In Spring 2009, I sang in The Hythe Singers concert on 21st March, and had been to one rehearsal of Whitton Choral Society at half-term, and then went to three rehearsals before the concert on Good Friday 10th April. The concert consisted of a number of short items, including “Valiant-for-truth” by Vaughan Williams, Malcolm Williamson’s “Procession of Palms”, and some solo contributions from two professional soloists, David Newman and Gary Coward. The main work at the end of the evening was the Oratorio “The Saviour” by William Lloyd Webber (father of Andrew), which consists of many movements and lasts over half an hour.
During a solo section quite near the beginning of “The Saviour”, the conductor, Ian McFarlane, made a very clear signal to me: he had chest pains and wanted me to take over the conducting. I made my way out of the choir and helped him down from the podium. He was taken to the back of church and was reported to have said that the choir sounded very good from there. He did not seem to be seriously ill at the time but was taken to hospital in an ambulance while the concert continued. Sadly he died late the next day in the coronary unit at West Middlesex hospital.
Conducting the remainder of the concert was quite a challenge for me, I had been to four rehearsals, but had only sung most of the parts once that term. Fortunately I had sung the whole work once before, in 2000, and remembered it quite well. There were additional distractions with Ian being examined and treated beside the podium and then taken out, and many of the audience and choir were very concerned for him. We made it through to the end and I heard later that in fact some people present did not even notice any problem, so it must have gone reasonably well.
The choir sang Rutter’s “For the beauty of the earth” and “The Lord bless you and keep you” at the funeral on 29th April and a number of other vocal items were included, involving friends and family, which I accompanied on the organ. It was a very moving occasion. Ian had been Musical Director for 38 years, since 1971, and was 83 years old. He was tireless, even in his eighties, and always had a friendly word or a story to tell; many people said he was such a kind man.
At an extraordinary general meeting of the Choral Society on 6th May, I was appointed the new Musical Director. This was not an easy decision for me, as it meant leaving The Hythe Singers, but I accepted the challenge.
Poster for the Good Friday concert
The choir at a rehearsal in Whitton Baptist Church in March 2007. Ian McFarlane is centre front.
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I kept in touch with The Hythe Singers and they invited me back to sing with them on a number of occasions, although I was not always available to help. On one occasion, Friday 24th August 2012, I was phoned by the Director of Music of The Hythe Singers at 7.30pm to ask me if I would conduct a rehearsal starting at 10am the next morning followed by two performance sessions at Egham Royal Show over lunchtime that day. He had had a fall while on holiday and had only just returned. He was able to email some of the music to me, and luckily I knew all the pieces except one. I had sung with the choir at Egham Royal Show on three previous occasions, so I knew the drill, and it seemed to go quite well, although the weather was not ideal. It stayed dry until just after we finished singing Elgar’s “As torrents in Summer”!. |