Fifteen boy choristers, twelve Lay Clerks, three music staff and two school staff, along with Chris Palmer Dean of Winchester gathered on Friday 1 May from 6am to prepare to depart for Fleury Abbey in France at 7am.
The journey by coach and ferry took up all of the day, but with a modern coach, several breaks and the ferry journey, the day didn’t feel as onerous as I’d feared it would.
We arrived in Fleury at 9pm (French time), where we were greeted by the Dean and some of the monastic community, in time for dinner.
After a morning exploring the delights of Fleury (the Lay Clerks and Dean had a tour of the abbey roof spaces and views from the tower) we rehearsed for our concert in the Abbey at 4pm. The abbey church’s acoustic is very resonant, and it was a delight to sing in that gorgeous and ancient space to several hundred people.
After a short break and quick turnaround, we also sang at Vespers with the monastic community at 6.10pm. We alternated psalms with the monks, their two psalms in French to plainsong and ours in English to Anglican chant, plus a choral Magnificat and anthem.
Perhaps the most interesting (and challenging!) moment was singing the familiar setting of the Lord’s Prayer by Rimsky Korsakov that we sing every Sunday morning, alongside the monks but in French. I hope that we sounded quite convincing…
On Sunday we travelled up to Paris to sing an afternoon concert in the prestigious and very well attended Sunday afternoon concert series at Église de La Madeleine, a vast neoclassical church near the Place de la Concorde where Saint-Saëns and Fauré were organists.
The large audience was very appreciative and at the end of the concert the Monseigneur announced that we were not allowed to go home! Post concert we went on a Bateaux Mouches tour along the Seine enjoying the warmth and sunshine of an early summer’s evening.
It was a wonderful experience for all of us and lovely to see so many chorister parents and members of the congregation there to support us in France. We are also extremely grateful to all who supported us in our fundraising efforts back home since September.
I just finish by quoting a review of the concert in La Madeleine by Olivier Périn, Assistant Organist Titulaire: “Last Sunday, we welcomed the Winchester Cathedral Choir (UK), accompanied by its two organists, Oliver Morrell and Joshua Stephens, under the direction of Andrew Lucas, as part of the Madeleine Sunday Music Series. It was a truly timeless experience thanks to the unparalleled skill of our English friends in choral music: purity of tone, magnificent vocal colours and homogeneity, beautiful projection in a reverberant and amplifying acoustic worthy of the great Roman basilicas, impeccable intonation and diction, and a magnificent organ – all in service of intense expressiveness. A rare moment in front of a large audience, who were sometimes moved to tears.
Well done and thank you to the choir, who are considered one of the most renowned in the UK!