Waverley Singers

Waverley Singers fittingly close the festival

The following review appeared in the Farnham Herald on 22 June 1984.

Choral music by Britten and Parry, piano music by Prokoviev and Liszt: combine these with the Waverley Singers, directed by Malcolm Hicks and Margery Wakefield, add an attentive audience, and you have the ingredients for an enjoyable evening with something for most tastes.

The Waverley Singers began, as their contribution to Saturday's final festival concert, with Britten's Hymn to St Cecilia, with words by W. H. Auden. This cannot be an easy work to sing, with its unusual intervals and, at times, frequent tempo changes, but, with the exception of an occasional lapse into "old" concert pitch, the singers gave a pleasing performance.

Margery Wakefield has been the Singers' accompanist for many years and is heard as a soloist all too rarely. It was, therefore, fitting that she should be the piano soloist during a concert of unaccompanied choral works. Her first work was Bruckner's "Visions Fugitives”, and Margery delighted her audience with her interpretation of the emotional and dynamic range of the work.

Impressed audience

Four [three – ed] of Parry's [four] "Songs of Farewell" with words by Henry Vaughan, followed. "There is an old belief", "My soul there is a country", and "Never weather-beaten sail". I confess to being a “Parryphobe”, but the clarity of diction and feeling for the music, which have become features of the Waverley Singers' performances lately, compensated me, and quite clearly the audience was impressed. On two occasions, however, some of the singers thought they would sing early to avoid the rush; a pity, since Malcolm Hicks' conducting appears to be very clear and unequivocal from a seat in the audience.

Margery Wakefield completed her brief but valued contribution with two of List's "sonnets of Petrarch", numbers 47 and 104. This was an interesting contrast with the Prokoviev, and again Margery demonstrated that an artist performs with her heart as much as her instrument; even the birds in the caves of the hill held their peace!

The evening was brought to a close with "Five Flower Songs" by Britten, settings of words by Herrick, Crabbe, Clare and that prolific writer, Anon. "To Daffodils", "The Succession of the Four Sweet Months", "Marsh Flowers", "The Evening Primrose" and "Ballad of Green Broom". These they sang with obvious relish and strongly conveyed the sense and feeling of each song, fittingly ending the festival with a swift flourish of the broom.

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