Date: Fri 08-Sep-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-9

Quick Words:

Choral-Society-Europe-CCS

Full Text:

AMBASSADORS SANG THEIR WAY INTO EUROPEANS' HEARTS

(with many photos)

The splendors of Vienna, the charms of Salzburg, the brilliance of Prague...

all this and much more awaited the arrival of the Connecticut Choral Society

on its 14-day concert tour of eastern Europe this past summer. On July 10, 68

singers and non-singers - including 42 CCS members, 12 of them from Newtown -

made the trip to beautiful, historically rich cities of eastern Europe under

the direction of Friendship Ambassadors, a non-profit cultural exchange

program based in Montclair, N.J. This concert tour was the first by the Choral

Society to eastern Europe. Past trips have included tours in England and

Canada.

The Connecticut Choral Society is a chorus of 110 men and women - sopranos,

altos, tenors and basses - comprised of professionals and gifted amateurs with

experience in school, church or community choruses and choirs. All share a

deep, abiding love for music and song. Now beginning its 15th season, the

Society draws its singing members from more than 25 towns surrounding

Southbury, where the group rehearses.

Along the way during July's concert tour, members and friends of the group

took in spectacular views of the St. Martin Church, where the group performed

its first concert of the trip (the church also happens to be the same in which

Beethoven's monumental oratorio, Missa Solemnis , was first performed), toured

the Schonbrun Palace, the Vienna Opera House and St. Stephen's Cathedral in

Vienna, visited wineries and enjoyed marionette performances, and discovered

that most hotels in eastern Europe do not offer the luxury of air-conditioned

rooms. But as the name of the group's tour director implies, members of the

CCS group acted as ambassadors, making friends on each stop of the two-week

trek.

The trip included six performances of a concert program the CCS had been

preparing for months, with selections including mostly sacred music -Brahms'

How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place , Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring ,

Faure's Psalm 84 and Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus . The program also included

several well-known American spirituals.

Bill Jarrett of Newtown was the tour coordinator. Mr Jarrett took copious

notes covering each day of the trip, sharing experiences of various members

and the group as a whole. The following is a series of excerpts from Mr

Jarrett's notes:

July 10: We leave for Prague, capitol of the Czech Republic, en route to

Bratislava, capitol of Slovakia, but only after a 3«-hour delay at JFK Airport

because of "mechanical failure." So what else is new?

When we arrive in Prague and are all set to take off for Bratislava, we

discover that two members of our gallant crew, Newtowners Wendy and Gil Fong,

have been bumped because [the airline] overbooked the flight. As a result, we

do not see the Fongs until late that night at our hotel.

July 11: Bratislava, we soon discover, still bears the remnants of a stern,

unimaginative Soviet regime that lasted nearly 50 years and did its best to

strip the ancient city of its natural charm and beauty. Our hotel overlooks

the beautiful blue - well, make that brown - Danube, and at dawn each morning

we awake to the sounds of traffic as the newly-created Slovak capitalists and

entrepreneurs hustle on their way to work.

Our hostess, Danielle, invites us to a private concert at the Bratislava

Conservatory, where we listen in awe to a brilliant young violinist and an

equally talented musician who demonstrates how versatile and beautiful the

ancient dulcimer can be.

July 12: One of the highpoints of the trip was our first concert, held this

evening at the majestic St. Martin Church. The acoustics are the best we have

encountered, with each sound coming back at us in waves from all corners of

this beautiful cathedral.

Earlier we visited the mighty Bratislava Castle, which sits high on a hill

overlooking the city and its legendary river. The temperature is in the high

90s, but nobody seems to mind after learning about the heat wave going on in

Connecticut.

Our program at St. Martin, and the rest of the tour, includes sacred music by

Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and other great masters. But the real

show-stoppers for our European audiences prove to be several American

spirituals, highlighted by "Ain't Got Time to Die" and "I'm Gonna Sing."

July 13: We arrive in Vienna and are met by the world's greatest tour guide,

Isabella de Campo. She introduces us immediately to Vienna's marvelous subway

system, which whisks us all around the city cheaply and efficiently.

Several of us watch a movie that night of a ballet - Nureyev in Dying Swan -

shown outdoors on a three-story screen at a public park. There must be 10,000

people sitting and standing to hear and watch this free event.

July 14: Isabella leads us on a tour of the beautiful Schonbrun Palace and St.

Stephens Cathedral. That night, several members of the chorus sing at some

wineries located atop a mountain overlooking the city. Others visit the famous

Vienna Opera House, where during the season a different opera is produced each

night, starring some of the world's greatest voices.

July 15: After a morning spent doing some serious shopping and enjoying

impromptu singing groups (including our own at one point) on Vienna's main

square, we board our double-decker bus and head for the town of Matzen, about

an hour outside Vienna.

Here, at the charming Church of St. Leonhard, we perform our second concert

before a packed and enthusiastic house.

July 16: All good things - including the marvelous zoo and gardens at the

nearby Schonbrun Palace - must come to an end, so we head for Salzburg. Set

close to the magnificent Austrian Alps, this birthplace of Mozart offers

cobble-stoned streets, strolling musicians, a hilltop fortress with its own

funicular, and windowboxes everywhere filled with colorful flowers.

Our third concert is held at the Diakone Centrum, in the suburb of Eigen.

Because no organ or piano is available, Joe Jacovino of Middlebury, our

marvelously talented accompanist, is forced to play a harmonium, which has to

be pumped vigorously by foot. Joe does his best, but alas, the poor instrument

gives out halfway through the performance and we must sing the rest of our

songs a capella .

July 17: A guided tour of Salzburg is led by a young Austrian, Manfred, and

includes a trip up the funicular to the city's mountain-top fortress. The view

of Salzburg and the surrounding Alps at sunset is breathtaking.

Several people return at night for a chamber music concert - mostly Mozart, of

course - featuring a dozen or so excellent violinists and cellists. A few

others make the train ride to Berchtesgaden, the Alpine setting for Adolf

Hitler's infamous summer hideaway.

July 18: We exchange tearful farewells with Isabella and head for southern

Bohemia and our first stop at Cesky Budjovice, home of the original Budweiser

Beer Factory, still owned and operated by the Budweiser family. We are met at

our hotel by our guide for the remainder of the trip, the lovely and

delightful Katerina.

That night we perform at a theatre in nearby Cesky Krumlov. Poor acoustics and

a sparse audience combine to give us our most disappointing experience in what

was otherwise a successful series of concerts.

July 19: We visit the dazzling white Hlubka Castle, which dates back to the

13th Century (but was restored during the last century). It includes a small

but impressive art museum and a quartet of musicians who play native music in

one of the palace courtyards. That afternoon we head for Pisek, home of our

third performance.

At first glance, its setting is hardly auspicious - a small and seemingly

neglected chapel in the midst of a cemetery filled with sculpted headstones

and overgrown with grass. But to our surprise and delight, this turns out to

be in some respects the most memorable concert of our tour!

Local townspeople drift into the chapel in twos and threes, until finally the

place is packed. A splendid piano is on hand, which gives our director, Tina

Heindrich, a chance to display her talent in a duet with Joe Jacovino. The

reception we receive is without a doubt the most enthusiastic we encounter.

July 20: From Pisek, we drive directly to our next stop, Karlovy Vary,

arriving at midnight and struggling to unload our luggage and get settled for

a brief, one-day stay.

Karlovy Vary was founded in 1358 and was recently the scene of a film festival

- and for good reason. The town, known for its mineral waters, looks like a

scene out of a foreign film, with pastel-colored buildings flanking both sides

of a river canal that runs from one of the town to the other. Unfortunately,

our stay is brief: Prague beckons...

July 21: We sing our final concert in St. Nicholas Church, located in the Old

Town Square. Dominated by a huge chandelier supported by a slender rope

ascending to the very top of the spire - 100 feet above - this beautiful

church provides the perfect setting for our finale. Several hundred people sit

and stand below, as we sing high above in the choir loft.

Joe does his magic at the organ, and Tina, despite leaning precariously

against the balcony railing, whips us into shape as only she can do.

The rest of the day and night is spent shopping and sight-seeing. Especially

interesting are the famous Charles Bridge, the "Lesser Town," the Old Town

Bridge Tower and the Jewish Quarter and Cemetery. It rains buckets in the

afternoon, leaving a small group of us stranded beneath an umbrella, looking

for all the world like a crew of shipwrecked sailors holding on for dear life.

The flashes of light all around are not from lightning, but from passersby

taking our picture. Apparently, we've become one of the "sights to see" in

Prague!

July 23: Most of our final day is spent according to one's desires. By now we

are all quite confident about climbing aboard Trolley No 5 and finding our way

home, despite the purse-snatchers, who are quite active in Prague.

The hotel food is excellent, but on this final night we all gather in an Old

Town restaurant for a farewell dinner. The Chamber Singers do a few numbers

from their current repertoire, and kudos are handed out to all those who

helped make this trip a success. There were some glitches along the way, true,

but glitches somehow turn into fascinating and nostalgic stories later on.

In any event, we all arrive safely back home, with the strong feeling we'd

like to do it again. Next stop, France? Spain and Portugal? Wales and Ireland?

Denmark and Norway? Stay tuned....

For those of us unable to make the trip overseas to hear the Connecticut

Choral Society perform its concert program in eastern Europe, the group will

be presenting an encore performance for the public on Sunday, September 17, at

4 pm, at the North Congregational Church, Route 6 in Woodbury. Admission is

free and all are invited to attend the performance. For further information,

contact director Tina Johns Heidrich at 775-2602.