• SIV1982

The 33rd Intervarsity Choral Festival: SYDNEY, 8 May–22 May 1982

Patrons: Sir Herman Black, Mrs Jill Wran
Chorusmaster: Georg Tintner
Camp Venue: Hawkesbury Agricultural College, Richmond
Participants: AUCS, FUCS, MUCS, Mitchell CAE, MonUCS, MusSoc (UNE), MUMS, PUCS, QUMS, SCUNA, SUMS, MUS, TUMS
FIBS: FIBS (Festival Information Bull Sheet)

COMMITTEE

Convenor: Anne Stevens (Miss)
Secretary: Mary-Louise Callaghan
Treasurer: Ben Macpherson
ConMan: Julie Hamblin
Publicity: Stephen Schafer
Ass. Publicity: Joy Sharpe
Librarian: John Cunningham
Camp Officer: Mark Dolahenty
Transport: Katrina Jenns
Billeting: Siobhan Lenihan
Social Sec: Robert Watts
Liaison: Elizabeth Strasser
Ass. Liaison: Andrea McAdam
Fundraising: Alistair Killick
Minutes: Katherine O’Sullivan

CONCERT

8pm, 21 May, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
Conductor: Georg Tintner
Soloists: Marjorie Shepheard, Patricia Price, Raymond McDonald, Grant Dickson
Programme: Beethoven Missa Solemnis
Notes: ABC Sinfonia
Review: Patricia Brown, “Intervarsity magnificent”, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 May 1982, p.8. “It was fitting that the shining highlight of this performance on Friday was the contribution of the 200-strong, Australia-wide intervarsity choir, assembled this year in Sydney for its annual choral festival. The Missa Solemnis is never an easy work for any choir to bring off successfully, fraught as it is with sustained high singing for the soprano section and the need for varied yet full-bodied attack throughout. On this occasion, the well-prepared choir responded magnificently to the challenges, rewarding Georg Tintner’s whole-hearted direction with a generous, clear-edged choral response. The relatively small tenor section deserves special mention for its effectively ringing attack ... [thank you $1.20! (Ed.)]”.

Mark Dolahenty has provided a correction of the editorial comment above, regarding the tenors’ “ringing attack” in the Beethoven, and an obituary: ‘On the recording and in the collective memory of the committee and all the participants it is actually Robert Watts who can clearly be heard gloriously soaring above the choir and orchestra in the “Quoniam” (Gloria) and “Et resurrexit” (Credo) entries. I had a bad dose of the IV lurgi.

‘Sadly, Robert passed away on January 24th at the age of only 53 from the vascular disease that also killed his parents. Robert’s mother actually passed away the day before the 1982 concert (his father having passed away only six months previously) but he sang the first half before leaving for his home town of Parkes and his mother’s funeral. The second half of the recording has a much diminished tenor sound.

‘Robert was a long time SUMS member and stalwart of many IV tenor sections in the 70s and 80s. The 1978 Berlioz Te Deum has the renowned “Robert Watts entry” on a high G#. He also single-handedly produced all the manuscripts, transcriptions and illustrations for the SUMS Centenary Songbook. Vale Uncle Bobby.’

OTHER COMMENTS

Camp concert/revue on 14 May.