Waverley Singers

"Fine evening’s music-making by Waverley Singers"

The following review by Peter Sanger was published by The Herald newspaper on 5 April 1985

It was a few years ago that I heard the Waverley Singers. Not, for them, the best venue and with an amateur orchestra. The performance was, well, fair enough, but I haven’t felt exactly deprived at missing the experience since.

Rumour had it, however, that there had been considerable changes; and rumour was right. The concert I attended on Saturday suggested that only the name is the same. Given in the spacious setting of St Andrew’s Garrison Church of Scotland, Aldershot, the Waverley Singers provided a quite splendid evening’s music making.

Much of the credit must go to the musical director, the widely experienced Malcolm Hicks, who conducted this programme, and to the assistant conductor, Murray Stewart, organist at this concert; between them they have totally transformed the standards from those I, rather distantly, recall.

It also makes a huge difference having a professional orchestra, the Tilford Bach Orchestra – hello again! – who played as well as I have ever heard them. And the acoustic of this rather barn-like 1920s church is also a comfortable, sympathetic one for choral performance.

THRILLING SOUND

Handel’s well known Coronation Anthem Zadok the Priest, a joyfully extrovert piece, gave us the chance to hear the choir at full throttle; taken at a good pace (though not seeking to emulate Simon Preston) the choral sound was powerful and thrilling, as befits this large-scale ceremonial piece.

Murray Stewart then performed Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in F major, BWV 540 (not, for once, the ubiquitous D minor), a majestic piece, and a test both of player and instrument. The former was a pupil of Peter Hurford, and he has clearly learned much from his teacher in his lively, colourful exhilarating playing, emphasising the dramatic qualities of the work.

The organ itself, despite its rather buried location to one side of the nave, sounded better than many English instruments do in Bach, clearer, more incisive; though an imaginative choice of registration doubtless helps matters.

The choir and orchestra were joined by four soloists, Tracey Chadwell, soprano, Deborah Miles-Johnson, contralto, Neil Mackenzie, tenor, and Roger Heath, bass, for a performance of Handel’s sixth Chandos Anthem. These anthems precede the later, and greater, oratorios, and show Handel developing the choral style that was to become so familiar. We heard a well paced, expressive performance that maintained interest throughout. Each of the soloists was enjoyable to listen to; Tracey Chadwell, in particular, could well be a singer of whom we will hear much more.

How you heard this time depended very much on where you were sitting: they were placed forward of the orchestra, very close to the audience; at the front it must have sounded like one of those ridiculously over-miked gramophone recordings; further back (where I was) the balance was fine. But the choir – some 100 voices – is really too large for these particular works, and some of the detail inevitably becomes blurred, however precise the singing.

But the final, and main, work in the programme, Beethoven’s Mass in C, was admirably suited by such a weight of tone, and I thought the performance of this rather underrated work (partly its consciously traditional style, and partly comparison with the Missa Solemnis) quite splendid.

The choir had obviously worked hard at this piece, and grown very fond of it, and this affection transmitted itself. Everything sounded right: vital, alert singing from all sections of the choir, not least the tenors, so often the weakest voice; well blended soloists; finally contrasted dynamics; clear enunciation of the text. My only wonder was that we hear this work so seldom.

In passing, I note that the programme assumed familiarity with the Latin Mass, and gave no text or translation. Fine for those who already know their way around…perhaps Andrew Lloyd Webber will change all (though what of the Gloria and Credo?)

A brief, but necessary, mention of things financial. Waverley Borough Council have provided generous financial support to the Waverley Singers, and this concert was subsidised by the National Federation of Music Societies from funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain. The Federation is in its Jubilee Year, and this concert was nominated as a Federation Jubilee Concert in honour of that admirable organisation.

Before the concert Josephine Reader, secretary of the Waverley Singers, hoped that I would not find it, in my own words, “worthy but dull”. She can rest assured that I enjoyed it very much, and was impressed both by the standards now being reached by this choir as well as by the quality and vitality of these particular performances.

If they match this one, I commend future concerts not only to relatives and friends (who inevitably make up much of the audience), but to music-lovers in general. I have had far less committed and responsive performances by far better-known choirs and orchestras.