Organ Consultant, Recitalist & Author
One of my most enjoyable days in July was revisiting the famous Cavaillé-Coll organ in Warrington’s Parr Hall, on Monday 14th. I had the very welcome chance to climb around inside as so could take photos, a few of which it is a pleasure to share here. The organ still plays pretty well, but is not often used and in need of some t.l.c.
June was dominated by the final planning and execution of a 5-day tour of some of the fine organs of Norfolk. I took some 45 members of The Organ Club to play twenty organs (averaging 4 per day) from June 10th-14th, ending up with a memorable Norwich visit to St Peter Mancroft and the Cathedral. All went well and a happy crowd of Organ Club members knew far more about Norman & Beard (of Norwich) instruments at the end of the week than they did at the start! Here is a selection of photos showing all the venues we visited.
My monthly inspection visit of progress on the new Gloucester Cathedral organ at Nicholsons always takes place in the last week of the month. The first photo shows some beautiful 17th century front pipes, their previously hacked-about backs skilfully filled with matching medal and then slotted and tuned.
The ranks not placed on slider soundboards will go on unit chests. Smaller pipes will be on Roosevelt chests (a small pneumatic motor with disc pallet attached, exhausted by a chest magnet), the larger ones on pouch chests (or ‘purse’ chests), the leather purse/pouch being exhausted by a compound magnet and then drawing down a disc pallet at the head of a phosphor-bronze stem running through a register and held off with a coil spring. Both are fast and reliable actions, giving good speech.
The new Great Organ has two divisions, one facing east into the Quire, the other – the Grand Great – facing West down the Nave. The generous scale of this Grand Open Diapason is evident in the photo; it, and the chorus it supports, will have no difficulty in singing boldly all the way to the West door.
On May 10th Anne and I spent a delightful day back at my old college – New College Oxford.
The gardens and grounds were looking as beautiful as ever.
It’s an annual event for donors (I’m giving them my organ book library) which always features a splendid lunch, a concert in Chapel, an exhibition of College treasures and manuscripts and a fine tea.
The day ends – of course – with Choral Evensong. The choir was on typically fine form.
May has been a pleasant, well-balanced month of playing, advising and social times.
On May 9th I gave the opening recital – to a pleasantly full church – at St Andrew’s Church, Orwell (near Cambridge). This was a clever electrification and rebuilding of a pretty ropy old tracker organ, designed by Canon Christopher Ivory and very neatly executed by Cousans Organs (these days based not at Lincoln but in Coalville, Leicestershire).
All sounded fine in the spacious village church and the digital basses (added owing to lack of room for any open 16ft stops) blended seamlessly with the pipes. The reception afterwards wasn’t bad either.
I was pleased to be invited back to play at Tamworth on April 9th, whose fine pneumatic-action Harrison & Harrison (impeccably restored by Willis in recent years) packs a real punch down the church It was a Lent/Passiontide programme, so a good opportunity to enjoy the wealth of softer colours this organ has. Another enjoyable recital this month was at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, whose grand Hill / H&H is a total joy to play, the 32fts purring either side of the player.
The start of April found us in beautiful Beverley, attending as many concerts as we could afford at the imaginative top-quality New Paths Music Festival, conceived and directed with seemingly inexhaustible energy by Libby Burgess. The Minster hosted several events, notably the competition among Royal Birmingham Conservatoire organ students for the Dame Gillian Weir Messiaen prize. Some really outstanding playing hugely impressed the large audience.
In addition to many chamber music performances in smaller venues, St Mary’s – the huge parish church at the other end of the town – was used for concerts such as memorable performances of the three late Schubert piano sonatas by Martin Roscoe on consecutive days. Among the other standout concerts were some extraordinary accordion playing by Miloš Milivojević, partnered by the guitar skills of Craig Ogden, Ashley Riches singing Brahms and Julian Bliss (clarinet) with Libby Burgess. Can’t wait for the next Festival!
I always enjoy my organ consulting adventures in Ireland. This time it was a two-day stay in Belfast (March 26 & 27), surveying and then reporting on the large organ in the Whitla Hall at Queen’s University. The 1905 magnum opus of William Andrews of Bradford (who? I hear you ask), it was electrified by John Compton in 1949-50 and thoroughly modernised by Hill, Norman & Beard in 1969. It now needs a complete refurbishment, following which it deserves to regain its place as one of Belfast’s finest instruments.
On March 9th we attended a concert in Birmingham Town Hall, given by one of our favourite choirs – Ex Cathedra – whose founder/director, Jeffrey Skidmore, remains at the helm some 50 years after establishing the choir. This concert comprised much of repertoire which he has discovered and edited, recordings of which helped make the choir’s name: 17th and 18th century music from Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil, plus a mass setting by the Italian Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726), who worked in Córdoba (Peru). A scintillating afternoon.
The first weekend in March saw Anne and me back in Aldeburgh, at the same hotel where we had spent our honeymoon during the 1988 October Half Term holiday. Lovely though it was to be back there – and the weather was beautiful – there was work to be done, namely surveying and then reporting on the fine organ (Hunter / Bishop) in the parish church of St Peter & St Paul. We caught up with several friends whilst in the area and had a Thoroughly Good Time.
