South African tour 2007
On 2nd August 2007, months of preparation finally came together as eleven NHOA members and friends made their way towards Johannesburg airport. Patrick Hodson and Ruth Snow were there to greet Mike Clift, Pete Currie, Jeff, Gillian and Michael Lloyd, Geoff and Elaine Mitchell and Tom Sweeney as they arrived from Gatwick, and to collect Nigel Durrant, under separate cover from Amsterdam. As you can see from Nigel’s article our first stop was Manyane Camp in Pilanesberg National Park – not at all the usual setting for an NHOA organ crawl – which gave us a chance to acclimatise to this oh-so-different country.
(Did you know that the Moon is round the other way in South Africa? It gets older from the bottom instead of the right hand side.) We took full advantage of both the unbelievable catering (zebra isn’t black and white when you come to eat it) and the opportunities to see Big Game (no cats or dogs but virtually everything else and, boy, was it cold searching for crocodiles at half-past six in the morning) before returning to Johannesburg to begin the ‘serious’ business of the trip. Our guest house was in the smarter part of the city (although still with a high perimeter wall, electric gates and a guard) but we still felt safer operating as a group, which is sad, because it stops you getting a real feel for the place.
Our first organ, the large Norman and Beard in the City Hall was in many ways a figure for what we were to see throughout the trip. In deplorable condition through neglect it clearly comes low in the list of civic priorities; as was repeatedly made clear to us, the organ has no real place in black South African culture.
However, the Cathedral organ (a trip down memory lane for Patrick, who was sub-organist there twentysomething years ago) was a joy to hear and play, and formed a complete contrast to the last organ of the day, a locally-built Baroque instrument in the Engineering School of the (Afrikaner) University of the Witwatersrand (there must be a reason…).
‘If you want to understand the Afrikaner’, said Patrick, as we made our way to Pretoria next day, ‘visit the Voortrekker Monument’. We did and gained quite an
insight into non-British South African values and aspirations. But that was after experiencing the splendid Rieger at Unisa (University of South Africa) and
the comprehensive South African Organ-builders instrument in the NG Kerkat Hatfield, where we met the
delightfully enthusiastic Wim Viljoen, widely regarded as South Africa’s leading organist.
We dined in style that evening – a truly magnificent meal for the princely sum of £13 a head and said goodbye to our wonderful Johannesburg host, the Cathedral Organist Sidney Place, who also holds down a high-flying job in finance as well as ‘managing’ organs in every corner of his manor. There was just time next day to visit the Fehrle organ in the bowels of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (where one of our non-organists learnt to improvise most creditably) before flying on to Cape Town. We flew Kalula, which was fun (bright green plane, and the in-flight safety demonstration was seasoned with comments such as ‘Don’t cause trouble – the captain’s a karate black belt’), and some of us were glad to be back at sea-level after mile-high Johannesburg. Our accommodation, in the Oranjezicht suburb, was exquisite, but we had to
tear ourselves away early the next day to join Grant Bräsler, the Cathedral sub-organist, for an 8am session at the City Hall. The theft of lead from the roof has
resulted in leaks, leaving the Norman and Beard organ in a quixotic condition, but this didn’t faze Grant, either then or during the fine orchestral concert in the evening (he played the organ part in Respighi’s ‘The Pines of Rome’). At the Cathedral (Hill, originally for St. Margaret’s, Westminster) we met Cape Town’s ‘Mr. Organ’, the irrepressible and irreplaceable Jimmy Riadore, who, despite debilitating health problems, appears to look after every instrument in the region. A stimulating visit to the Von Beckerath in the University of Cape Town’s Baxter Concert Hall was followed by a salute to Cecil John Rhodes (as he seems to be known locally) at his gracious memorial on Devil’s Peak.
The following day was Cape Peninsula day, taking in Cape Point itself, where gale force winds added to the
drama of the ocean views. Simon’s Town, home to the South African Navy and Boulders Reach, home to a vast
quantity of penguins. Among others we visited the 1899 Hill organ at St. Francis, Simon’s Town, the oldest Anglican parish church in South Africa, and finished the day in the company of our Cape Town host, Chris Molyneux, an undertaker by profession, whose home boasts an unusual museum including a comprehensive display of model hearses…
One of the many special things about this trip was the opportunity to meet and exchange views with local organists and this we did in style next day as we headed off to Stellenbosch. Unfortunately we were unable to see the Marcussen in the University’s Conservatoire of Music, but there were compensations, including an ample lunch at one of the many vineyards along the famous Wine Route, and a very convivial dinner laid on by the local RSCM committee and the Cape Organ Guild. Both groups clearly work hard to maintain standards in organ playing and church music and it was inspiring to hear what they had to say.
YES! Despite the weather forecast we were blessed with a beautiful day for our visit to Table Mountain, with its unmissable views of Cape Town and its environs. We then rejoined Mike, who, as a professional horticulturalist, had opted for a full day at Kirstenbosch, the SA answer to Kew Gardens. Here, perhaps more powerfully than anywhere else on the visit, we realised just how different this country is. Glades of cycads (ancient varieties of tree) remind of Jurassic Park, poinsettias and bird-of-paradise plants grow freely and to great height in the open air, and there are king proteas (SA’s national flower) everywhere.
Apparently our next move was along the Garden Route towards Port Elizabeth. Most of us took a diversion at Mossel Bay to pickup the quaintly-named Outeiqua Choo-Tjoe to George. Sadly it wasn’t quite a Choo-Tjoe, as the weather was deemed too windy for the steam engine to run safely, so we had to make do with a diesel. Nevertheless, it was a refreshing change from
all those road-miles, and for our steam buffs there was a fascinating railway museum at George. Our lodging for the night was at the Fairy Knowe Hotel (yes – really!), right on the banks of the Touws River in the Wilderness National Park. Three of us braved the pedalos in the river, all of us got cold, and some of us never want to taste lentil soup again – but it was an experience. After breakfast we were on the road again, this time stopping at the dramatic Knysna Heads, where most of us took a boat trip for a closer look, before booking in at the delightful Lily Pond Country Lodge. Described as ‘contemporary’, the accommodation here, in one case at least, included a bath in full view of the rest of the bedroom – fun!
This section of the trip involved moving on each day, so we said a regretful goodbye to the kind people at Lily Pond and hit the road in the direction of Port Elizabeth,
where we met Eric Spence, formerly of Brighton Parish Church, who is organist at St. Mary’s Cathedral. One of Eric’s young colleagues gave a stunning demonstration of the Walker organ; we then broke for lunch at a very English pub before moving to the Dutch Reformed Church at Summerstrand, whose Zielman and De Bruyne organ is the brain child of the doyen of South African organists, Professor Albert Troskie.
The following day started very early for at least five of us, as Michael and Gillian were due to take part in a lunchtime recital at Grahamstown Cathedral, and needed to get there early to practise. (When you’re moving around in two minibuses there’s no question of doing anything on your own.) We also had the privilege of seeing the tiny Hill organ in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Grahamstown, which is thought to be the oldest Hill organ in existence (1835).
The drive to East London airport was a little hair-raising due to the vast distances between fuel-stations on South African roads and an acute shortage of fuel in one of our buses.
However, we made it, caught our (propeller) flight to Durban (it did nothing for the ears or the posterior) in time to reach the beautifully sited Chantecler Hotel for a very late supper. Next morning things became rather tense (Chantecler’s idea of ‘breakfast at 7’ was that the staff began arriving at 7; this caused Patrick considerable anxiety as we had an appointment in Pietermaritzburg, 30 miles away, at 8.30). When we finally arrived at Pietermaritzburg City Hall it was to a very warm and courteous welcome from members of the City Council, and from organ builder Colin Hele and his wife. Colin had made all the arrangements for this, the Natal leg of our visit.
And he spent a long time showing us around the magnificent City Hall Brindley and Foster – a real treasure among civic organs.The modern Cathedral, whose Cooper, Gill and Tomkins organ was in sorry shape, made a stark contrast (although the welcome was equally warm). The afternoon took us to Hilton College, one of South Africa’s leading public schools, where we discovered why so many elegant buildings here have corrugated iron roofs – violent hailstorms destroy any other kind of roofing.
Saturday 18th August saw us ruefully aware that the visit was nearly over. Not that there was any slackening of pace. A very long drive took us to the heart of Natal to what you might call the Teutonic Settlement – a cluster of towns and villages owing their names and culture to the German émigrés of the colonial period. After Hermannsburg and New Hanover we had lunch at Wartburg; it is a sobering thought that we have recently learnt that our hosts at the Wartburger Hof Hotel have both been murdered. We were touched to discover that a large proportion of the congregation had come along to welcome us at Wartburg Lutheran Church – this was typical of the friendliness with which we were met throughout the trip.
On the last day we said goodbye to Tom, who took the opportunity to visit the Boer War battlefields, and then to Patrick and Ruth, who would be spending some time with Patrick’s brother in Cape Town. There was time for
ust one more organ in Durban before the flight back to Johannesburg and then home.
Inevitably, a short article like this can’t hope to cover every detail of such a packed and fascinating visit. The best it can do is to give some idea of the richness and variety experienced by those who went. If anybody would like further information on the organs we saw, or the venues, or indeed anything else about the trip, please contact Jeff or Gillian Lloyd in the first instance, and we will try to help you. The last thing, and in some ways the most important thing of all, to say is a huge thank-you to Patrick Hodson, who first suggested this trip several years ago: without his vision, knowledge, organisational skills and sheer persistence and hard work it would never have happened.
Many thanks to Mike Clift for the superb photographs.