27 Sep 2024
Awe-inspiring venues play a vital role in the success of MCO’s mission to bring immediacy and drama to our historically inspired performances. There’s nothing like the atmosphere of a live concert, but the great music of the past comes to life even more vividly when we’re surrounded by history. For the Monteverdi Choir’s performances of Bruckner and Gesualdo this October we are spoilt for choice: three jaw-droppingly beautiful venues with stunning acoustics, steeped in history.
Monteverdi Choir performs Bruckner & Gesualdo – 16-20 October 2024
Ely
Certainly the first two venues pre-date the music we’ll be performing: there has been a church on the site of Ely Cathedral since AD 673, and the present building dates back to 1083, gaining Cathedral status in 1109. The famous Octagon Tower was built after a disastrous collapse of the original tower in 1322 (the noise was such that the monks thought there must have been an earthquake). The resulting structure is acknowledged as one of the wonders of the medieval world; this miraculous space will make our stage.
Oxford
Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford is almost as ancient. A monastery was founded on the site in the Eighth Century, and a priory established in 1122. Parts of this 12th-century priory church are visible in the current building, which became both the Cathedral for the Diocese of Oxford and the chapel for Christ Church College in 1546, 20 years before Gesualdo’s birth.
Greenwich
By comparison, the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul in Greenwich is relatively modern. Before housing the Royal Navy’s training college (1873-1997), from 1498 this was the site of the Palace of Placentia (also known as Greenwich Palace), in which King Henry VIII and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I were born. The Tudor monarchs would have worshipped at the original Chapel Royal there. After the Civil War it fell into disrepair, and in 1696 Sir Christopher Wren was appointed to construct the Royal Hospital for Seamen on the site. The Chapel was part of Sir Christopher Wren’s design for the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, but was rebuilt in 1779 after a fire had destroyed the original. It is regarded as one of the finest neo-classical interiors in existence.
Musical history
These buildings reverberate with musical history. Ely Cathedral has had a choir school for boys since the 10th Century. The choir at Christ Church was established in 1546, with John Taverner as the first Director of Music, and 400 years later William Walton as a boy treble. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the Chapel Royal (an establishment rather than a building) was often located at Greenwich. This was a golden era for the choir – the period in which the Queen granted a monopoly for polyphonic music to the composers Tallis and Byrd, both Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal.
The Silver Screen
It’s perhaps no surprise that such breathtaking venues have quite a history on the silver screen. The stairways and cloisters of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford are well-known to fans of the Harry Potter films. Of the three venues, that Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich has the most extensive film and TV credits, ranging from Bond to Bridgerton: Empire magazine called the site “the most popular filming location in the world. Ely Cathedral has served as a set for films and TV dramas ranging from The King’s Speech and The Crown to the video-game spin-off Assasin’s Creed, but will be most recognisable to Bernstein (or Bradley Cooper) fans from last year’s biopic Maestro, with the LSO (actually conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin) time-travelling back to the iconic performance they gave of Mahler’s Second Symphony in 1974.
