Feature: Concert - The Proud Bassoon at Wigmore Hall on April 16
Published: 7 April, 2011
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
Fair stands the wind for the Wigmore
THERE’S never been a bassoon concert quite like The Proud Bassoon before – and there’s unlikely to be another like it in the future.
It’s the concert at the Wigmore Hall on Saturday April 16 to celebrate the life of William Waterhouse, the pre-eminent bassoon player of his day and long-term Highgate resident who died four years ago, aged 76.
“This event is unique – no one else has organised such a melee of bassoonists at the Wigmore Hall that I know of,” says his widow Elisabeth Waterhouse, in charge of putting on the concert.
“There’ll be 16 bassoonists playing different pieces, all of them playing together in Giovanni Gabrieli’s sonata pian’e forte for eight bassoons in an arrangement by Bill.
“Then we’ve got bassoon works by Vivaldi, Reicha, Jacob, Francaix and Tamplini. “Some of the world’s finest bassoonists are playing, among them Roger Birnstingl, and Julie Price, Australian bassoonist Lyndon Watts, Takashi Yamakami from Japan; and Stefano Canuti from Italy. The last work is the final movement of the Schubert octet when other wind players will be joined by clarinettist Gervase de Peyer, Bill’s colleague over many years in the Melos Ensemble.”
Born and brought up in south London, Bill Waterhouse won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music at the age of 17, studied with Archie Camden, later joining the Philharmonic followed by the orchestras of the Royal Opera House and Radio Svizzera in Lugano.
He was principal bassoon with the LSO for eight years and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for 19.
Although most widely remembered as an outstanding bassoonist, he was also a distinguished scholar, assembling a unique collection of bassoons and scores for the instrument.
Over the years, he contributed more than 50 articles for the New Grove Dictionary, wrote the Bassoon guide for the famed Menuhin Series and put together the New Langwill Index of Musical Wind Instruments, a task taking more than 10 years to complete.
If that wasn’t enough, he was a professor at the Royal Northern College of Music for 30 years.
“Taking up the bassoon was a fortunate choice for Bill as there weren’t more than a couple of bassoonists around in London after the war,” says Elisabeth.
“He quickly got to play with leading orchestras under so many wonderful conductors – Toscanini, Furtwangler, Karajan, Klemperer and Boulez, to name but a few.
“Playing the bassoon meant he was able to travel all over Europe and that’s how he began to collect bassoon music and instruments, and that’s how he was able to indulge his enthusiasm for European art and architecture, learning its languages, walking in the mountains, go skiing.
“He had such a tremendous sense of fun. His party piece was to play the bassoon and piano at the same time, ending up with his backside on the piano playing the bassoon with two hands, having us all in stitches.”
The Waterhouse family remain heavily engaged in musical activities. Both daughters are violinists, Celia with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Lucy as a freelance with her own tango band. They’re both playing in the concert.
Graham lives in Munich, where he’s a cellist and composer, and he’s written a piece for the concert.
Elisabeth, now in her eighties, married Bill in 1961 and she’s quite unique too. A co-founder of the British Suzuki Group, she’s still teaching youngsters to play the violin, still playing the piano at the weekly Lauderdale House suzuki violin play-together and still active in the National Chamber Music Course.
Despite her advanced years, she’s still a year-round early morning swimmer in the Highgate women’s pond, even during last year’s cold snap – just as Bill swam every day in the men’s pond. A truly amazing Highgate couple and family.
• The Proud Bassoon. Saturday April 16, 2.30pm, Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, W1, 020 7935 2141, www.wigmore-hall.org.uk