A sea of singers at the 50th anniversary performance of Messiah from Scratch® – and that’s just the basses and about half the altos!
Messiah from Scratch® 2024
Messiah from Scratch® 2024 (Royal Albert Hall, 10 November) found us celebrating our 50th anniversary in some style. We had a capacity Royal Albert Hall, an outstanding team of soloists and an auction which raised £9,000 for the British Heart Foundation.
Conductor Brian Kay summed it up perfectly: ‘What a great way to celebrate 50 Glorious Years! – a sell-out Hall, everyone in fine voice, a fabulous auctioneer (brilliant!), orchestra on top form and four divine soloists. Very much one to remember.’
In choosing our ‘divine soloists’, we departed from our usual pattern of giving a platform to emerging professionals. Mary Bevan (soprano), Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo-soprano), Nick Pritchard (tenor) and Ashley Riches (bass-baritone) would have been just out of music college when we first engaged them. That, however, was between 10 and 15 years ago, since when they have forged international careers. All were happy to come back and celebrate with us.
The English Festival Orchestra was led as ever by Alison Kelly. Players happily adjusted to a different style of conducting when Professor Christopher Wood took over as the winning bidder in the Hallelujah Chorus auction. The Deputy Chairman of Bonhams UK, Harvey Cammell, gave a bravura performance as the auctioneer (look at the photographs!), and Chris Wood certainly knew what to do with the baton handed to him by Brian Kay.
Joe Atkins (trumpet) played ‘The trumpet shall sound’ with his usual panache (he has quite a fan-club amongst members of our Facebook group), and Jane Watts took charge of the ‘Father’ Willis organ.
Underpinning everything from the harpsichord was Howard Williams. Howard was reprising his 1974 performance of Messiah from Scratch®, when he played a harpsichord he had built himself. He is now a busy concert and opera conductor of international repute, and we were honoured to have him with us.
Our souvenir programmes were sold in aid of the British Heart Foundation. Programme sales topped £9,000, so the total raised for the charity at Messiah from Scratch® 2024 was £18,000 – a fantastic result. If you didn’t manage to buy a programme, and would nevertheless like to help the BHF, contact them here: www.bhf.org.uk. If you make a donation and would also like a programme, we have some spare. Send a C4-sized envelope with sufficient postage to cover 200g (enough for one A4 programme) and we’ll pop one in the post.
Feedback from our singers:
‘Just back from a wonderful break, the pinnacle of which was singing as part of the choir in the Royal Albert Hall. What an occasion: thank you for the opportunity to sing such a wonderful piece of music in such an iconic setting.’ (RS)
‘That was a fantastic way to celebrate the 50th year of the “Messiah From Scratch” – bravo! Well done! The auction was absolutely fabulous and the auctioneer caught the mood and galvanised the bidding splendidly.’ (CG)
‘Yesterday really was a pleasure. We all commented on how upbeat and positive it was.’ (Event Manager, RAH)
‘Thank you for great organisation and for all the work you do. 21 of us travelled from Madrid and enjoyed very much this experience; a few of us cried with emotion during the concert.’ (PR)
‘Messiah from Scratch 2024 was fantastic! When can we book for next year?’ (LS)
‘The concert was absolutely magnificent. I’m at a loss for words to describe how amazing it was for me to sing Messiah with so many voices in such a stunning venue. I will never forget this experience.’ (KdeL)