Organ Consultant, Recitalist & Author
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!
When people ask “How are you enjoying retirement”, what they must mean is “from Southwell Minster”, because ‘retirement’ as such is years ahead! Take this past eight days, for example—a fairly typical week: Saturday Nov 24, rehearsing and conducting a monumental performance of Elgar’s The Apostles with Nottingham Bach Choir; during the week, writing two long organ reports, then driving to Devizes to begin advising another church. Plenty of organ practice in between and then a trip to Oxford to give an organ recital on Saturday Dec 1 at New College—the organ of my undergraduate years. And tomorrow, Monday 3rd? Off again to an organ-builders to inspect work on an exciting project for Orford parish church. Retirement? You must be kidding!
It was a privilege this evening to accompany my good friend, the baritone Stephen Cooper, for a song recital in the long-running Music in the Great Hall series at Southwell Minster. Stephen had selected a rich and varied programme of songs appropriate to the day (Remembrance Sunday 2018), both familiar and unfamiliar, as a glance at the programme will show. It proved a musically and emotionally satisfying end to a particularly significant and memorable day in our nations’s history.
Anne and I recently spent a wonderful few days in Florence—still warm and sunny. We soaked up not just the sun but the art, which is super-abundant, particularly in the churches and of course in the Uffizi Gallery, where we spent some hours. Interestingly, many paintings displayed cherubs, angels, or St Cecilia playing varieties of improbable little portative organs. Here is a group of close-ups of some of those images; I think they’re delightful.
It was great fun today to give a duet recital with David Butterworth, in the spacious and lofty music room in his wonderful house at Halam. We played the Flor Peeters Concerto for Organ and Piano, and also offered the staple but excellent fare of the Tomkins duet, the Wesley duet and Franck’s sublime Prelude, Fugue and Variation, plus some solo items. David’s Grant, Degens and Bradbeer organ was as bright, crisp and colourful as ever and his large Steinway grand piano in peak condition, making Franck’s flowing piano part sing beautifully. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon—and to a full house, too.
When acting as consultant for an organ project one of the first tasks normally is to research and write up the history of an instrument, for such knowledge can often inform the way forward. I sometimes use this research as the basis of a booklet written when the organ is complete, such as for the recent thorough rebuild by Henry Groves & Son of the 1955 Hill/Walker in Melton Mowbray parish church, on which I gave the opening recital on 29th September. Download the booklet as a pdf document to read all about the Malcolm Sargent Memorial Organ at Melton Mowbray. It’s quite a beast!
For information about my other organ booklets, please go to my Books page.
I drove back this morning from an enjoyable (if damp) stay in Hythe, on the South coast, where I had a lovely time giving a recital last night on the fine Harrison & Harrison / F H Browne organ in the parish church. This organ boasts a striking west end case proudly displaying the 16ft Contra Geigen—a rare sight to see a 16ft front in a parish church nave. Rarer still is a 16ft front in a parish church chancel, but that’s just what I found three days earlier when I gave a lunchtime recital on the fine 3-manual Brindley & Foster / Cousans in St Swithun, Retford. Amazing that Brindley managed to get his 16ft Open Diapasons in the front, but he did—and how proud they look, even with the ‘gold’ paint beginning to turn to that rather grim old hospital radiator colour.
One of the privileges of giving recitals in our great buildings is being locked in on one’s own to rehearse. All churches and cathedrals take on a different character when the visitors have left and they settle down for the night. None can be be more special than Westminster Abbey, where in preparation for my recital on Sunday Anne and I spent the whole of Saturday evening in the empty building. In my breaks from rehearsing on the 5-manual Harrison we ambled around as dusk descended, visiting memorials to poets, musicians, statesmen and scientists. Truly inspiring. If only some of their skills, wisdom and intelligence had rubbed off as we passed by!
I had the great pleasure of giving recitals on two contrasting Harrison & Harrison organs over the past week. First came a welcome return visit (my fourth) to their 1912 flagship instrument at St Mary, Redcliffe, which thundered and beguiled in equal measure. Then came a concert on their newest tracker-action organ (for which, as it happens, I was the consultant) at St Andrew’s, Bedford, which impresses in quite a different way, as its tonal scheme and subtle yet characterful voicing result in a true multum in parvo instrument. Two most enjoyable concerts yet totally different in musical effect. That, of course, is one of the travelling organist’s greatest delights (and challenges): every organ is unique. My third H&H of the summer will be Westminster Abbey on August 19th: quite different from the other two, once again. I can’t wait!