In 1979, the fifth anniversary of Messiah from Scratch, conductor Gavin Park’s research took him on sabbatical to the USA. With some trepidation, therefore, the members of the Tuesday Partnership approached David Willcocks in his voluminous office at the Royal College of Music and asked him if he would consider conducting Messiah from Scratch. Even in their enthusiasm for their brainchild, the supplicants were almost apologetic for daring to ask the RCM Principal and former conductor of King’s College Cambridge Choir if he would accept the baton. To their astonishment and delight he agreed, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Willcocks approach took Messiah from Scratch to new heights, and was the first to be completely sold out. Gavin Park gracefully deferred and happily played cello in the orchestra until his unfortunate early death from cancer. From this point Messiah from Scratch became an event organised primarily for the benefit of choral singers, and the roster of works performed at the Royal Albert Hall continued to grow. By the end of the 1990s, Requiems by Brahms, Mozart, Fauré and Verdi were taking their place alongside performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and Vivaldi’s Gloria. In 1993, following David Willcocks’ advice, Don Monro decided to lift the standard of performances even further by employing a professional orchestra. The English Festival Orchestra (founded by Trevor Ford) was already known to Sir David through its work with the Leith Hill Musical Festival, and the new relationship was quickly established.
At a summer event in 1999, The Really Big Chorus had the honour of giving the first performances of Sing!, a new composition by Sir David. For some time he had been planning a choral setting of his own words to Widor’s Toccata, which was played on the Royal Albert Hall organ by Jane Watts, with additional material for the orchestra. It was rapturously received, and, although it wasn’t realised at the time, that concert marked Sir David’s 50th performance with TRBC. (This figure is now past 75, and still rising!)
