Author: Paul

This weekend Anne and I have been staying in Orford, on the east coast, in whose parish church Benjamin Britten conducted the first performance of Noyes Fludde and of his Church Parables. It now has a fine organ, the 3-manual Peter Collins formerly at Southampton University, restored by Cousans Organs, which looks and sounds as if it had been made for its new home. There were three major concerts: I played the first, followed by Bernhard Haas (performing from memory) and then Catherine Ennis, whose vivacious performance of the Poulenc Concerto (with Prometheus Orchestra) brought the house down. A truly memorable weekend.

On Monday 15th April all my friends were glued to their screens watching in horror as the medieval roof of Notre Dame, Paris, burnt. For the Hale family, that came at the end of an already sad day in which my beloved mother, June, died. Aged 93, she had enjoyed 70 years of happy and fulfilling marriage to my father, Lawrie, who died at the end of 2017. Her last 16 months had been spent close to us in a Care Home, where it was a joy to have seen her regularly. She will be hugely missed but remembered with enormous affection.

Nicholson & Co Ltd, organ-builders of Malvern, today put on a stimulating training day for Diocesan organ advisers. Attracting DOAs from all over England—Devon to Carlisle—the day was packed with sessions on all aspects of organ restoration and conservation, including how to approach assessing what work needs doing, actions, wind, soundboards, electrics, pipe restoration, voicing, casework restoration, and so on. Warm thanks are owed to Managing Director Andrew Caskie and his skilled team for giving up an entire day to this event.

Today will long remain in my memory, for it was the last time I shall conduct the St Matthew Passion with Nottingham Bach Choir. Everything came together so well on the day—Orchestra da Camera (since my youth my favourite chamber orchestra for choral society accompaniment) on top form, along with all soloists, Rogers Covey-Crump delivering a memorable interpretation of the Evangelist’s core role. NBC sang as well as or better than they ever have—they really worked hard since January on this. The long silence at the end proclaimed the effect Bach’s stupendous masterwork had on everybody in Southwell Minster. And now on with preparing for my final concert with NBC, after 29 years conducting them, on June 22—Bach, Vaughan Williams, Haydn and Parry: yummy!

Had a lovely birthday today, following a superb week’s holiday for Anne and me in Madrid and Toledo. Such wonderful art to be found, and the balmy weather allowed us to walk for miles around each city in comfort. The three monumental organs of Toledo’s utterly magnificent cathedral are glorious to behold—not so lovely to hear. Here are two photos—the back case of the organ on the south of the Quire and the renowned Emperor’s organ in the south transept.

It’s not all that often that one returns to give a second recital in later years, on an organ where one has acted as consultant and given one of the opening recitals. But today I played again on the 2005 Harrison & Harrison rebuild of the important 1928 Skinner-inspired Henry Willis III in the Memorial Chapel at Glasgow University. The organ sounded utterly magnificent, was a pleasure to play and—mercifully—nothing seemed to me a bad decision 14 years ago. A relief and a real treat!

What a wonderful day today! We spent the morning at the British Library looking at the ‘Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms’ exhibition, and the afternoon at Tate Britain going round the Burne-Jones exhibition. In the latter was a gloriously decorated piano made by Broadwood to Burne-Jones’ designs. Here’s a photo of it.

Anne and I very much enjoyed joining the Leeds Organists’ Association at their Annual Lunch today; actually the very first time I have eaten a meal at a golf course! It was a very happy gathering and we enjoyed both making new friends and also keeping up with old ones such as Simon Lindley and John Sayer. My speech seemed to go down pretty well; it majored on great Leeds figures in our musical world—Dr Spark, J. J. Binns and Donald Hunt.

Last November 5th I wrote about our visit to Florence and posted a collage of images of St Cecilia playing her portative organ. The sharp-eyed may have noticed that one image showed the pipes reversed—the bass pipes at the treble end—which would not work, of course (see Monday 5th November). Today I came across another such image, in a window in the beautiful closed chapel of the Old Brompton Hospital. We’re trying to save the wonderful old Holdich organ—but that’s another story.

It’s been a non-stop year of organ consulting and concerts and I’ve loved every minute—well, nearly every minute—of it. The consulting work was bracketed by three Markets: the largely new organ at Market Bosworth which was finished by Cousans Organs and dedicated in March; planning the rebuilding and enlarging of the organ at Market Harborough, which Henry Groves will carry out in a year or so’s time, and getting the green light from Market Deeping for Clevedon Organs to begin a restoration and improvement in January 2019. All very satisfying. 2019 will see me end my 29 years conducting Nottingham Bach Choir; doubtless the odd tear will be shed [by me!] as it’s been a stimulating and wonderful run, with so many musical highlights. The photographs are of an organ on which I reported this week. My final survey of the year, and very much a one-off!