Waverley Singers

Outstanding performance of Messiah by Waverley Singers

The following review appeared in the Farnham Herald on 6 January 1984.

The performance by the Waverley Singers of Handel's Messiah at Farnham Maltings just before Christmas was an outstanding one from an amateur choir. A critic reports that it was the best he had heard in Farnham in the last decade. He continues: "The energy of the conductor Malcolm Hicks, the full-blooded singing of the choir (most of the training for this performance had been done by Murray Stewart), and the response of the Tilford Bach Orchestra were an unbeatable combination. The audience, which applauded enthusiastically, was receiving real musical value for money from all the performers, a rare occurrence at such events.”

Malcolm Hicks, himself one of this country's leading continuo players, took a broad view of the choruses, with only a few contrasts of volume; however, the confidence of the Waverley Singers, allied to considerable vocal agility, enabled Handel's dramatic writing to come through in all its grandeur.

Dexterity

The sequence of choruses foretelling the passion of Christ grew in cumulative tension, and although the last chorus, "He trusted in God," may have been faster than many of the audience were accustomed to, it was an excellent demonstration of the spiteful and sneering asides, which Handel's librettist took from the Old Testament; it would have been even more effective had the last three words been pointedly articulated.

Of the arrangements which Handel made of his early Italian love duets, giving choruses of great textual variety, "And he shall purify" and the particularly speedy "All we like sheep", were performed with great dexterity and a fine interplay between choir and orchestra. It was only in this latter chorus that comparison showed the basses to be lacking in weight and unable to match the tenors who shone through the performance, though never too loudly.

The choir seems to be a larger and more effective unit: the sopranos sang many very rhythmical phrases, notably in "His yoke is easy" and "Let us break their bonds"; the alto section was particularly confident in all its entries, though, like all the parts, ought to get the sound going earlier so that the entry is heard on time.

The Tilford Bach Orchestra was an excellent partner in this performance, and apart from the leader Peter Stevens and the cello continuo player Angela East, it contained many members of other well-known ensembles, large and small, welded into a coherent body. It accompanied sensitively and did its own numbers, the Overture and the Pastoral Symphony, with poise and finesse. However, its quality was especially noticeable in the accompaniment to such numbers as "But who may abide". The performance included little ornamentation other than that generally heard in provincial performances, a pity since there were so many baroque specialists taking part. 

Murray Stewart, having done an excellent job on the choir, was fully employed as harpsichord continuo, and it was also a shame that a larger orchestra (as Handel specified in such places as the Hallelujah Chorus) and organ continuo could not also be afforded in spite of the quantity of sponsorship gained by the Waverley Singers.

Conviction

Malcolm Hicks chose sensible tempi for his soloists so that their declamatory arias continued to move forward without sounding hurried. Neil Mackie, the tenor, had the lion's share and presented every facet of the part with natural conviction. In Part Two, he displayed the extremes of his role in a purposeful "Thou shalt break them" (admirably supported by the basso continuo) and the deep pathos of "Thy rebuke hath broken his heart".

The soprano, Jennifer Adams, was a beautiful bringer of glad tidings as she danced through "Rejoice greatly"; her "Redeemer" was given some appropriate ornamentation in both solo and accompaniment. The timbre of the contralto Amiral Gunson may not have been to the taste of everyone in the audience, but she portrayed her role with the utmost conviction. She was as greatly moving in "He was despised" - with its whips lashing remorselessly in the central section - as she was reassuring and consoling in "He shall feed his flock".

Stephen Varcoe, the bass, captured the audience with his first words "Thus saith the Lord", and in "The people that walked in darkness" he revealed the light which was foretold by the prophet Isaiah. His "Why do the nations" was an agile rebuke to worldly aspirations; and with "Behold, I tell you a mystery" and "The trumpet shall sound", all was finally revealed in this great, dramatic, oratorio and the scene set for the majestic "Worthy is the lamb" and the inexorable climax of the "Amen" chorus.