Waverley Singers

Singers raise their voices to 40 years

The following review by Roy Rashbrook was published by The Herald newspaper, presumably on 23 March 1995

On Saturday, in St Andrews Garrison church, Aldershot, to an almost full audience, the Waverley Singers together with the Tilford Bach Orchestra under the direction of Malcolm Hicks, gave their 40th anniversary concert - a performance of Mendelssohn’s celebrated oratorio Elijah.

It seems odd that the English, surely the possessors of the world's finest choral traditions - both the collegiate tradition as well as that of the Choral Society - should have turned to two anglophile German composers to provide them with some of the most important additions to their repertoire, namely Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

Composed for the 1846 Birmingham Festival (of which Mendelssohn was the director), Elijah is actually a rather curious work, resting somewhere between the musical languages of German romantic opera, Bach’s St. John and Saint Matthew Passions and the English oratorio à la Handel without falling headlong into any of those criteria.

As a result of Mendelssohn’s prosperous middle-class upbringing, coupled with his fascination with and study of the music of bygone eras and his resulting eclecticism, Mendelssohn’s output - including Elijah - has often been dismissed as lacking the emotional weight one comes to expect from German romantic music.

Indeed, sections of this work can appear a trifle ‘comfortable’ when performed with less than 100 per cent conviction and articulation. It is to the credit of all the performers in this concert that the drama of the work was fully realised.

The opening fretful notes of the overture, leading via a lucid fugato to the powerful first chorus entry Help, Lord left the audience in no doubt as to the work's dramatic strength.

The soloists - Sarah Vivian, Deborah Miles-Johnson, Philip Dennis and Tom McVeigh, who took the role of Elijah, sang expressively and with excellent diction - a quality so often overlooked - although there were a few occasions when they simply could not compete with the sheer weight of the orchestral accompaniment.

However, the real stars of the evening were undoubtedly the choir themselves. Showing quite clearly the benefits of having as their conductor one of the country's finest and most experienced chorus masters, the Waverley Singers gave a thrilling performance of precision, warmth and fervour richly deserving the huge surge in the applause that was accorded them at the concert’s conclusion.

If I did have to resort to hyper-criticism, it would be that the chorus did not always achieve a perfect blend - the result of a problem all too prevalent in choral societies and one about which they can do very little.

The tenor section is less than half the size of any other section in the choir. So if you have a tenor voice (or any other for that matter) and would like to join the Waverley Singers contact the choir secretary, Miss Judith Miller. On the evidence of this concert I can thoroughly recommend them.

Underneath this review the newspaper carried the following report:

Nostalgia rules as 300 gather for anniversary

Some 300 people gathered in style on Saturday evening in celebration of the Waverley Singers’ Ruby Anniversary.

The reception was organised by former secretary, Jo Reader, and Anna Beadle and held at the Potters International Hotel, Aldershot, for choir members past and present, followed by [following: see below - ed] the choir's performance of Elijah at St Andrews Garrison Church.

A large display of old programmes, photographs and press cuttings gave a fascinating insight into the choir's history and during the evening a beautifully iced cake bearing the Waverley Singers’ dates and a number of composers’ names was shared among those assembled.

Chairman David Wilson welcomed many old friends of the choir, including three former secretaries, Molly Goddard, Pat Jenner and Jo Reader, and the principal guest, former conductor John Cotterill.

He thanked Mr Cotterill and present-day conductor Malcolm Hicks for all the pleasure they had given to singers and audiences alike in the last 40 years. He said the choir entered its fifth decade with an exciting programme of music and looked forward to welcoming everyone again in the year 2005 to celebrate 50 years of music making.

Letters had been received from around the world and one was read out from Rosemary Walker, in whose parents house the original Waverley Singers rehearsed back in the ‘50s. Now resident in Australia, and a founder member of a choir in Canberra, she wrote that she would be celebrating in spirit by attending an open-air performance of Carmina Burana.

John Cotterill congratulated Malcolm Hicks and the choir on a marvellous performance of Elijah and said it was hard to believe how far the Waverley Singers had come from their first performance which included ‘The Happy Wanderer’ and ‘How Much is That Doggy in the Window’!

He wished the choir continuing success and looked forward to celebrating with them again in the year 2005.