We love to go a-wandering…..:
The first trip abroad for the choir took place in the Autumn of 2001. Our party consisted of thirty-one members, which provided a good balance of voice parts. Paul Seath made a preliminary visit to Hanover towards the end of 2000 with the help of a grant from the Bristol Hanover Twinning Committee.
We left Bristol Coach Station at7am on Friday, 12th October 2001 a National Express Flight Link to Heathrow Airport (Terminal 2) in time to board a British Midland plane to Hanover at 11.50am arriving at Treff Hotel at 1420 local time. The hotel was very comfortable with plenty of social and rehearsal space available. It also had excellent refreshment facilities, which included an outside veranda bar (of which we made full use!). Members used the first evening as an opportunity to explore the big city and all soon set off with a quantity of free travel tickets, generously provided by our host.
Our first light concert was performed in the evening of Saturday, 13th October at der Herrenhauser Kirche after a short rehearsal in the morning and another later on at the church. Music included pieces by John Rutter, Franz Schubert and Elgar with one traditional American piece.
On the Sunday following a morning rehearsal, we performed a combined evening concert with the Canta Nova choir at der Auferstehungskirche, and concluded the evening by joining together in singing the Bohemian Rhapsody. Westbury Singers music included works by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Leonard Bernstein. A very jolly party followed with lots of food and drink!! - It was here that we were introduced to ‘I Pharadisi’ - now a much loved piece in our own regular repertoire.
Our final rendition - a slightly less formal occasion - took place on the Monday at Goethe Schule where we sang a variety of items from our Hanover repertoire, ending up with a full-blooded performance of the Beatles compilation! This was rapturously received with the ‘in-mates’ - mainly 15-18 year olds, which saw Paul encouraging the whole audience to take an active part with both singing and actions. During the same evening an extremely lively, almost impromptu musical extravaganza took place where all members ‘did their bit’. Hotel Treff put on a magnificent banquet of hot and cold food, which made a super finale to our stay in Hanover.
Our homeward journey back to the West Country proceeded in a well-ordered fashion on Tuesday, 16th October with no delays. Our grateful thanks go firstly to the Hanover Sub-Committee and to Paul for their initial deliberations and then particularly to John Todd who undertook the considerable bulk of the formal travel/hotel arrangements.