Lourdes

Saturday past, to the church of our lady of Lourdes, in Hampton Court Way, to hear the Ripieno Choir, last heard in March, an occasion noticed at reference 1. A new to us venue, one which we had passed often enough, but were unsure how exactly one got at it, so went so far as to have a rehearsal in the margins of our recent visit to the Palace a bit further along the way.

A handsome church, which I would have guessed to have been built in the 1950's but which reference 2 suggests was actually built in 1965. A site which is more interested in the day to day religious affairs of the church, in what is called a fair trade parish, whatever that might mean, rather than in matters heritage. A church which seemed oddly plain and severe compared with the Catholic revival churches of the 19th century with which I am more familiar. Say those at West Croydon or Ramsgate - for which last see reference 3.

I have also read somewhere - perhaps in Visser's book noticed at reference 4 - that all Catholic churches have a perpetually burning sanctuary lamp in the Lady Chapel and a stone altar slab, this last being a throw back to the sacrificial slabs of Old Testament times. This church had both, with the altar being a nicely carved block of off-white stone, approximately cubic. The body of the church was circular, with a gently domed concrete roof.

I associate this morning to the church near Leicester Square, noticed at reference 5, but checking, while it is domed and circular, it does have not much else in common with the present church. Nor does my memory of it once having been a cinema check out.

A slightly awkward shape from the point of view of the choir and I worried about whether the sound would be lost, with this church being much larger than that they usually use at Weston Green.

The choir dealt with the shape by lining up in front of and facing the altar stone, with the audience being directed to the two wings. A rather thin audience as it happened, rather thinner than the numbers on our etickets suggested. Perhaps some got lost in the transfer from Weston Green. While the size did not seem to be a problem: I thought that the choir sounded better in this church, with its high domed ceiling, than they did there.

BH opted for the follow the words option, while I opted for gazing vaguely at the choir. I thought the music was very good, but I must have been missing quite a lot, without having given the words much more than a glance beforehand. For example, from Monteverdi's 'Lasciate mi morire'. I had not known that Catholics were into dignity in dying; I had not thought that it was their thing at all. See references 6 and 7.

PS: sound on new laptop very good. More on that in due course.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/jacobean-secrets.html.

Reference 2: http://www.olchurch.org.uk/.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/ramsgate-5.html.

Reference 4: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=modern+marvels.

Reference 5: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=plinth+life+notre.

Reference 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfFkUmYbbuE.

Reference 7: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/putting-down.html.