SENIOR members of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir may have a moment of nostalgia next week, because it is the 30th anniversary of the great Villach adventure.
The Choir arranged a spectacular series of fund raising events, including a sing-in for nigh on two days at the Philharmonic Hall, to raise the cash to coach them out to the Kartner Festival, in Southern Austria.
There they met up with the touring RLPO in performances of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Britten’s Spring Symphony, when they were joined by the Vienna Boys Choir. There was a distinguished team of soloists, Margaret Marshall, Helen Watts, David Rendall and Willard White and Gyorgy Pauk played Concerti by Walton and Dvorak.
Principal conductor Walter Weller was in overall charge, and the programme also included Dvorak’s 8th symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Julie Overture and Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
The Austrian sun blazed down on the attractive town, with temperatures of 90 degrees, and there was plenty of time for both singers and instrumentalists to take day-time excursions into the mountains. Then each evening it was to the air-conditioned Kursaal concert hall to perform before fashionable bejewelled Viennese audiences, and, indeed, to the nation via radio, as all concerts were broadcast live. It was a great event for the Hope Street travellers.
The orchestra had already given concerts in Ljubljiana, in Yugoslavia, and a unique event on an Adriatic island.
They travelled by ferry from Rijeka, then by coach down a string of islands to the little town of Osor.
