Phase Two - May 2005
On 7th May 2005, 46 members of Exeter Festival Chorus joined with about 50 Russian and 31 German singers for the second combined performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. The date was very significant, being the 60th anniversary of the eve of V.E. Day.
The performance was held in the Youth Theatre in Yaroslavl, which is a beautiful city about 200 miles north east of Moscow, situated on the banks of the mighty River Volga. Yaroslavl is Exeter's twin city in Russia, and it is also twinned with the German town of Hanau, where the first performance took place.
Again, we must start from the beginning... The members of EFC (with several partners/supporters) travelled at different times, and from different locations, to arrive at our hotel in Yaroslavl by the evening of Thursday 5th May. It was a great relief to all to find that everybody had made it safely, and without serious incidents (except one poor soprano who missed the flight from Heathrow due to heavy traffic on the motorway - the good news is that she arrived 12 hours later, none the worse for her ordeal). It was also a nice surprise to find that members of the choir from Hanau were staying at the same hotel, so we spent some time re-establishing friendships made on our previous trip.
We were straight down to business the following morning. We had a 20-minute walk from the hotel to the Youth Theatre (fortunately the weather remained fine for the whole of our stay). Here, we met the Russian choir (many of whom we had first met in Hanau) and our conductor, Dmitri Volosnikov (who had conducted the chamber orchestra in the Hanau performance). We rehearsed with piano only, all morning. All comments and instructions were given in Russian, with very brief translations into German and English. Dmitri had his own strong ideas about interpretation of Britten's masterpiece, and was determined that we should 'unlearn' any preconceived ideas!
Meanwhile, our own (EFC) musical director, Nigel Perrin, was meeting and rehearsing the chamber orchestra for the first time, in another location.
We had the afternoon to relax - spent doing a guided coach tour of Yaroslavl - particularly to see a few of the 60 churches in the area, with our delightful guide, Larissa, whose detailed knowledge and dry wit brought the city, and its famous sons. to life for us.
The evening rehearsal (7 to 10.30) was with full orchestra, and was very demanding - we stood for the whole time, in our 'concert' positions, with Dmitri making us repeat the trickier sections many times, until he was fully satisfied.
The morning of the concert arrived - warm and dry. We had free time to explore the city in more depth - particularly the shops and central market - with superb fruits/vegetables and other comestibles on display. Then to the concert-hall, armed with our 'iron rations', for 11.00, to start a choir-only rehearsal. At noon, we were joined by both orchestras, soloists and boys' choir, for a dress rehearsal of the whole work. During this time, we were very aware of television cameras and microphones recording everything - we had learned earlier that the concert would be broadcast on Russian National TV!
The rehearsal went extremely well, and we all felt that the concert would be wonderful.
...and it was! The hand-over between main chorus/orchestra and chamber orchestra/soloists was perfect, and the boys' choir sang out of sight (of the audience) high up from the back of the hall. The overall performance was very different from the one in Hanau - full of drama and passion. The theatre technicians used clever lighting effects, and smoke machines were used during the singing of the Wilfred Owen poems, to remind us of the battlefields. The audience (amongst whom were the mayor and other dignitaries of Yaroslavl) gave a long, standing ovation, with many floral tributes.
Our conductors, soloists and chairmen of each choir, then attended a civic reception, at which speeches of thanks and friendship, and presentations, were made. Meanwhile, all singers joined together for their own party... and sang to/with each other into the night...
For the record, here are the details of the performers:
Orchestras:
Yaroslavl Symphony Orchestra - conductor: Dmitri Volosnikov
Moscow Chamber Orchestra - Conductor: Nigel Perrin
Choirs:
Glas Choir, Yaroslavl
Hanauer Kantorei
Exeter Festival Chorus
Academichesky Choir, 'Rgata', Rybinsk
Sokolyata Boys' Choir, Rybinsk
Soloists:
Natalya Kreslina, Soprano
Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks, Tenor
Raimund Nolte, Baritone
AND FINALLY...
Our very grateful thanks go to our choir-member - and Russian-speaker extraordinaire - Roger Cockrell for arranging visas, transport, guided tours and many, many more things, which helped to make the whole 'Russian experience' so memorable.
Report by Rob Martin
