Europe

It is now August bank holiday now August bank holiday 2018 and little progress has been made on my story. However 1972 was an amazing year visiting Israel, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Bayreuth for the Ring, Munich, Copenhagen to stay with Knud and Myrli, 3 weeks at the Edinburgh festival £50 for all the main events! York to Nellie's, Norwich to see the Clarkes and finally London. The time in York was a chance to sort out my papers and films. I kept my promise of writing home once a week and sent cassette tapes as well. 

In Bursa we arrived on the student tour in the bus and went straight to a mosque. My shorts caused much consternation and I as given a long skirt to wear. When I went in the souk people just laughed at me so I went back to the bus. Later I went to great trouble to buy towels and get them posted using some French. Alas the blue colour ran! The Istanbul leather coats got to Mum and Ann and mine reached York but was in fact far too thick and hot to wear! I thought UK was going to be cold. It was but since has warmed up  a lot. The student tour of Greece was brilliant. In Paestum my beard led the guy on the gate to call me Jesu Christo! I loved all the art galleries, the operas (Verona, Bayreuth very hot, Munich, Copenhagen). Played the organ at Anglican churches everywhere and warmly welcomed. Evensong at Lake Como and up early for the sunrise. Same day returned to Florence to hear the St Matthew Passion for the first time live - Kurt Equiluz - I was exhausted!  Photo with Gwyneth Jones at Bayreuth - she was lovely. Edinburgh was mind blowing and I met Fran Tew there. Concert a.m. play then high tea, concert or opera in the evening including Janet Baker in The Trojans. King's singers. Kollo, Ludwig, Berlin philharmonic, von Karajan. With the rashness of youth I recorded disappointment said it was too fast! Maurice was obsessed with the length of recordings! Das Lied von der Erde is of course a very difficult work and having been raised on recordings inevitably performance could not be the same . To York to sort out films and papers.

The encounter with the Clarkes in Norwich organised by LouieWarnes was odd as I did not know them. 5 cousins. Aunt Gladys and Harold Clarke with an e. He was a bank manager. You must realise that everything in SA had been on records. We had no TV and the orchestra were rubbish. I knew a huge amount of music from scores and recordings and radio but was really starved of culture. The art gallery was small and had little of significance. Again I had studied History of Art for 3 years and had my little notebook. I was so keen to see everything!! Who can forget weeks in Florence and Venice and Rome. In Naples the Anglican chaplain invited me to stay as long as I played the following Sunday and he took me to the opera - he retired to Ripon and remembered me! 

The Holy Land

I want to reflect in Easter week on three visits to the Holy Land. The first in 1972 was not a pilgrimage although it turned into one for Holy Week! Our driver was Arab and he took us around Galilee in a big black Mercedes. I remember thinking everywhere here needs to be dug down 20 feet and we might find something! However the shores of the Sea of Galilee were very special in spring time. That felt authentic. We visited the main sites and also went to the heights of Kuneitra looking towards Syria. This was shocking to see whole towns bombed out. Sadly peace has not come to this region. We also visited a kibbutz. I recall feeling that the huge church in Nazareth would have made Mary very uncomfortable and being underwhelmed by Bethlehem. The church of the Holy Sepulchre was frankly shocking with its many divisions.   The later visits made me realise what a wonderful place this is. We also visited the Dome of the Rock the most disputed religious site on earth.    I was interested to see that I have in fact visited Bethany and the tomb of Lazarus three times and Hebron twice. In 1972 I note the Hebron mosque and synagogue within it After the terrible attack it was closed for 4 years and the Muslims returned to find the synagogue had expanded. What should be a site where the Abrahamac faiths can visit the tombs of the patriarchs has become a bitter dispute.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Holy Week was made very special by Bishop George Appleton and centred around St George's cathedral. The walk on Maundy Thursday to Gethsamene at night from the Cenacle area was unforgettable with dogs barking and following a single torch. Palm Sunday we looked down in our small Anglican procession on the huge Catholic procession below (it would not be so large now sadly). The people I met were special too. The kind man on the bus who invited me to stay in his flat and took me to the synagogue - the cantor was wonderful and must have been around 80. He would have invited me to the passover meal but it was not in his home. Many years later we did go to a Passover meal in North London. Easter day I walked through Mea Shearim to reach the Garden tomb for the early service and later Messiah. After lunch we went to the post office to send a telegram home Jesus is risen! My friends from Washington cathedral suggested it (again many years later I played the organ there). I also ended up playing the organ for a church for Jewish converts - all in Hebrew. Suspicious of this!
Our second visit was the Belmont abbey pilgrimage and I have recorded this in a blog. The third time was Chrstians and Muslims at St George's college and what a revelation that was - again my blog records this. By this time I was sketching and painting and my response is echoed in BBCTV series "Painting the Holy Land".
So what have I learnt from this? Being tolerant is not enough. We need to understand each other's position better. My view changed a great deal. My faith was deepened in some places. The garden tomb in particular was helpful although it is not the right place. I am not anti Jewish but I am very unhappy about Zionism. The Palestinians have been treated with contempt by people who themselves were subject to the Holocaust. This is hard to understand.