most memories for me. He spotted those enormous trumpets at the back and decided to play a William Mathias piece which could use them to good effect. And it sounded magnificent!!

So here am I in Florence. England has come to me!!! That ‘English sound” of a cathedral choir came here. They even brought Holst, Parry and company together with the inevitable Rutter and “Vicar of Dibley” Howard Goodall! What more could I ask for?

The very next day, we had a ‘Welsh’ choir. It never stops! Unfortunately, it was not a Male Voice Choir but a mixed chamber choir. They had definite limitations but the acoustics once again helped them sound great! They even did ‘Zadok the Priest’, would you believe! But the acoustics once more made them sound like a choir of a thousand voices and the whole thing went off surprisingly well! They also brought us Haydn, JSB, Faure, Brahms, Bruckner and finished with the Vivaldi ‘Gloria’ a real potboiler!

But they had an extraordinary organist with them. He looked at the organ and saw possibilities of playing Karg- Elert!!! I have never heard baroque stops used so creatively. Even those characteristic ‘rolls’ up to the melodic phrases were there. I’m sure they excommunicate organists for playing pieces like that. I have never heard anything like this before! I almost felt like asking him to play, “I do like to be beside the sea-side’!!! But I LOVED it!!! He also played yet another JSB Toccata and Fugue in D minor (yuck!!!!) but, as suggested above, with very varied and creative registrations throughout.

The following evening, we had a trio consisting of soprano, oboe and organ. The organist had brought the front organ console right up with the players (there is another console upstairs but that is used by some chap wearing a mask) so it was puzzling why he had difficulty with tempi throughout the recital. But when he just HAD to play HIS JSB T&F (just fedup with typing the whole title all the time!) he seemed happy to almost bring the house down with all stops out. There is no doubt that the JSB T&F is a fantastic work but perhaps it shouldn’t be played more than once every two days. (Same with ‘that’ passacaglia) The oboe was excellent but had a permanent war with the organ tempi. The soprano had a nice time but warbled a bit. Altogether – another very pleasant evening.