Roskilde

In Roskilde to record at the Cathedral, a fabulous space with one of the best organs in Europe - a royal box is directly opposite the organ.


All of Denmark's former Kings and most of its Queens are buried here. It has 3 full-time organists, one of whom took a group of choir boys on a tour of New Zealand. When he gave the cost of the jump as his excuse for not bungy jumping at Queenstown, the boys had a whip round, handed him the money and insisted he jump. He obliged, survived, and now his stakes with the boys are sky high!

Denmark is efficient, modern, and expensive. I'm at the public library in Roskilde - the internet access is free. It is considerably colder than anywhere else I've been on this trip, but the cathedral in which we are recording is heated from under the floor. There's still some snow on the ground and 0 degrees yesterday gave it no hope of melting. This morning when I stepped out it was 7 degrees so it feels quite warm.

We have a lay day today while David practices - Roskilde Cathedral is magnificent - the organ sounds fabulous, and Buxtehude's music very colourful. I've been taking some photos in the Cathedral, and David plans to use some of them on the CD booklet.


I walked down to the waterfront - Roskilde is at the head of a fijord. There's still ice on the water, though the thaw is well and truly underway. It is thought King Ro named the city (now some 50,000 people live here) and 'kilde' is the Danish word for spring. There are many still to be found at various locations around the city.