Waverley Singers

Waverley Singers Concert

The following review by ‘P.M.’ appeared in the Farnham, Haslemere, and Alton Heralds on 17 November 1967.

The concert last Saturday in Farnham Grammar School was an admirable example of the best in amateur musical entertainment. For my part, this is what music is all about, and all credit to John Cotterill for his part in producing such an evening. 

Waverley Singers is a well-trained team which has obviously prepared its work carefully and thoroughly, but I found the Britten version of the National Anthem a strangely unsatisfactory way of starting the concert. A slightly nervous and apprehensive choir was left unsupported early in the programme, and the resultant drop in pitch was not surprising. The Holst Te Deum was very beautifully sung, but we were haunted by a thinness of tone which may have been due to the hall, but which meant that none of the climaxes were really big enough. I would have expected a choir of this size to have made much more impact in this work.

Very Refreshing

It was very refreshing to hear Margery Wakefield's interpretation of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto. This kind of performance, with its pastoral shades, is very much to my taste. There were several moments of disagreement as to tempo, and some rather ragged playing from brass and lower strings, but the overall effect of the performance was most satisfying.

The major work of the evening was, of course, Mozart's Requiem. Allowing for the fact that Süssmayr is supposed to have understood the mind of the composer when realising the score, is it really necessary to endure those trombone passages? Mozart, the supreme dramatist, knew exactly how and when to use the trombone with the most devastatingly beautiful effect, but the orgy of trombone doubling the bass line in this work is one of the most tiresome sounds in all music. I suppose the ideal is a player who can make the instrument sound like a bassoon.

A great joy

The performance of the work from the choral point of view was crisp, disciplined, and musical. It is a great joy both to see and hear this choir. We are left with the impression that there are no passengers and that the work has been thoroughly prepared. This is good as far as it goes. There seemed to me, however, to be a lack of the finer phrasing and sensitivity which is the true Mozart. We had a performance in bold, clear colours, but without the exquisite subtlety that lies at the heart of the composer.

Of the soloists in the Requiem, I found the bass, Richard Angas, and the tenor, Philip Langridge, the most in tune with the spirit of the performance. Pauline Stevens, the contralto, gave a beautifully restrained interpretation, but was severely overwhelmed by the more dramatic soprano, Josephine McKimmie. Miss McKimmie was probably the person who had the best feeling for the composer. Unfortunately, by comparison with the others, she appeared overdramatic. Perhaps it would have been better if everyone had remembered that Mozart was probably the greatest operatic composer of all time. A little more of the operatic approach might have improved an already excellent performance.