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John
Ratcliffe
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Rochdale Town Hall
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BRERETON MEMORIAL RECITAL
(the Battle of the Organs)
Keith Hearnshaw and Alexander Binns, 9 October 2010
“Battle” is something of a
misnomer here, perhaps handed down from a time when
manufacturers of electronic organs were indeed battling for
their market share. What we got instead was a high degree of
mutual understanding and co-operation between these two very
talented young musicians, who together offered us a well
rehearsed and wide ranging programme. Each took turns with the
Peter Lord electronic organ installed for the day and with the
1913 Binns organ which is permanently in place in Rochdale
Town Hall. Each offered two solo pieces, and six items were
presented as duets, specially arranged so as to enable the
players to alternate phrase by phrase.
This was immediately
apparent with the well known Bach D minor Toccata and Fugue
with which they opened, an exciting presentation with Alex at
the Lord organ and Keith at the traditional manuals. Alexander then
took a turn at the Town Hall organ coincidentally built by a
namesake of his almost a century ago, offering a quieter piece
“After an old French Air” by Percy Whitlock, (1903-46), a
popular choice among recent recitalists. The bi-centenary this
year of the birth of S S Wesley (1810-76) provided the impetus
for Keith to demonstrate the Lord organ with Wesley’s Choral
Song and Fugue. I liked his story of SSW sloping off down the
nave after Hereford Cathedral Evensong with his fishing rod
over his shoulder, leaving an assistant to play the
recessional voluntary.
Handel’s “Music for the
Royal Fireworks” provided a vigorous and tuneful combination
of the two instruments, Alexander at the Lord organ and Keith on
the Binns, reversing roles immediately for a piece of Spanish
baroque by Antonio Soler (1729-83), who wrote for the Escorial
where two organs were permanently in place and organ dialogues
were in order. Reverting to England, Alexander offered a delightful
interpretation of a symphonic movement by Sir Edward Elgar
(1857-1943),Allegro Maestoso, First Movement Organ Sonata in
G, showing off to advantage the range of orchestral colours of
the Binns organ.
For the final phase Keith
took the Binns organ, with Grand Choeur in D
“à la
Handel”, then after quieter interlude “Clair de Lune” by S
Karg Elert (1877-1933) apparently concluding with the
massive War March of the Priests of Mendelssohn
(1809-47). However calls for an encore were rewarded on both
organs with the exhilarating Toccata from the Suite Gothique
of Léon Boëllmann (1862-97).
Ian Hare, 8 January 2011
Ian Hare, a widely travelled and
accomplished academic recitalist and currently Organist of
Lancaster University and of Crossthwaite Church Keswick,
enlivened a winter's day with a well chosen and much
appreciated programme, proceeding through time and once again
displaying the immense range and versatility of the Binns
Organ in Rochdale Town Hall.
He began with the Overture from The
Messiah of G F Handel (1685-1759), which as he said needed no
introduction. Nevertheless he did make it sound very different
from the well known orchestral version, and I for one warmed
to Handel's cadences once again in the rich romantic tones of
this organ despite the time and culture shift from the
original baroque. This remained true for a trio of Chorale
Preludes by J S Bach (1685-1750) written on chorales (hymns)
for Christmas and the Epiphany.
But it was with Mendelssohn (1809-47)
and Liszt (1811 -86), that the recital really got going, just
as romanticism itself reached its peak as these two composers
were reaching their maturity. (It will be noted that Liszt's
bicentenary is this year). The Mendelssohn Sonata No 3 in A is
a massive dark piece with the early movements rolled into one
offering great scope for the tuba and the diapasons, of which
this organ has four, but ending with a contrasting quiet
movement. Liszt's virtuosic tribute to Bach, his prelude and
Fugue on B A C H (H is what Germans say for B flat) is even
more massive and dark, stunning on this organ, which offers
opportunities for contrast between the frequently heard tuba
and the voix céleste or unda maris.
Moving on through time with his
programme Ian had chosen a beautiful Choral by César Franck
(1822-1890), melodious music with as yet no trace of atonal
modernism oddly enough not greatly differing from contemporary
English music despite being written for Saint Clothilde in
Paris where Franck was organist. "Chanson de Matin " by Elgar
(1857-1934) duly followed.
Ian then presented three examples of
his own music. Just as Bach did with the chorale preludes more
than two centuries before, he has taken and elaborated three
well known hymn tunes "Little Cornard" (Hills of the North,
rejoice) "Dominus regit me" (the King of love my shepherd is)
and "Sine Nomine" (For all the saints), this last a request
from All Saints Cockermouth, which later became known to many
through TV reporting of its ministry to flood victims.
The well known finale of the First
Symphony of Louis Vierne (1870-1937) then brought the recital
into a resounding conclusion. I imagine how it would have
sounded in Notre Dame, where Vierne was organist from 1900 to
his death there 37 years later.
John Ratcliffe
Ashley Grote,
Assistant Director of Music,
Gloucester Cathedral, 14 May 2011
On a blustery spring
Saturday Ashley brought a Renaissance to Rochdale in more
senses than one. First the joy of a resumption of regular
organ events after a cancellation for reasons beyond our
control and secondly because the major theme of his programme
was the so-called English Renaissance at the end of the
nineteenth century, when composers such as Elgar, Parry and
Parry's pupil Vaughan Williams reacted against the Germanic
jibe of England being the land without music (das Land ohne
Musik). Only the very peak of Germanic creativity, Bach and
Mozart, were allowed space. How right this all seemed, on an
organ inaugurated in 1913 in the presence of King George V and
Queen Mary. For me an especial delight was to have two young
Germans as guests at the recital.
Ashley opened with a stirring
rendering of Pomp and Circumstance No 4 in G by Sir Edward
Elgar (1865-1937), making good use of the very English solo
open diapason, to contrast with the Great chorus.
Psychologically and literally the sun had come out. To follow
came the first substantial item, the sombre Fantasia and Fugue
in G by C H H Parry (1848--1918), new to me and I suspect to
others also. You feel the echo of the G minor fugue of J S
Bach (1685-1750), but it was Bach's lighter and brighter
Prelude and Fugue in D BWV 532 with its dance-like fugue,
which got an airing later in the programme.
To separate these two ponderous works
we were treated to a delightful piece for the flutes by Mozart
(1756-91), Andante in F, K 616, originally written for a
mechanical organ, and also to an exuberant and playful Organ
Concerto by G F Handel (1685-1759), four bright, exuberant and
very baroque movements, despite being intended merely as an
interval item for an opera. This range of music provided once
again a good opportunity to display the considerable tonal
range of the instrument - flutes, diapasons, and reeds . Reeds
were especially prominent in the ensuing march inspired by a
theme from Handel's "Messiah" but by Alexandre Guilmant
(1837-1911), no stranger to the North West of England, having
been the recitalist at the opening of the organ in Bolton Town
Hall.
Our gentle English retrospect was in
conclusion brought right into the present with,
coincidentally, two pieces which had been played in
Westminster Abbey on the occasion of the recent royal wedding.
The penultimate piece was the Prelude on "Rhosymedr" by Ralph
Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) , and to conclude came on full
organ the massive Coronation March "Crown Imperial" by
Oldham-born William Walton (1902-83).
John Ratcliffe
Jonathan Scott ,
3 September 2011
In the context of Rochdale's "Feel
Good" event Jonathan gave us a fascinating recital, well
matched both to the tonalities of the organ and to its
historic context. We plunged headlong into "The Ride of the
Valkyries" of Richard Wagner (1813-1883), originally written c
1850 for operatic orchestra but transcribed for organ by Edwin
H Lemare (1857- 1934) in the late Edwardian period when the
Binns organ in Rochdale was being planned and developed.
As a contrast Jonathan then offered
his own transcription of "La fille aux cheveux de lin" (The
girl with the flaxen hair) of Claude Debussy
(1862-1943),
well suited to this basically romantic instrument. This
was
followed by a nod in the direction of the great
classical tradition, with the Prelude and Fugue in G minor of
J S Bach (1685-1750) for which the organ produced a fine
emulation of the German instruments that Bach knew, a number
of which are still giving good service.
Again referring to the early period of
the Town Hall's history Jonathan then offered a transcription
made by the distinguished Liverpool organist W T
Best
(1826-1897) from one of the pieces of a set of twelve
by Théodore Dubois (1837-1934) with the title "Fiat Lux" (Let
there be light) being the motto of Liverpool University,
capping with a sparkling "Toccatina for the flutes" by the New
York Italian Pietro Alessandro Yon (1886-1943), perhaps pining
for his native Italy.
A more substantial piece then
followed, the "Suite Gothique" of Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897),
gothic from the inspiration of Notre Dame in Paris, arguably
the key source of all our western post Gregorian musical
tradition. The Toccata which concludes it is a stirring and
challenging music, in stark contrast to the meditative "Prière
à notre dame", the preceding movement. French inspiration
continued with Lemare's transcription of well known pieces,
lollipops some might say, from "Carmen" by Bizet
(1833-1876).
As penultimate piece Jonathan chose
from his repertoire as Hallé organist "Nimrod" from Enigma
Variations of Sir Edward Elgar (185-1934), as arranged by W H
Harris (1883-1973) I know this as a funeral piece but it
sounds well in Jonathan's very different more florid version.
The programme apparently concluded with the very well known
Toccata from Symphony No 5 of C M Widor (1844-1937), but the
audience would not let him go, and we enjoyed an even more
spectacular Toccata as encore, that by Marcel Lanquetit
(1894-1985) written in Rouen in 1926 and described by our
next recitalist Dame Gillian Weir as a "musical baked
Alaska".
John Ratcliffe
Gerard Brooks
14 January 2012
Gerard
complemented the sparkle of the January sunshine with a
sparkling opening presentation of the much transcribed
Sinfonia from Cantata No 29 of J S Bach, slipping easily from
the world of Bach to that of the French nineteenth century
with Bachs well-known "Wachet auf, ruft uns die
Stimme"
("Awake ,the voice is calling") to an adaptation by
Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) of this same Lutheran hymn
tune, with the title "Marche du Veilleur de Nuit" ("Night
Watchman's March").
Reflecting the season of Christmas and
the Epiphany, Gerard then moved on to adaptations of French
and English carols by Eugène Gigout (1844-1925) and William
Lloyd Webber(1914-1982), father of Andrew and Julian. Of these
the latter in particular showed off to good advantage the more
lyrical tones which the organ has available.
Today's recitalist is organist of
Central Hall Westminster, as were William Lloyd Webber and J
Arthur Meale (1880-1932), composer of our next piece, the
tuneful "Chanson d' Espoir" ("Song of hope"). Even more
assertively optimistic is the following Trumpet Minuet by the
blind composer Alfred Hollins (1865-1942)which gave a good
opportunity to deploy the organ's Tuba to good effect.
The main focus of the programme was
however French nineteenth century music, and that is where we
ended up, allowing for a time-shift of a decade or so. The
"Marche Funèbre et Chant Séraphiquie" of Alexandre Guilmant
(1837-1911) is a funereal piece using the full range of organ
colour from the soft diapasons by way of organo pleno to a
barely audible whisper. Two pieces of Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
followed, the first a sombre improvisation turned into a score
by Maurice Duruflé (1902 -86),who was at the time assistant to
Vierne at Notre Dame. The second, contrasting, was a sunnier
written piece by the blind Vierne. The Cantabile and Finale
from Widor's Symphony No 6 then provided a resounding finale
to conclude an interesting and well crafted recital.
John Ratcliffe
Shean Bowers
3 March 2012
Not the first
organist to fall for the Rochdale Town Hall tuba, but probably
the first to re-arrange his programme opening to show it off,
Shean launched his recital dramatically with two well-known
trumpet tunes, the Trumpet Voluntary of Jeremiah Clarke
(1674-1707) and the Te Deum Prelude of
Marc-Antoine
Charpentier (1645-1704), the latter more familiar as the theme
music for Eurovision, which was good to hear reclaimed for
organ. Between these came the contrasting and much quieter
moderato Suite in D of John Stanley (1712-86). Continuing in
the baroque style Shean moved on to his own arrangement of the
again well-known Adagio on G minor attributed to Tomaso
Albinoni (1671-1751).
Then came a seismic shift in the tenor
of the programme to the Romantic and post Romantic era,
interleaving to good dramatic effect ponderously serious music
and lighter weight and (you might say without pejorative
intent) Radio 2 style pieces of Oldham born Sir William Walton
(1902-83) and the once reputedly the highest earning organist
ever, Edwin Lemare (1866-1934). The first of these major
pieces was the Organ Chorale No II in B minor of César Franck
known as the "death bed chorale" and written in his last year
of life 1890. This concluded plaintively with the Vox Humana,
Vox Angelica and Voix Céleste range of stops. In overheard
lobby conversation beforehand I had become aware that this
piece was going to get a welcome. The second piece was the
demanding Sonata No II in four contrasting movements of
Mendelssohn (1809-47). By all these Shean displayed the range
and depth of his scholarship as well as his versatility on the
Rochdale organ, moving with great energy from stop combination
to stop combination and manual to manual.
But we were not finished yet. In a
recital which ran for an hour and a half and still drew calls
of "encore" no fewer than three massive pieces were offered,
any one of which could have been the finale: the Grand Chœur
in
D flat of Alexander Guilmant (1837-1911), then
Intermezzo and Finale from Symphony No 1 of Louis Vierne
(1870-1937) and finally as encore, when others would have been
content with a lightweight lollipop, Shean treated us to an
outstanding rendering organo pleno of Tu es Petra by the
enigmatic Henri Mulet (1868-1967),talented pupil of Widor and
Guilmant who burned most of his own work and retired into
seclusion for the last thirty years of his life.
John Ratcliffe
Daniel Moult 19 May 2012
It was good to welcome fifty people to Daniel’s
recital, an increase of 25% on the equivalent event in 2010,
and his ebullient personality and sense of style enlivened
both his presentation and his delivery of an interesting
programme. He began with Mendelssohn (War March of
the Priests arranged by Liverpool organist W T Best)
moving on to J S Bach arranged for organ by Liszt (Adagio
from Sonata IV for violin) and to the work of the young
Mozart (Fantasia in F Minor). The Mendelssohn
was dominated by some ponderous 16 foot registration, but the
subsequent pieces containing some more lyrical passages
provided opportunity to display the flute stops of the organ
to good effect.
Daniel is well informed on the historical context of the
pieces he is playing and communicates this to good effect in
his verbal introductions to the three sections of the
programme. From Germanic music we now moved on to two pieces
by Saint-Saëns, a composer much neglected by his
contemporaries, Fantaisie and Le Cygne (The
Swan) with its well known theme used and abused by
Classic FM. But not that other well-known section of
Carneval des Animaux , now used as a TV theme tune
but forbidden during the composer’s lifetime. One for another
time! In stark contrast Daniel then played the wide ranging,
sombre, end of life Choral no 1, the first of four by
César Franck. As Shakespeare demonstrated in “Hamlet” there is
a place for levity to precede seriousness.
From Austro-German and French music Daniel moved on to
English music, appropriately enough for the location. Percy
Whitlock is well known to Rochdale audiences, and we enjoyed
Folk Tune and Divertimento before plunging
on to a maelstrom of sound with Serenade of Dorset
composer Derek Bourgeois and the breathtaking and technically
very difficult jazz-like Live Wire of Ian Farrington
to conclude the programme.
John Ratcliffe
Philip Rushforth 8 September 2012
Philip offered us an interesting programme
falling into three sections English, German and French. He
began with the incongruously named Bridal March and Finale (
written in 1883 for a Cambridge Greek play “The Birds”
of Aristophanes), which nevertheless provided a
magnificent opener - bright, refreshing music full of colour
with a touching lyrical interlude on the flutes and
ending organo pleno featuring the tuba. This is
massive, mid career music from Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918),
in an arrangement by another London based academic musician
Sir Walter Alcock 1861=1947)) a long way from any wedding,
even for a royal bride. Both Parry and the theme of academic
music were to reappear later in the programme. However
suitable lighter weight contrast was provided by the
well known Londonderry Air arranged by J Stuart Archer
(1866-1954) who was not an academic musician but an engineer
with an interest in chemistry. We heard this well-loved melody
in different registrations, notably on reed stops, diminuendo
to close. “Evening Song” by Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
continued this lighter and more lyrical vein, again with
solo stops, with oboe and a fifteenth prominent.
German
music was represented of course by J S Bach (1685-1750) and
also by Sigfried Karg Elert (1877.1933). The Dorian Toccata
and Fugue were brilliantly played, though some might have
preferred a more typically North German lighter and brighter
registration. The Valse Mignonne of Karg Elert is a delightful
piece, outstanding in the whole programme, showing off a range
of musical colours including the shimmering effect of the voix
celeste. After a brief return to Parry (Chorale Prelude
on the hymn tune Eventide) we launched into the whole fourth
symphony of Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937), who would have
been roughly contemporary with Parry . There are six movements
including an andante cantabile, a lively scherzo and a lyrical
adagio as well as the towering up front Toccata and massive
Finale. You have to admire staying power both in composer and
performer – at the limits of the human scale. But it was the
encore that really capped the programme, necessary to
achieve balance, Träumerei (Dreaming) from Kinderszenen
(Scenes of Chiuldhood) by Robert Schumann (1810-1856).
John Ratcliffe |
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