Waverley Singers

"Waverley Singers excel again in well supported concert"

The following review by Peter Sanger was published in the Farnham Herald newspaper on 28 March 1986

Two major choral works by Mozart, or at least mostly by Mozart, comprised the programme for Saturday’s concert by Waverley Singers, given in the spacious surroundings of St Andrews Garrison Church in Aldershot.

Just about every seat was taken and understandably so, for the Waverley Singers have become a quite excellent choir in the period since Malcolm Hicks, who conducted the concert, took over as musical director in May 1982. And what a difference it has made engaging an all-professional orchestra, the Tilford Bach Orchestra, here at their considerable best! I can still recall scrawny strings in the unsympathetic environment of the Prince’s Hall…

The first half gave us a Vespers setting written by Mozart in 1780 at the behest of his Salzburg employer, the Prince-Archbishop Colleredo. Despite the requirement that the work be of short duration with no repetition of verses, Mozart succeeded in creating a dramatic composition, alert to the meaning of the texts, and including a beautiful, warm, soprano cantilena for the Laudate Domino. Maria Bovina was the soloist, having an attractive, bright, clear, obviously opera-trained voice. The choir and orchestra were both excellent and the work moved along vigorously, while still allowing us to enjoy the many characteristically Mozartian felicities in which the piece abounds. Even those hearing it for the first time – doubtless the majority of the audience – should have been in no doubt as to the composer.

And the organ you may ask, after my much commented upon review of Messiah last Christmas. I’m delighted to report that the church’s own organ, the finest organ in the British Army I am told, (a statement to ponder), was not used this time: in its place Murray Stewart played a delightful chamber organ, a bright, cheerful little instrument, incisive enough to be heard clearly, but integrating well with the orchestra. I look forward to the next Messiah.

It is arguable how much of Mozart's Requiem was actually composed by Mozart, and how much by Süssmayr, Mozart’s pupil, though significantly, not Constanza, Mozart’s first choice to complete the unfinished work (that was Eybler), and indeed hardly in Vienna at the time Mozart died. [sic – we have reproduced this sentence as it was printed, even though it doesn’t make much sense!  - ed] Of course it was in Constanza’s financial interest to minimise the contribution of Süssmayr, so that the result would be accepted by Count Walsegg, who had commissioned the work and paid a substantial advance towards the honorarium. Recently editions have been prepared by Franz Beyer (1971) and, more radically, by Richard Maunder, which attempt to separate Mozart and Süssmayr’s contributions.

Does it matter? I think it does, because the work as it has reached us is very uneven in quality, with sections of Mozartian inspiration, and others, notably the Sanctus, Osanna and Benedictus, which totally lack such qualities. Even though Mozart drafted the instrumental outline for much of the work, mostly just figured bass, one can be sure that he would have added colour and harmony that Süssmayr could have imagined for himself. But it can also be argued that without Süssmayr the piece would probably not have survived at all.

Certainly there is enough real Mozart for the work to be well worth knowing. We heard Süssmayr’s completion (as is almost always the case), and admirably performed it was too. The soloists were all good, and matched one another well – again the soprano has the largest role, but Linda Strachan (contralto), Neill Archer (tenor) and Mark Wildman (bass) all had enough music for us to be able to appreciate their quality. The choir and orchestra gave a strong, extrovert performance, lively, well-articulated, good light and shade, words clearly audible. The choir could use a few more tenors (as what choir cannot?), but was generally well-balanced. I enjoyed the performance very much, as did the audience as a whole (who had, perhaps, not responded as much as was deserved to the lesser-known Vespers). If my own preference would generally be for a smaller scale, more intimate, more reflective performance, this one certainly had its own validity, and showed yet again, what an excellent choir the Waverley Singers now are.

One point of detail that puzzles people. Why does Mozart set the last trumpet (“Tuba Mirum”) for trombone? The German Bible renders the instrument as “die Posaune”, the trombone, and thus it is set by German-speaking composers, including Mozart and Brahms. But not the Anglicised Handel.

Future concerts by the Waverley Singers are at Frensham Church on May 18^th, when works by Byrd and Schütz will be performed, and at St Thomas-on-The Bourne on October 18^th, when we will hear Dvorak’s Mass in D, and Rachmaninov’s fine setting of Vespers, sung in Russian. I await both concerts with considerable interest.