Earlier this year, Sue Stone announced that she wished to swap the accompanist’s piano stool for a seat in the Portsmouth Baroque Choir altos. I’d say that 1800 weekly rehearsals with barely a break is enough for anyone. Even so, it took us all by surprise and caused the choir committee not a few palpitations about how to replace her. The choir marked her change of role at the start of this term with gifts and a card signed by members present and past. I was delighted that she agreed to answer some questions about her experience that has extended over almost half a century, almost as long as the choir has been in existence. I began by asking her how it now felt at Monday rehearsals to be in amongst the altos instead seated out front.
“I have often sung with the altos in the final rehearsals leading up to a concert, so I feel at home. If I got something wrong at the piano the whole choir knew about it. As a singer it’s hopefully just the person next to me that hears my mistakes now! “
Inevitably, we head back to early days and I ask about her family’s musical background and first steps at the piano.
“I think I was about seven years old. I was having ballet lessons and then my parents offered me the chance to have piano lessons but said I couldn’t do both. I think I made the right choice. My mother could play one piece from memory on the piano – Tiptoe through the tulips – and I never heard her play anything else. My father had a good tenor voice but didn’t read music well, if at all. He sang with the local Gilbert and Sullivan Society and at the Vicarage Street Methodist Church in Yeovil. They were keen that I should have the chance to enjoy music”.
As those graded exams progress, young piano players get a sense of where their strengths lie and I wondered if there was a moment when Sue made a deliberate choice between accompanist or soloist.
“I had no interest in solo work but I enjoyed accompanying for the singing lessons of fellow students at Portsmouth College of Education where I was learning to be a teacher. I was the rehearsal accompanist for college Gilbert and Sullivan productions, which was a lot of fun. While I was still at college the Portsmouth Festival Choir was formed and the Music Department was approached to provide an accompanist. The first choice student wasn’t available so they sent me as second choice. Brahms’ German Requiem and Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem turned out to be a bit of a handful!”
Madeleine Barrows, a long-serving soprano remembers Sue performing on piano in the summer concert at St George’s, Waterlooville around ten years ago: “She really showed a side of her personality and her musicality that many of us were unaware of, and which was delightful.” The choir’s Musical Director, Malcolm Keeler adds – “It was Richard Barnes who first got her to play in a concert, supporting the Britten Hymn to St. Cecilia, if I recall correctly. A big challenge came in 2007, duetting with Val Henry in Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes. They also played together for Brahms’ German Requiem in 2010 and she accompanied Copland’s Old American songs. In 2014 she played for Bob Chilcott’s Little Jazz mass, Shearing’s Songs and sonnets, Rutter’s Birthday Madrigals and a couple of instrumentals, all with drums and bass”. Sue remembers that all of these pieces were fun to rehearse but rather alarming in the concert: “Performance is just not my thing!”
I asked how she became the choir’s accompanist and what she remembered about her first rehearsal.
“It was one of those “friend of a friend”” situations. Because I was no longer a student I’d stopped accompanying for Portsmouth Festival Choir. I suspect I didn’t know how to say “no” so just went along and hoped for the best! I remember that I lined up with the singers to collect my new music. Then I sat down and spent the rest of the evening sight reading ….. and so did they. Obviously I was young and fearless then! At some point very early on a nice young man from the basses chatted with me but then he disappeared. That was Tim Stone and he had gone off on holiday for a couple of weeks. When he reappeared we got on rather well and were married about eighteen months later.”
I’ve always admired the attention and patience required of rehearsal accompanists. Sue has a good handle on that special skills set:
“First of all, adaptability and an ability to anticipate! Sometimes you play everything, or maybe just support one voice part, maybe only the passages between vocal sections, score-reading all parts or maybe selected voices. Sometimes don’t play at all! So then I would listen to the choir and spot the tricky moments. And try not to frighten the tenors by playing their part an octave too high!”
As a tenor of relatively recent vintage in this delightful choir, I appreciate the concern shown to my vocal part’s tendency to panic if their vocal ceiling is threatened and am reminded of Poulenc’s famous instruction in the vocal score of Un soir de neige – “ne pas étouffer les Tenores” – not so much “don’t stuff the tenors”, but take care not to render them inaudible. Are there are other similar duties of care to be observed that go unnoticed by the singers, I wonder?
“Being able to read the conductor’s mind is handy so it’s good to listen carefully when they talk and anticipate the bar number they’re about to say. If I’ve been listening to the singers while I was playing I’ll already know where the problems were. I do try to bail out a voice part if I hear them struggling. Are they aware? I really don’t know. I’m hoping that they take notice when I’m being helpful. Being able to transpose at sight would have been useful but it was a skill I never acquired. How does anybody look at notes on the page and then play something different on purpose? Don’t play too loud – you’re not there just to have a good time! I might have been guilty of that on a few occasions.”
Sue has seen many musical directors come and go. She remembers them all, as if reading from a succession board in church.
“I’ve worked with eight directors. During my time the choir was called Drayton Choral Society from September ’79 until December ’80 when it became Portsmouth Baroque Choir. Jamie Hutchings was appointed but didn’t take up his post in January 2005. So:
Chris Burgess, Sept ’79 – July ’89 (10 years)
Ian Schofield, Sept’89 – July ’01 (12 years)
John Page, Sept ’01 – July ’03 (2 years)
James Henderson, Sept ’03 – Dec ’04 (1.5 years)
Ian Caddy, Jan ’05 – July ’05 (0.5 years)
Richard Barnes, Sept ’05 – March ’07 (1.75 years)
Rosemary Field, April ’07 – July ’07 (I was absent a lot that year caring for ailing parents)
Malcolm Keeler, July ’07 – Dec ’07 (0.5 years)
Andrew Cleary, Jan ’08 – July ’08 (0.5 years)
Malcolm Keeler, July ’08 – July ’26 (18 years ongoing)”
I’m interested to know if there were any particular differences required of Sue’s role depending on who was directing the rehearsal.
“Some directors liked lots of continuous accompaniment, others liked the choir to frequently sing unaccompanied in rehearsal even if the work would be accompanied in the concert. I just did whatever was required at the time.”
And so to repertoire: the accompaniments that play themselves versus the ones that cause sleep deprivation.
“I don’t memorise music easily to then be able play it but I would invariably be able to remember how a piece went. As for movements or passages that caused loss of sleep, I could immediately direct you to the relevant, troublesome pages in Dove’s Passing of the Year, Duruflé’s Requiem and the Poulenc Gloria ….and there were others! It was usually a case of too many notes and accidentals coming at me too fast or in huge chords. I just played something that sounded a bit like it was supposed to be!
Sue is especially proud of these particular assignments:
“Many years ago we were planning to do Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with harp accompaniment. On the morning of the concert I was told that the harpist was stranded by heavy snowfall in a European airport and I would have to accompany on the piano. I had a very busy and panic-stricken day at the piano but managed a reasonable effort in the concert. It has to be said that the general standard of my playing was good enough for rehearsals but not for concerts. Bach’s B minor Mass was a mammoth task requiring energy and stamina but we did it. I am rather relieved to be able to say I played most movements of Passing of the Year better this last time in 2024 than before. I had put a lot of time into it but there was still one movement that eluded me.”
I asked if she thought some composers are kinder to pianists than others.
“It’s not necessarily the composers but the origin of the accompaniment. A piece written with organ accompaniment is written on three staves but the pedal line has to be incorporated in my two hands otherwise important harmonic and rhythmic elements are lost. Not always easy. I love the Duruflé Requiem but the organ part caused some anguish. I think organists cope better with organ music at a piano than pianists do. Orchestral reductions can be troublesome too. There are bound to be difficulties when the notes played by a symphony orchestra are condensed for two hands: Brahms’ German Requiem and the Poulenc Gloria come to mind. Then there’s Bach, Handel, Mozart and Haydn…… Yes, orchestral reductions can be tricky! Some composers, such as Jonathan Dove, are also excellent pianists. He has been a professional accompanist and répétiteur so he wrote music for himself to play. Some movements of Passing of the Year are easy but others really require the services of a concert pianist!
I’m thinking Sue must have some cherished moments in rehearsal, moments of hilarity or perhaps calamity?
“Shall I mention the old piano at the Buckland Centre that was tuned down to Baroque pitch, had a music stand designed to rip your pages off and was horrid to play? I’m not likely to forget it! It’s still lurking in a dark corner of the Community Centre.”
Lured out of retirement earlier this year for the Bach motets, I certainly remember it’s ‘horrid’ qualities, especially when the piano was directly facing us and only slightly more bearable when facing away. I switched topic to ask about continuity and change in the choir itself.
“The choir has fluctuated in size over the years which has had an impact on the type and style of music we can deliver. Basically the choir is at the mercy of the choices made by its musical director so we’ve certainly had a varied diet over the years.”
I ask what made Sue decide that now was the time to step down, what she will miss and how she fills her spare time now that she’s not having to learn Bach, Brahms and Dove every week between rehearsals.
“I thought somebody else might like to have a go. I like making music with other people and I enjoyed playing my part in helping the choir to learn the music. Now I’m one of the ones being helped. There’s no stress over things that are beyond my capabilities. I haven’t noticed that there is any spare time yet. Probably I ought to keep in touch with the music we’re doing in case the real accompanist isn’t available at some point.”
I end by asking her what words of advice she has for her successor.
“Enjoy it! The bits you don’t enjoy, just put down to experience and move on.”
There are no photos of Sue in rehearsal at the piano but former PBC tenor David Wylie was known for portraying his colleagues in his scores. Malcolm was able to track down this impression of Sue as she enjoys an early glimpse of the finishing line of Messiah.
Drawing of Sue by David Wylie in his score of Messiah.