mistake. Four tackled the autobahns with
nothing but a questionable playlist and a
monster pack of Snickers bars, wondering
how the two other drivers made it to
Dresden eight hours before they did.
Vast quantities of cake and schnitzel were
consumed. A teddy bear spent a lonely
night in Dresden while the Pilgrims’ boys
caroused in the Leipzig Bierkeller where
Goethe’s Faust and Mephistopheles fought
their final battle, before being retrieved the
following day. Singsongs around the off-
key hotel piano became a feature of the last
two nights. We stopped at telling tales and
competing for a free dinner, although this
didn’t stop Dr Hands generously covering
lunch in Eisenach. What goes on tour, stays
on tour.
Stiftskirche
and Howells from Jamal Sutton in assorted
organ lofts. There were Tippett’s spirituals
Steal Away and Deep River, Oli Tarney’s
Come Let Us Return to the Lord, Bruckner’s
thunderblast Christus factus est employing
the vast acoustic of Dresden’s glittering
Frauenkirche to the full and Duruflé’s
mesmerising Ubi caritas doing the same. The
highlight for many was hearing Bach’s motet
Komm, Jesu, Komm in the Thomaskirche
itself; the choir had the additional thrill of all
but standing on Bach’s grave as they sang it.
Malcolm’s setting of Were you there when they
crucified my Lord? met with a particularly
enthusiastic response from universally
appreciative audiences, who packed out all
the venues.
Lucy Stewart, Q Parent (yr 6)
In the manner of all good pilgrimages,
the Pilgrims’ boys dropped in and out of
proceedings via Heathrow and Folkestone,
Calais and Dusseldorf, Geneva and
Singapore, Berlin and the Czech Republic.
One returned to the Czech Republic by
St Thomaskirche, Leipzig
During the Easter holiday I went on the
Winchester College Chapel Choir trip to
Germany on what was my last Quirister
tour. I found that the mixture of the local
people being friendly, knowledgeable and
appreciative as an audience, (including a
standing ovation at Roemhild after the last
concert), and the imposing architecture
meant Germany was an extraordinary place
to go on tour. It was full of excitement,
musical significance (J S Bach!) and history.
The Frauenkirche in Dresden (rebuilt after
the war and only finished in 2005) was a
vast open space with elaborate decoration
and it resembled an opera house with a
little antechapel. It was unbelievable to
Q’s rehearsing for concert
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