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On Tuesday 23rd the family of the late Dominic Gwynn held a small ‘do’ outside the Goetze & Gwynn workshop (near Worksop), in Dominic’s memory, and mainly for some of us who had been unable to attend his funeral in St Cuthbert’s, Wells.  His long-time colleague Edward Bennett formed some of us into a choir, singing madrigals by Wilbye (‘Adieu, sweet Amaryllis’) and Gibbons (‘The Silver Swan’, naturally), plus ‘Salvator Mundi’ and ‘If ye love me’ (Tallis).  It was a lovely, gentle, thoughtful evening of which one felt sure Dominic would have approved.

We had a particularly busy final week in July, which started by attending two fabulous Proms at the RAH on Sunday 21st, with our son Morgan, on his 33rd birthday.  The morning Prom was a concert by the combined forces of my two favourite a cappella ensembles – The King’s Singers and Voces 8.  We had a great view and their singing was as sublime as it always is.

Going down the stairs of the RAH I noticed out of a landing window the former Royal College of Organists – that building which terrified so many of us as we made the long climb to destiny up the stairs to the organ hall, preparing to meet the examiners and play our AR/FRCO pieces.  It looks a bit neglected now, but – our terror aside – it is a very special, indeed unique and beautiful building. After a long lunch and a visit to the Natural History Museum (I still miss ‘Dippy’ in the grand nave which is the main entrance hall) it was back to the RAH for something very special:  Sir Mark Elder’s final Prom with the Hallé.

We had attended their Mahler 5 in Nottingham (see 27th June news item and photos) and hardly expected that that glorious performance could be matched or bettered, but their Proms performance was just superlative.  The Prommers went wild, Sir Mark gave a typically well-prepared and witty speech, and then we were treated to Elgar’s Chanson de Nuit as a delicious encore.  What a day!

A wonderful concert this evening – Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.1 and the Fifth Symphony of Mahler. It was Sir Mark Elder’s final appearance in Nottingham with the Hallé, rapturously received by a full house, with a lengthy standing ovation before the Symphony Hall management made a presentation to Sir Mark, who gave a delightful speech of thanks.

I’ve never met Sir Mark, but his mother was at boarding school in Hastings with my mother in the late 1930s, and as both families lived in Crouch End in the early 1950s, my mother would occasionally visit, baby Hale in tow.  I so admire what he has achieved with the Hallé – especially their Elgar performances – and their Mahler V tonight was quite sublime.

Anne and I visited the delightful village church at Glapthorn, Northants.  It was a social visit to friends, but for me something of a pilgrimage too, as the little 1937 Roger Yates organ there has long been one I had hoped to visit.  Its 1-manual stop-list is given in Sumner’s seminal book ‘The Organ’, which I won as a Solihull School Music prize aged 15 in June 1967, so I’ve known about it for many years, and as my enthusiasm has grown for the excellent work carried out by Roger Yates, this little gem is one I have very much wished to play.  It did not disappoint!

Wonderful voicing and an extraordinary dynamic range for such a small instrument – look it up on the NPOR. A superbly effective swell box encloses all except the basses of the Bourdon and Open Diapason.  From delicate and silvery Aeoline to powerful Plein Jeu (with 17th) it sounds like a cathedral organ in miniature.

Today I had great fun playing the large and splendid Compton in the Astoria Centre, Barnsley.  Kevin Grunill has, over the years, made a first class job of its installation and enlargement.  It’s a much travelled instrument, made for the Astoria, Purley in 1934 (the same year as the Compton which found partial use in Solihull School chapel, to my youthful joy), it’s been rehoused in East Kilbride, Carluke, Spalding and Sheffield before finding its final (?) and finest home at the Astoria Centre.

It now boasts 18 ranks (5 down to 16ft) — large for a cinema/theatre organ — and is exceptionally well balanced when heard from the auditorium.

The Echo Organ at Liverpool Cathedral has been ‘prepared-for’ since 1926!  Owing to suitable pipework (and sufficient funds) becoming available, organ-builder David Wells and his team are busily installing it.  Situated at the far south-east corner of the Sanctuary, right up in the triforium, its effect in the building will be exquisite.  I was visiting it yesterday, in order to write it up for Organists’ Review, so this photograph is a sneak preview.

Just back from a enjoyable Organ Club Tour, based in delightful guest quarters at Buckfast Abbey.  Leaving aside the rather curate’s eggish new organs in the Abbey, for me the stand-out instruments were the two we played in Totnes.  In St Mary’s church is a fine Father Willis, moved to the west end and beautifully restored by William Drake in 1988.  Its 12-stop Great Organ could give a few cathedral instruments a run for their money.

Across the river is the church of St John the Evangelist, which suffered a terrible fire in 1976 and was rebuilt in modern style.  In 1983 William Drake installed an uncompromising 2/24 werkprinzip instrument, which is one of the best-voiced such instruments in the country and should be better known.

Yesterday was a special day for the musicians of New College Oxford; many of us attended a wonderful Memorial Evensong for Sir David Lumsden. The choir was on superb form, singing two works written for it – Harris’s ‘Faire is the Heaven’ and (for an introit) ‘Drop, drop, slow tears’ by Kenneth Leighton – the profoundly moving final movement of his ‘Crucifixus pro nobis’, commissioned by David Lumsden for N.C. choir in 1961.

Earlier in the day David and Sheila’s ashes had been interred in the Cloisters, on the north side near the bell-tower.  A finely incised memorial stone marks the spot, close to where N.C. alumnus James Bowman is also remembered.

Yesterday Olivier Latry gave a wonderful performance on the superb Dobson organ in Merton College Chapel, to celebrate its 10th anniversary.  I can’t think where that decade has gone, as memories of working on the project (a real highlight for me) are as fresh as ever.  The large Dobson factory was completely destroyed by fire eight years later; it is good to be able to report that the new factory is now built and being fitted out with machinery.  Exciting times ahead for Dobson after their dreadful bad luck.

I’ve just returned from an interesting and enjoyable week in the USA, visiting organs by the J.P. Buzard firm, in advance of writing an article for Choir & Organ.  I arrived in Chicago just in time to see everyone out in the streets looking up at the eclipse – good timing!

Visited organs in Chicago, Nashville and the company’s home town, Champaign.  Wonderful instruments and lovely hospitable hosts.