Despite the best efforts of the French fishermen who were blockading Calais, nearly forty members of the Northampton Bach Choir passed safely and speedily through the Channel Tunnel in April heading for Northampton’s twin town of Marburg.  Arriving late in the evening, we weary travellers were greeted enthusiastically by our hosts – members of the Marburg Bach Choir and the Twinning Committee – who took us to their various homes.  A brief reception at the superb Rathaus the next morning was followed by a guided tour of the beautiful town, lunch with hosts, and our first rehearsal in Giessen –a small town close to Marburg.

The evening’s concert took place in the ultra-modern Petrus Church in Giessen.  The concert of ‘Cathedral Classics’ – featuring music by Bach, Handel, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Parry, Stanford, and Archer – was well received by an enthusiastic audience.  The choir numbered only thirty-seven and so perhaps lacked its usual power and balance.  Nevertheless, our conductor Lee Dunleavy, seemed pleased with our performance – and so did our audience.

Saturday saw us preparing for our second concert – this time in the magnificent Gothic Elizabethkirche in Marburg itself.  The church possesses a magnificent new organ – much admired by our travelling organist, Richard McVeigh. This was the perfect setting for our second ‘Cathedral Classics’ concert which was again well received by an audience of some 300.  The programme was the same as at Giessen and included a magnificent organ solo from Richard McVeigh.   As a gesture to our kind hosts, members of the Marburg Choir were invited to join us to sing our final piece – Anton Bruckner’s Locus Iste.

On Sunday, the choir returned to the Elizabethkirche – this time to sing at the morning service.  Again this was well received.  Then choir members  boarded the coach for the short drive to the delightful mediaeval town of Alsfeld.  There we ate together in a local restaurant before taking a guided tour of this charming town – including the cheese market.  Sunday evening saw us entertained at a local special school by the Marburg Choir members who put on a tremendous buffet – all prepared by members of the choir.  The evening also gave the opportunity for the two choirs to sing together – with the Marburg Bach Choir entertaining us with charming and lyrical German folk songs and the Northampton Bach Choir reciprocating with such timeless classics as Ilkley Moor Baat’at.

The following morning we said farewell to our generous hosts and departed for Bruges where we were able to spend a pleasant evening eating in one of the various superb restaurants bordering the main square, and in the morning doing some sightseeing in the beautiful centre of this lovely town, before heading for Calais and the ferry bound for Dover, as by this time the French fishermen had lifted their blockade.

Arriving back in Northampton at 8 p.m. everyone remarked what a fabulous few days we had spent in Germany, what excellent and hospitable hosts our German friends had been, and how much we all looked forward to being able to return the compliment before too long.  Thanks must go to Mark Gibson for his tremendous efforts in putting the trip together, to Lüder Scahuermann, his counterpart in Germany,  and also – of course – to our conductor Lee Dunleavy.

Carolyn & David Tristram