1991

Vol.3 p. 469 1991 Dad phoned the library! Plans for their trip back to South Africa and the U.K. I have also found our 1991 Christmas letter. 8 June 1991 I attended The organ in worship at the cathedral with James O'Donnell, Patrick Russill, John Rowntree and Terence Duffy. I recall some playing the organ very flashily but a young man from Newcastle taught by a former cathedral organist played a piece from Orgelbuchlein beautifully. Truly memorable. I did not play. p.473 our trip to Lisbon. This was the Mozart requiem conducted by David Hill. The concert started at midnight in a venue which had been used by a circus hence the smell of elephants! We visited Sintra and bought shoes which were beautifully wrapped. We also had afternoon tea! There were troops on the streets and the bloodless revolution followed soon after we left. David became chorus master. I had suggested to Jean that she should hear the cathedral choir under his direction. Some people did not like him but I thought he was marvellous. A brilliant musician with amazing hearing. He could spot one singer who was not in tune. The chorus were not good at singing a cappella and he worked hard on intonation ready for the Rachmaninov vespers in February 1992. Jean had found this score in the BBC music library and Michael Bourdeaux taught us the Russian Church Slavonic (apparently he was not always correct!) We still have those first scores. Nowadays everybody sings this work! Giulini conducted the Verdi requiem in Valencia and Santander (Liz) Madrid and Barcelona (me) and both of us in London.
In 1994 we went to the Three choirs at Hereford which we enjoyed. Adrian Thompson sang he had been in the chorus. We stayed at Belmont abbey.