In early June, thirty-eight Coventry Spires singers and our conductor, Jack Lovell-Huckle, stepped onto planes and trains in Birmingham, Belfast and Coventry and, after standing in queues in Birmingham, hiking across Frankfurt airport or searching Brussels for the night train to Prague, we all finally arrived in Dresden. A day later Coventry’s Deputy Lord Mayor, Mal Mutton, and Deputy Lady Mayoress, Margaret Hickman, also arrived.
In 2019, Spires Music had invited the Neuer Chor Dresden to join us in Coventry Cathedral to celebrate the 60th year of the twinning of our two cities. And now, five years later, this was the return visit – another concert between Coventry Spires Music and the Neuer Chor Dresden, celebrating friendship and peace through music, this time in the Frauenkirche Dresden – a journey that took a year to plan – a musical celebration of the 65th anniversary of the twinning of Coventry and Dresden.
The weather and our welcome were both delightfully warm. With the help of our Neuer Chor guides, we spent much of the next two days getting to know beautiful Dresden and Saxony a little – a trip to the mountains, a guided tour of ‘old’ Dresden, a tour of the Frauenkirche, visits to breathtaking galleries, nighttime walks across the Elbe’s bridges looking at the city skyline, boat rides on the river, watching the sun go down and the lights begin to glow from the Frauenkirche. It was enchanting. Perhaps along the way we spread some musical enchantment of our own when one of our tenors sang Schubert to a group of school children waiting with us in the sun at a bus stop in the mountains!
Friday 7th June – back to work with an evening rehearsal followed by a buffet hosted by the Neuer Chor at the LutheranMatthäuskirche. Our Deputy Lord Mayor joined us. Our accompanist for the rehearsal and the concert itself was the Polish organist Tomasz Głuchowski – for this concert was also a celebration of the 65th anniversary of the twinning of Breslau and Dresden.
Saturday 8th June and the concert day finally arrived sunny and hot. A civic lunch for some, a lunch with the director of the Neuer Chor, Tetyana Shapoval, for others, and, for everyone, a special tour of the Frauenkirche. At 2:30pm singers, the organist and our two conductors entered the Frauenkirche for the final rehearsal, with this elegant space and beautiful acoustics all to ourselves. Later, almost 600 people arrived for the evening concert sitting quietly, waiting for 7:30pm. Our concert was international, ranging across nations and across time, from 16th century to the present day. Our composers were, alphabetically, American, British, French, German, and Ukrainian and the lyrics therefore were in several different languages. The two choirs were sharing music-making once more, with each choir singing their own programme and sometimes with both choirs singing together as one, bonded by the joy of musical friendship. We finished the concert with both choirs singing Handel’s joyous Hallelujah Chorus, followed by an encore that gave time for Tomasz Głuchowski to descend from his precipitous position above us and stand beside our two conductors, Jack Lovell-Huckle and Axel Langmann to share the standing ovation!
The theme of the concert was Peace – Verheih uns Frieden – Grant us Peace – Where charity and love are, God is there – let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease – Da pacem domine, in diebus nostris – Give peace in our time, Lord. The theme felt even more urgent and fragile than it had five years before when we first met our German friends-in-music. But we made music and that is good for our collective spirits.
A year in the planning, 90 minutes in performance and memories to last for ever.
Helen Atwood
Chair, Coventry Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
The photos were all taken by Helen and members of the orchestra and choir and the first shows the Frauenkirche or Church of Our Lady in Dresden, taken when sitting in a cafe watching night fall. The second photo shows the view of the singers from where the organist sat (taken by conductor, Jack). Photos (3) and (4) are taken by supporters of the actual performance, the Neuer Chor in red and Spires Music in black.
For more on the Frauenkirche go to https://www.frauenkirche-dresden.de/home
Coventry Association for International Friendship 