FLAME

CLAIM
What links the
New London
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with the Great
Fire of 1666?
May/June 2016 UK £4.95 www.choirandorgan.com see page 56

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see page 45 A MOOT POINT
Colchester’s Norman & Beard

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ROMANTIC IDYLLS
Exploring English partsong

COMJ16_001_R_Cover T.indd 2 30/03/2016 12:47:52

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CO0316.indd 2 11/04/2016 11:18:26
 EDITOR’S
Editor’s LETTER
Letter
PUSHING THE BOAT OUT
could doWhat
better
do the following have in common: Mendelssohn’s
Elijah; The Dream
Elgar’sWebber
Julian Lloyd ruffled ofmore
Gerontius;
than aFinzi’ s Intimations
few feathers in Julyofwhen
Immortality; Howells’ s Hymnus Paradisi; Dickinson’
he told the Times that most music competitions are ‘corrupt’.While s Organ
Concerto; Judith Bingham’ s Below the surface
excluding industry awards and the bbc Young musician of the stream;
PARTNERSHIPS Dobrinka Tabakova’s Centuries of Meditations? They are just
Year from this accusation, he claimed that the deciding factor in
a small handful of the hundreds of compositions that might
pArtnErships single instrument competitions was not how well you played but
never have been written, had they not been commissioned
who your teacher was, and that the competition was simply a
by a festival.
St Paul’s Cathedral vehicle for teachers to promote their best students.
Yes, we are entering festival high season once again,
certain revelations about past tchaikovsky competitions would
St Albans International
and wherever you live, at some point during 2016 an
Organ Festival opportunity to share in a variety seem to support
of art Lloyd
formsWebber’
is bound s claim in this case
to present itself:atour
least,
although the event has now introduced reforms. I don’t
supplement (page 51) gives a few suggestions, but is by no means comprehensive know enough about other instru-
St albans
international organ mental competitions to comment; but I have seen no
– happily so, because so much is happening that it would require a separate evidence of corruption in organ
Merton college,
BBC Singers Festival competitions. For sure, members of an international jury may hold differing views on how
oxford volume to capture it all.
a piece
One of oughtthe to be played,
exciting andabout
things if theyfestivals
have a pupil
is that in they
the competition
are often more they may well
adventurous
Orgelfestival Holland
orgelfestival holland prefer
in theirthat particular interpretation
programming. Whereas generalabove the others.season
concert but so organisers
many othermust factors also come
plan
into play – state
strategically of health
to draw on the day,over
in audiences accuracy (which of
the course may be affected
a year in order byto nerves),
balance techni-
association of
Three Choirs Festival Southbank Centre cal facility,
the books,choicefestivaloforganisers,
registration,withchoice justofatempo
few weeks in a different acousticalevents
of concentrated environment,
to
British choral
Directors consider,
and sheer seem moreofwilling
conviction to take–athat
performance riskchoosing
on the unknowna winner isand to way
in no commission
a foregone
new works.In
conclusion. This may be
Alkmaar partly2015
– whose because additional
orgelfestival sources
Holland of funding
schnitger can be made
competition is
royal college available
announced for(see
a one-off
p.8) – juryevent; but also
members – and
remain in more
ignorance importantly – festival
of the player’ audiences
s identity, and vote
Association of British
Southbank centre
Choral Directors of organists seem more
on a strict willing
points to tryInout
system. the novel
st Albans, where andanonymity
to buy tickets for premieres
was abolished in 2011, thatthemight
greater
Royal College
of Organists struggle to garner the same degree of interest at another
degree of transparency seems in no way to have compromised the voting, gauging not time. Spitalfields Festival
in London,
least for example,
by the frequency withiswhich
juxtaposing the premiere
the Audience of a newtowork
prize is awarded the 1stmarking the
prize winner.
350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London (page 56)
one key characteristic that seems to distinguish humans from other animal species with Berio’ s The Cries ofis
International London and other contemporary works, a programme that
the urge to achieve more than is essential for basic survival, from inventing the wheel tomight normally have
royal canadian
Royal Canadian
Federation for
college
College ofofOrganists
organists difficulty attracting
climbing everest many listeners;
to mastering bWV 565. enter And our
it isdraw (page
the case that49) for inventions
most a pair of free andtickets.
European cities
Choral Music
of historic organs And let’s not forget that yesterday’ s premiere can become
achievements offer potential for both good use and abuse – harnessing radiation for tomorrow’ s established
favourite – turn to Raising Standards (page 68) for David Hill’s conducting tutorial
cancer treatment or weapons of mass destruction comes to mind as one example. but this
on Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.
is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water. competitions, like exams, set a
MAGGIE
goal to aimHAMILTON,
for – but unlike EDITOR
exams, they also give the opportunity to hear other perform-
European Cities
of Historic Organs Canadian International ances of the same pieces and to learn from them. If humans were to stop aspiring, we
canadian
Organ Competition
international organ SUBSCRIBE
would stagnate; soTO CHOIR
it would & ORGAN
be a pity SEE headline
if one sensational PAGE 80 were to discourage young
European choral competition players from entering competitions.
association-Europa
cantat
CHOIR
by the way, & the ORGAN
choir & organ composition competition (result and announcement on
Oundle for Organists p.9) is conducted entirely anonymously – do enter
EDITOR Maggie Hamilton for services,
Customer 2015. subscriptions & back issues
European Choral Choir & Organ Subscriptions, 800 Guillat Ave, Kent Science
Association-Europa NEW MUSIC
mAggiE EDITOR ShirleyEditor
hAmiLton, Ratcliffe Park, Sittingbourne ME9 8GU, UK
Cantat DESIGNER Daniela Di Padova Tel: 01795 412883 (UK), +44 1795 412883 (non-UK)
Salisbury cathedral Email: choirandorgan@servicehelpline.co.uk
PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Gordon Wallis
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oundle for organists St John’s College,
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Oxford Cambridge Printed by Daniela Di Padova Tel: 0844 322
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WC1N 3QZ, UK. The US annual subscription price is $77.00.
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american institute Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431.
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Conservatory hEAd of dEsign & production Beck Ward Murphy website
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to Choir & Organ
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Organbuilders Thornton School of Worldnet Shipping Inc.,be156-15, 146thfor
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Association of Canadian Music USC mArkEting mAnAgEr Frances innes-hopkins Telephone calls may monitored training purposes
Jamaica, NY 11434, USA
Thornton School of Music To
Choral Conductors UScfind out more about mAnAging dirEctor ciaran Morton printed by
Subscription records are maintained at Rhinegold Publishing
Chorus America
oberlin college conservatorybecoming a Partner pubLishEr Derek B. Smith advent
c/o colour
Dovetail Ltd, 19
Services, 800 East Portway,
Guillat andover
Avenue, SP10 3LU
Kent Science Park,
Cornell University or Associate, email Sittingbourne, ME9 8GU, UK
Mount royalSociety
International University
of choirandorgan@ choir & organ, 977096872608305, is published bi-monthly
Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent
Leicester chorale
Organbuilders rhinegold.co.uk by rhinegold Publishing, 20 rugby Street, London Wc1n
cornell University 3QZ, UK
To find out more about becoming a Partner or © rhinegold Publishing Ltd 2014
Associate, email gary.beswick@rhinegold.co.uk
www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 3

www.choirandorgan.com september/october 2014 choir & organ 3

COMJ16_003_R_Edit T.indd 3 30/03/2016 12:39:52

 yale institute of sacred music announces

Yale Schola Cantorum saint petersburg, russia

david hill conductor
2016 International Tour
to Russia, Estonia, and Latvia
Arvo Pärt: Passio and
Roderick Williams: O Adonai
Wednesday, June 8 · Time tbd · Church of St. Peter
and St. Paul
tallinn, estonia
Thursday, June 9 · 7 pm · St. Nicholas Church
riga, latvia
Friday, June 10 · Time tbd · St. John’s Church
Updated information at ism.yale.edu/ScholaTour2016

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CO0316.indd 4 11/04/2016 11:18:27

 MAY/JUNE 2016 VOLUME 24 NUMBER 3 CONTENTS

DANA SIGALL / C.B. FISK

ANDREW MOSS
26

56 33
17 OBITUARIES 39 CÉSAR FRANCK
International organist and pedagogue His music was of key importance in REGULARS
Jacques van Oortmerssen, choral 19th-century organ repertoire. 6 News  |  43 Graeme Kay goes Freestyle  |
entrepreneur Andrew Potter, and Bach 49 Readers’ offers  |  73 Diane Meredith
specialist Peter Williams. 51 SUPPLEMENT FESTIVALS Belcher is Stateside  |  79 Recital round-up
 herever you live, there’s bound to be
W 45 NEW MUSIC FREE MUSIC
20 JANE GLOVER one near you: a brief guide to what’s on. Bertie Baigent’s Sancti Spiritus for
The international conductor looks back upper voices was inspired by a
56 NEW LONDON CHAMBER medieval poem.
over her career, remembers Britten and
CHOIR 68 RAISING STANDARDS
Maxwell Davies, and enthuses about
‘The wackier the better’ is the motto of David Hill tackles Leonard Bernstein’s
Handel and his contemporaries.
this ensemble, co-commissioners of a ebullient Chichester Psalms.
work commemorating the Fire of London. 83 IN THE STUDIO
26 COVER STORY GALLERY
A taste of forthcoming releases.
Crisp Positif flues, 62 MOOT HALL
CHOIR & ORGAN

FLAME
CLAIM

85 REVIEWS A Vauxhall Pleasure

What links the
New London
Chamber Choir
with the Great

first-class voicing Harrison & Harrison’s restoration of

Fire of 1666?
May/June 2016 UK £4.95 www.choirandorgan.com see page 56

MAPLE MAGIC
C.B. Fisk’s new instrument for Seattle
Gardens CD is ‘revelatory’, the Paris
and excellent reeds Colchester’s 1902 Norman & Beard organ
Philharmonie Rieger is inaugurated,
MAY/JUNE 2016

characterise Fisk’s French- shows meticulous attention to fine detail.

Balázs Szabó plays Reger, Walther’s
influenced Opus 140 in
CHOIR & ORGAN OFFERS
Oxford Hymn Settings for organ
see page 49

FREE MUSIC DOWNLOAD

Complete Organ Music from Brilliant

in our New Music section

70 JOSEPH PHIBBS
see page 45 A MOOT POINT
Colchester’s Norman & Beard

KEY IMPORTANCE

Plymouth Church, Seattle.

Revisit Franck’s organ music

ROMANTIC IDYLLS
VOL. 24 NO. 3

Exploring English partsong

COMJ16_001_R_Cover T.indd 2

COVER PHOTOGRAPH DANA SIGALL / C.B. FISK

30/03/2016 11:31:54

The composer’s upper-voice Missa Brevis Classics, The King’s Consort’s

‘impeccable’ Israel in Egypt, Theatre
is to be premiered in Wells Cathedral.
33 ENGLISH PARTSONGS of Voices sing Galina Grigorjeva’s
 hat were the factors that led to the
W 75 RCO 100 CONCERT chamber choir music, an ‘outstanding’
madrigal developing into a rich seam of What happened 50 years ago when stars disc of Bent Sørensen, Howells Coll
of the organ world let it all hang out? Reg from Trinity, Cambridge, ORA’s
repertoire in Victorian England?
launch CD, organ and choral music
round-ups, and Felix Aprahamian’s
diaries and selected writings.
‘Britten challenges and pushes 102 PRIME TIMES The diversity of

20
Spitalfields Festival, new organ talent,
you, but he never defeats you’ tribute recitals, and participatory events.

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 5

COMJ16_005_R_Contents T.indd 5 30/03/2016 14:22:45

 NEWS & PREVIEWS
FUN WITH DIVERSITY
THE BACH CHOIR HAS LAUNCHED a

PHOTO COURTESY THE BACH CHOIR

major initiative for music in schools with,
as its centrepiece, a new choral work for
children from jazz composer Will Todd,
and poet and former Children’s Laureate
Michael Rosen. The new work will be
premiered on 17 June at Central Hall,
Westminster.
Around 200 young singers from the
Bach Choir Outreach Programme will 
David Hill rehearsing with massed children’s choirs
perform with the Bach Choir and Will
Todd’s jazz ensemble; Michael Rosen will backgrounds. Children from the is for children to have fun performing this
perform his own poetry. Entitled Lights, programme perform with the choir every work, but it was important to reflect the
Stories, Noise, Dreams, Love and Noodles, year in a summer concert. The Choir also diversity of London: ‘We are human and
the story is about what it is like to grow up works with a smaller auditioned group London speaks to me of this humanity.
in a big city: the music and words – a suite called The Young Singers – formed in There are times when I travel on the
of songs encompassing funk, jazz, swing, 2013 in partnership with the Tri-Borough Underground or walk in the street and
lyric rock and gospel sounds strongly Music Hub for children aged 8-12 living or I feel a sense of joy about this feeling of
influenced by the rhythms of Michael attending school in the area. being more than someone from one city or
Rosen’s poetry – reflect the rhythms and ‘There is a shortage of good choral one country, but being of humanity.’
diversity of London. pieces for children,’ Bach Choir music Will Todd, who has written several works
Mounted in conjunction with the director David Hill commented, ‘and for children including his opera Alice’s
Tri-Borough Music Hub responsible because of the work we do in schools, we Adventures in Wonderland, says composing
for music delivery in the boroughs of wanted to commission a piece that would for children is very important to him
Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington expand that repertoire. We are absolutely personally. ‘I have inspiring memories of
and Chelsea and the City of Westminster, thrilled with what Will Todd and Michael participating in large singing events at
the Bach Choir’s Outreach Programme Rosen have created and this piece will be school in Durham as part of the County
involves members of the choir visiting something that can be used by schools Music Service when I was growing up. I
inner-London schools, nurturing singing anywhere in the world.’ want young people to experience being
with children from many different Michael Rosen says his overarching wish part of a big choral event – it’s thrilling.’

RCO AWARDS annual ceremony, held in Southwark Cathedral, also saw the
distinguished achievement Medal of the Royal College of
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS has conferred Fellowship Organists awarded to Prof. John Caldwell, for organ-related
(FRCO), Associateship (ARCO) and Certificates (CertRCO) scholarship, to Dr Christopher Robinson CVO (in absentia), for
on 53 members – the largest number for many years. The organ playing and choral conducting, and to Thomas Trotter, also
for organ playing. The RCO’s president, Dr Philip Moore, also
COURTESY RCO

announced that the RCO Medal had been awarded posthumously

to Dr John Scott, a distinguished Fellow of the College whose
untimely death occurred last year.
John Scott Whiteley, organist emeritus of York Minster, closed
the ceremony with a recital of music by J.S. Bach, Saint-Saëns,
James MacMillan and Gabriel Jackson. A work by Belgian
composer Joris Verdin was a setting of the chorale ‘Mein Wallfahrt
ich vollendet hab’ (‘I have completed my pilgrimage’): it was
specially commissioned by the RCO for the Orgelbüchlein Project
in memory of John Scott.

(l to r) Thomas Trotter, Dr Philip Moore and Prof. John Caldwell

6 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_006-014_R_News T.indd 6 30/03/2016 12:41:39

 NEO-BAROQUE OUT: VERSATILITY IN IN BRIEF
THE BENICIA, CALIFORNIA, FIRM OF SCHOENSTEIN & CO. has completed a three-manual, Merton College, Oxford is to establish
40-voice, 46-rank organ for Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church in St Louis, Missouri. a girls’ choir, recruited from pupils in
The new organ is the result of a musical journey common to many American congrega- school years 5 to 10. Girls selected for the
tions: their first organ, built by Kilgen and dedicated by William H. Barnes, was warmly choir will regularly sing in the college’s
received, with praise for its ‘dignified and churchly ensemble’; by 1971, however, the academic 13th-century chapel, and will take part
pressure to forsake ‘accompaniment’ organs in favour of ‘solo repertoire’ instruments was so in services and concerts in Oxford and
great that a large mechanical action organ by the German firm of Werner Bosch replaced the further afield. The Girls’ Choir will be
Kilgen. But after the congregation began to miss the pleasing tones of the old organ, resulting led by Benjamin Nicholas, director of
in two major attempts to re-make the neo-baroque instrument, it was decided that it was time music since 2012; details: bit.ly/1SbSIDP.
to start afresh, not least in response to the church’s evolving music programme under direc- Auditions: 21 May and at other pre-
tor of music ministry and organist David Erwin: Schoenstein & Co. was selected to design a arranged times during the summer term
versatile organ with the primary purpose of supporting and accompanying services. as required.
The main divisions are located in side chancel chambers, with large open wood pipes
arranged horizontally behind the choir risers. The Echo organ is in a chamber at the rear of Gloucester Cathedral is also recruiting
the balcony. Acoustical renovation of the church was designed by Scott Riedel & Associates of girl choristers aged 7-12, through
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the organ’s casework was built by New Holland Church Furniture. auditions on 23 Apr; contact choirs@
The Schoenstein organ was dedicated by Scott Dettra in a recital on 6 March, featuring music gloucestercathedral.org.uk
by Gigout, Bach, Guilmant, Saint-Saëns, Craig Phillips, Howells, Whitlock and Stanford.
A 47-stop, 64-rank Schoenstein instrument built in 2007 for Nashville’s Schermerhorn British composer Alexander Campkin’s
Symphony Center is the star of a Nashville Symphony Orchestra (NSO) recording of Unleash the beauty was among nearly
works by composer Stephen Paulus [NAXOS 8.559740] which scooped a GRAMMY® for 70 works selected for performance in
best classical compendium at the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences 58th the ISCM World Music Days, hosted by
annual awards ceremony. The recording featured the NSO’s performance of Paulus’s three- South Korea in late March. The ISCM
movement Grand Concerto for organ and orchestra, with soloist Nathan Laube conducted by (International Society for Contemporary
Giancarlo Guerrero. Employing hymn fragments, the Grand Concerto is a work of sweeping Music) is an international network of
gestures and melodies as well as wide contrasts of mood and texture. Schoenstein president members from around 50 countries,
Jack Bethards credits American Guild of Organists programming for inspiring the record- devoted to the promotion and presenta-
ing: ‘Immediately after Nathan Laube’s electrifying performance of the Paulus at the 2012 tion of contemporary music. Shin-Hwa
National Convention, Giancarlo Guerrero decided that the work should be recorded and that Park conducted Ansan City Choir at the
Nathan must return. It is this calibre of playing that can make organists the equal of our great performance in Tongyeong Concert Hall.
pianists and violinists, in the minds of sophisticated concert audiences.’
The National Youth Choir of Scotland

Clean lines: Schoenstein’s new St Louis organ 
Pride of place: Schermerhorn Symphony (NYCoS) is celebrating its 20th anniver-
Center’s Schoenstein organ
sary in 2016. The ensemble will mark
the occasion with a July tour to the USA,
performing at the Grant Park Music
Festival, Chicago, and the Grand Teton
Festival, Wyoming, with conductor
Donald Runnicles. It is also holding a
‘money-can’t-buy’ fundraising auction,
with items for sale including a manu-
script signed by Eric Whitacre and a
personalised piece written by composer
Paul Mealor. Other anniversary high-
lights include a performance of Mozart’s
Requiem at the Edinburgh Festival
COURTESY SCHOENSTEIN & CO.

Fringe and a new commission from

Tom Cunningham and Derek Roberts
LOUIS PATTERSON

for NYCoS National Boys Choir, entitled

Tartan Terrors.

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 7

COMJ16_006-014_R_News T.indd 7 30/03/2016 12:42:13

 NEWS & PREVIEWS
FORTHCOMING EVENTS IN TANDEM

LCMD
Pre-Convention Conducting Course
25-26 Aug, Winchester
Rehearsal and conducting techniques for
leaders of all kinds of choir led by Peter
Broadbent (pictured) and Jo McNally.
31st Annual Convention
26-28 Aug, Winchester
A broad range of wonderful choices
for choral leaders of all kinds. Besides
sessions on technique, repertoire, and
the voice, two key threads run through a
total of 30 options: our interaction with
the broader choral ‘world’, and women
as choral leaders.

Under one roof: ‘Practical Music Making’
A NEW PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN TRINITY
Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
and the Open University (OU) has been
launched to provide opportunities for those
who love performing music to develop their
passion. Tapping in to the huge growth in
participatory music-making in recent years,
as seen in the success of the BBC documen-
tary series The Choir and its subsequent
spin-offs, the ‘Practice of Music Making’
Certificate is designed for musicians
wanting to improve their performance skills
and enhance their understanding of their
art-form. Delivered by a combination of
distance learning and face-to-face teaching
by experts at tailored one-week residential
courses, the programme is accessible to
those who require flexibility in where and
when they study.
Dr Claire Mera-Nelson, director of
music at Trinity Laban, told C&O, ‘This
unique collaboration with the OU will
allow for a new community of learners,
who share our passion for music, to benefit
from the teaching skills of the outstand-
ing practising musicians on our staff, as
well as accessing the facilities of our World
Heritage Site home in Greenwich.’ OU
music department head Catherine Tackley
added: ‘Whether you’re an enthusiastic
amateur, a self-taught creative artist, or
someone in the music industry who doesn’t
have a recognised qualification at this level,
the Certificate will offer you the opportu-
nity to reflect on and develop your practice
as a performer.’
Trinity Laban welcomes expressions of
interest: visit bit.ly/1SbOLyW

Young Conductors’ Course

26-28 Aug, Winchester
For anyone aged between 18 and 25.
A practical, hands-on course running in
CITY CELEBRATION FOR DAME GILLIAN
GILLIAN WEIR has been made an Honorary Freeman of the
P.E. HOLLAND PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICES

parallel with Convention, led by Amy
Bebbington and Mark Griffiths.
London Advanced Course
24 & 25 Sep, 22 Oct, 26 Nov;
in 2017, 7 Jan, 11 Feb, 11 & 12 Mar
This course is designed for those who
conduct a choir regularly at the highest
level. While essentially a practical course,
it can also be used as preparation for the
LRSM exam, if participants already have
a DipABRSM or equivalent.
Booking will open shortly.
Full details and booking forms from
www.abcd.org.uk/events.
Worshipful Company of Musicians (WCM). The award was
conferred on Dame Gillian by the Master, Andrew Morris,
in a ceremony held at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, in the City of
London. Some 200 members and guests attended the dinner
that followed, at which Dame Gillian was the speaker and
which began with a fanfare – written for the occasion by the
Master – for brass and the Hall’s Renatus Harris organ.
The WCM – one of the livery companies of the City of
London – dates back to at least 1360, when it was founded
Dame Gillian receives her
as a specialist guild for musicians; the modern Company scroll from Andrew Morris,
promotes all aspects of the art and science of music, support- Master of the Worshipful
Company of Musicians
ing musicians and musical education, awarding prizes,
scholarships and medals. The Honorary Freedom is the Company’s highest Award, and its
recipients over the years have included Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Hubert Parry, Ralph Vaughan
Williams OM, Lord (Benjamin) Britten, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Dr Harold Darke, Dame Janet
Baker, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Dame Cleo Laine, and members of the royal family.

8 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_006-014_R_News T.indd 8 30/03/2016 12:42:37

 EAGER TO IMPROVE
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ORGANISTS’
most recent survey received more than 900
responses, providing a unique insight into
the musical life of organists and choral
directors.
The importance of the organ and choral
music in religious worship was strongly
emphasised throughout the responses.
Three out of every four respondents
reported playing as part of a church service
at least once a month, with more than 60
per cent doing so weekly.
But there was also strong support for,
and engagement with, secular music: in
the course of a typical year, 36 per cent
of respondents play in a theatre or other
secular venue, and 32 per cent play in a
school or educational establishment.
Professional support for organists and
choral directors was a key requirement
highlighted in the survey, with 23 per
cent of respondents citing music as their
primary source of income, and 45 per
cent citing it as a secondary or supplemen-
tary source.
The desire to develop as individual
musicians was also evident throughout the
results. The most important goals listed
by respondents were to develop skills and
abilities, and to broaden and/or deepen
understanding of repertoire, of perfor-
mance practice, of service-playing skills
and of improvisation. With these goals
in mind, 31 per cent of respondents take
lessons, and 37 per cent attend at least one
course or training event a year.
Asked what additional support they
would like to see from the RCO and its
APPOINTMENTS & AWARDS
Ben Parry has been appointed to direct
a choir of over 1,000 young singers in this
year’s performance of The Scratch® Youth
Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall (27 Nov).
Jenny Wegg has been appointed head of
repertoire promotion in the music depart-
ment of Oxford University Press. Jenny has
previous experience of working for Music
Sales and Southbank Centre.
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_006-014_R_News T.indd 9
partner organisations, respondents high-
lighted more classes, courses and teachers,
better local access to learning resources,
ongoing professional accreditation, and
more opportunities for online learning.
Underlining this need for support was
strong approval for the statement ‘it is
important for organists to have a strong
professional representative body’.
RCO chief executive Philip Meaden told
C&O, ‘This research shines an important
light on the musical life of organists and
choral directors at every level, and helps us
better to understand their different ambi-
tions and needs. It will be an invaluable
resource as we continue to develop and
shape services for all.’
In line with the findings of its 2015
survey, the College has launched iRCO,
an innovative virtual campus designed
to provide easy access to learning, research
and general information for organists
and choral directors. Launched under
the gently punning banner ‘the first stop
for every organist’, iRCO contains a wide
range of learning content, professional
support, archival and scholarly material,
plus general interest information for
musicians of all ages and levels of attain-
ment and experience. The material
includes videos, sound files, articles and
documents, images and detailed signpost-
ing to further resources wherever relevant.
iRCO features its own online magazine,
StopPress, and a comprehensive events
and recitals diary to which registered users
can upload their own events.
rco.org.uk/irco.php
The Royal Opera has appointed US
conductor William Spaulding, currently
Kapellmeister of Deutsche Oper Berlin,
as chorus director to succeed Renato
Balsadonna at the end of the 2015/16
season.
Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex,
has been announced as Birmingham
Conservatoire’s first Royal Patron.
IN BRIEF
The Canadian International Organ
Competition (CIOC) and the Sir Ernest
MacMillan Memorial Foundation have
announced a new CAN$12,000 award
for the top Canadian competitor partici-
pating in the 2017 CIOC. The winner,
as chosen by the CIOC jury on behalf
of the Foundation as the top Canadian
in the semi-final or final round of the
Competition, will be announced during
the CIOC 2017 Gala Concert.
In filming for their latest multimedia
project, Reger: The Last Giant, the Fugue
State Films team visited the baroque
Schloss Bruchsal in southwest Germany
to record Reger’s own Welte rolls at the
castle’s museum of automated musical
instruments, before moving on to the
Max Reger Institut in Karlsruhe, founded
by Reger’s widow Elsa, for interviews
with Reger scholars Susanne Popp and
Jürgen Schaarwächter. During May and
June filming of the music will commence,
including performances by organists
Graham Barber and Bernhard Buttmann.
The Last Giant is the company’s largest
project to date: crowdfunding opportu-
nities are still available – details from
will@fuguestatefilms.co.uk
In his review of Simon Thomas Jacobs’s
organ CD, Parthenia Nova (C&O Mar/
Apr 2016), Chris Bragg gave critical
approval to Joel Martinson’s ‘as-yet
unpublished’ Out of the Depth essays. We
are pleased to confirm that the music
is now available via the composer’s
website: www.joelmartinson.com
The Shop at Boosey.com has launched
a new bulk discount scheme for online
purchases. Ten or more choral items
receive 10% discount, and 30 or more,
15%. This applies both to multiple copies
of a single title, and mix-and-match
across different titles, drawn from
over 50,000 choral works from
all international music publishers.
Details: bit.ly/25dQcUD
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 9
30/03/2016 12:42:51
 W E D N E S D AY 6 J U LY – S U N D AY 10 J U LY

Wednesday 6 July
Competition Day
10.00am Forum for choral conductors
7.30pm Nick Edwards Composition Prize and conductors’ showcase
Thursday 7 July
Silence and Music
7.30pm Gabrieli Consort
Friday 8 July
Jazz Mass and Workplace Choirs Night
6.30pm Choral Eucharist featuring the London International
Gospel Choir and Scott Stromann’s Jazz Mass
8.00pm Workplace Choirs Concert
Saturday 9 July
Spirit of England
7.30pm Vaughan Williams Sancta Civitas
ST JAMES’S CHURCH, SUSSEX GARDENS and Elgar Spirit of England, with the combined forces of
PADDINGTON, LONDON W2 3UD Chiswick Choral Society, Dorking Choral Society,
The Music Makers of London,
The Wallace Singers and Tiffin Boys’ Choir.
Sunday 10 July
Youth Choirs Day
10am Workshop with leaders and singers from
London Youth Choir
7.30pm Concert featuring London Youth Choir
VoicesofLondonFestival @VoicesofLonFest

W W W. V O I C E S O F L O N D O N F E S T I VA L . C O M

CO0316.indd 10 11/04/2016 11:18:28

 NEWS & PREVIEWS
WARTIME MUSIC
COURTESY RNCM

The Royal Manchester College of Music Orchestra at the time of the first world war
THE ROYAL NORTHERN COLLEGE OF
MUSIC has received funding from the
Arts and Humanities Research Council
to undertake a new ten-month research
project, ‘Making Music in Manchester
during World War I’. The project, which
will be led by RNCM director of research
Prof. Barbara Kelly, will recreate some of
the music heard at the Royal Manchester
College of Music (which became the
RNCM) and in the northwest during and
just after the war years. The project will
also involve workshops and exhibitions
of archive material from the RNCM, the
Hallé Concerts Society and Henry Watson
‘THE GREAT SILENCE’
C&O New Music composer Samuel Bordoli,
whose Crux fidelis was premiered at St Paul’s
Cathedral on 21 March, has been commissioned
to write a choral anthem dedicated to choristers
who fell during the first world war. The Great
Silence is being written in collaboration with St
Paul’s Cathedral, the Chapels Royal, St George’s
Chapel, Windsor Castle, and The Queen’s Chapel
of the Savoy. A version of the anthem will be
arranged for smaller parish churches with
organ, plus an accompanying resource pack for
schools. The first performances of the anthem
will raise funds for the charity London Music
Masters, who bring music to children in inner-
city primary schools. Donations can be made via
www.londonmusicmasters.org.
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_006-014_R_News T.indd 11
Library. Selected materials from the
combined archives will be on show at the
RNCM, Manchester’s Central Library
and online.
Prof. Kelly told C&O, ‘These fascinat-
ing under-explored collections include
everything from concert programmes
and private letters, to official records and
newspaper cuttings. We will cast light on
the students who remained at the Royal
Manchester College of Music, and profes-
sionals and amateurs who performed
throughout the Manchester area, to see
how the turbulence and trauma of war
affected lives and music making.’
MAGDALENA NASIDLAK

Composer Samuel Bordoli
EVENTS
RSCM Oxford is staging a May Day
Singing Tour of Oxford Colleges (2 May),
directed by Peter Smith with organist
Cynthia Hall. The tour – a segmented
Choral Evensong – begins in Jesus
College Chapel, and continues in half-
hourly slots via Brasenose, Trinity and
Balliol Colleges, ending with tea in Balliol
Old Common Room. bit.ly/1UIvSpr
Dr Christopher Robinson, former
director of music at St John’s College,
Cambridge, will celebrate his 80th birth-
day by conducting Choral Evensong in
the College Chapel on 7 May at 6.30pm.
The Choir of St John’s has invited singers
from Clare College, and from Worcester
Cathedral and St George’s Chapel
Windsor (where Dr Robinson also served
as director of music), to swell the ranks
for the evening. For details, tel: 01223
338718 or email choir@joh.cam.ac.uk.
David Parry conducts the Norwich
and Norfolk Festival Chorus and
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in
the premiere of Cain by Kemal Yusuf, at
St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, on 15 May.
Cain follows the life of the first-born
human, according to the Bible – and the
first murderer. Details: bit.ly/1PGUPeO
National Youth Choirs of Great Britain
(NYCGB) have announced a series of
free ‘Ready Steady Sing’ family singing
days this summer. Aimed at children
and adults, venues include Giggleswick
School (24 Jun), Tonbridge School
Chapel (15 May), and Perth Concert Hall,
(11 Jun). Details: www.nycgb.org.uk
In May, Naxos release the world premiere
recording of John Rutter’s Psalmfest
(8.573394), psalm settings for choir and
orchestra aiming, the composer says,
to ‘open up psalm settings to concert
audiences rather than just church congre-
gations.’ Andrew Lucas conducts the
Choirs of St Albans Cathedral and the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 11
30/03/2016 12:43:05
 NEWS & PREVIEWS
EVENTS
MARK ALLAN/BBC
Sing for Pleasure is holding a train-
ing event in the West Midlands for
conductors, vocal leaders and singers at
Walsall’s Forest Arts Centre (4 & 5 Jun).
Courses include conductor training
led by Manvinder Rattan, graded from
Foundation through Intermediate 1 and
2 to Advanced levels, and Musicianship
for Singers (Foundation level) aimed at
community choir members with little or
no experience of music theory or sight-
reading. www.singforpleasure.org.uk
The 2016 annual Andrew Chamblin
Memorial Concert (7 Jun, 8pm) will be
given by Stephen Cleobury CBE FRCO
in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. The
programme consists of baroque organ
works by Couperin, Pachelbel, Mozart,
Scheidt and Bach. Free admission.
Children from schools in the Pimlico
area of London will mount a celebra-
tion concert in honour of the Queen’s
90th Birthday at St Gabriel’s, Warwick
Square (11 Jun). The Pimlico Festival
Choir and Pimlico Foundation Choir,
conducted by James Day and Ralph
Allwood MBE, will sing repertoire from
throughout Queen Elizabeth’s reign,
including Handel’s coronation anthem
My heart is inditing, Bernstein’s West
Side Story and songs by the Beatles.
pimlicomusicalfoundation.org.uk.
The composer Charles Wood (1866-
1926) is the subject of an evening
of choral music and story-telling at
St James’s Church, Sussex Gardens,
London (15 Jun). The evening features
performances by Holy Trinity Brompton
Chamber Choir, the Crofton Singers and
a string quintet from the Royal College
of Music, where Wood was a founda-
tion scholar, aged 16. Proceeds will be
split between the charity Lost Chord,
which organises interactive musical
sessions for people with dementia,
and the Royal School of Church Music.
Details: info@lost-chord.org.uk
12 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_006-014_R_News T.indd 12
PAST LIVES
SIR PETER MAXWELL DAVIES (1934-2016) has died
from leukaemia at his home in Orkney aged 81.
Among many outstanding contributions to the
choral repertoire, one of Sir Peter’s most notable
achievements was his artistic directorship of the
Choirbook for the Queen, an anthology published in
2011 to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond
Jubilee, comprising the very best of the sacred music
composed in the previous ten years. Such a compila-
tion had not been seen since, in the late 15th century,
the Eton Choirbook was made to record the best of early
Tudor church music. Sir Peter, who at the time was
Max at the Barbican Hall in 2013 Master of the Queen’s Music, helped select the anthems,
12 of them new commissions for this project, including
his own setting of a poem, Advent Calendar, by the former Archbishop of Canterbury,
Dr Rowan Williams.
Sir Peter was born in Salford, Lancashire and studied at the Royal Manchester College
of Music, where he was part of the ‘Manchester School’ with fellow students Harrison
Birtwistle, John Ogdon, Elgar Howarth and Alexander Goehr. It was at this time that he
positioned himself as an important voice on the contemporary music scene. In 1971 Max
(as he was known) moved to the Orkney Islands, where he would live for the rest of his
life. He founded the community-based St Magnus Festival there in 1977, and continued to
write prolifically. Many considered his appointment as Master of the Queen’s Music (2004-
14) as proof of his transition to establishment figure; but he remained engaged in political
and social matters in his music and writings. Max was knighted in 1987 and his career
was crowned with the world’s most prestigious musical honour, the Royal Philharmonic
Society Gold Medal, only a few weeks before his death.
BORN IN HALIFAX, RICHARD POPPLEWELL (1935-
2016) was a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge,
where he received his first organ lessons from the
then organ scholar David Willcocks. After leaving
Clifton College (where he studied under Douglas Fox),
Popplewell returned to King’s College as organ scholar.
He continued his studies under Sir John Dykes Bower at
the Royal College of Music (RCM) and was appointed
assistant organist at St Paul’s Cathedral. He succeeded
Dr Harold Darke as director of music at St Michael’s
Cornhill, where he served from 1966 to 1979. His
tenure there is remembered with especial affection: his
Bach lover: Richard Popplewell Monday lunchtime recitals were notable not only for
the stylishness of the playing, but also for his imagina-
tive programmes: he loved Bach, and set himself the challenge of learning one major Reger
composition each year. His improvisations during Sunday services were admired, and he
made many notable recordings on the St Michael’s organ. Popplewell joined forces with
Willcocks again as organist, accompanist and deputy conductor to the Bach Choir. In 1979
he moved to St James’s Palace as organist, choirmaster and composer at HM Chapel Royal;
he was appointed FRCM in 1982 and MVO in 1990. Popplewell retired from the Chapel
Royal and his post as professor of organ studies at the RCM in 2000, retiring to Ledbury
with his wife, Margaret. Last year he was honoured with an 80th birthday recital at St
Michael’s Cornhill, given by former pupils Peter Wright, Robert Gower, Paul Derrett, Jane
Watts, Timothy Byram-Wigfield and Jonathan Rennert.
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:43:33
 NEWS & PREVIEWS
GEORGIAN STUDIES EVENTS
CAMBRIDGE ACADEMY OF ORGAN East Neuk Festival is bringing together

JOHN MAIDMENT
STUDIES is presenting a study day amateur and professional performers for
(28 May), led by Gillian Ward Memorial Ground, a large-scale choral
Russell, on the restored 1821 H.C. project commemorating the Battle of
Lincoln organ in Thaxted Parish the Somme by Pulitzer Prize-winning
Church. US composer David Lang. Memorial
Built in 1821 for St John’s Chapel, Ground, co-commissioned with 14-18
Bedford Row in London, the Henry NOW and supported by Creative
Lincoln instrument is the earliest Scotland, will be directed by Paul Hillier
surviving English church organ and performed by his ensemble Theatre
which retains all of its original parts: of Voices, with the Scottish Chamber
it looks, sounds and plays as it did Orchestra Chorus (under Gregory
in the late Georgian era. In 1858 the Batsleer), plus Fife choirs comprising 150
organ was moved to Thaxted Parish singers. The concert will take place on
Church by Holdich; composers 2 July at Cambo Barn near St Andrews.
known to have played it through its
long history include Charles Wesley, Voices of London Festival 2016 runs
Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav from 6-10 July at St James’s, Sussex
Holst, who was living in Thaxted 
Thaxted’s Georgian organ Gardens, London. Competition Day (6
at the time he wrote much of the Jul) comprises a composition competi-
Planets Suite, giving the name ‘Thaxted’ to his famous tune for ‘I vow to Thee, my country’; tion and a forum for choral conductors
the instrument was recently restored by the firm of Goetze & Gwynn (see C&O, March/ led by Stephen Jackson, Patrick Russill
April 2015). and Judith Bingham. An early-evening
Gillian Ward Russell is a leading expert on the organ of the Georgian era and its music, Jazz Mass (8 Jul) is followed by a
in particular the organ music of her ancestor William Russell. Her research led to the publi- Workplace Choirs Concert featuring the
cation of Russell’s complete Voluntaries in a facsimile edition. Attendance at the study day premiere of a festival-commissioned
is open to participants and observers. Repertoire may include 18th-century voluntaries by work by Stuart Murray Turnbull. Chiswick
composers such as Stanley and Boyce through to early 19th-century composers such as the Choral Society, Dorking Choral Society,
Wesleys, Russell and Thomas Adams. Details: www.cambridgeorganacademy.org. The Music Makers of London and Take
The Lincoln Organ can also be heard at the 2016 Thaxted Festival, which this year Note Peterborough perform Vaughan
marks the centenary of the first concerts to be held in Thaxted Parish Church, organised Williams’s Sancta Civitas and Elgar’s Spirit
at Whitsuntide in 1916 by Gustav Holst. Anne Page will present a programme of Handel, of England (9 Jul); the Festival concludes
J.S. Bach, Holst, Jake Walker and English music from the Georgian era (9 Jul). Details and with a Youth Choirs Day (10 Jul). Details:
booking: bit.ly/1Sbh80b www.voicesoflondonfestival.com

The City of Derry International Choral

PREMIERES [RP = REGIONAL PREMIERE]
Joseph Phibbs: Missa Brevis
Wells Cathedral Choir/Owens
5 May, Wells Cathedral, Wells, UK
Jill Jarman: St George’s Mass
Choir of St George’s Church
10 May, St George’s, Bloomsbury, London, UK
Kemal Yusuf: Cain
Norfolk and Norwich Festival Chorus
15 May, St Andrew’s Hall, Norwich, UK
David J. Loxley-Blount: Farewell
Ashley Wagner (org)
8 Jun, St Peter’s Church, St Albans, UK
Iain Bell: London’s Fateful Fire
New London Chamber Choir/Hamilton
11 Jun, St Leonard’s, Spitalfields, London, UK
Torsten Rasch: Zeit und Ewigkeit
Stadtsingechor zu Halle/Flämig
17 Jun, Hallescher Dom, Halle an der Saale, DE
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Orpheus singt
SWR Vokalensemble/Creed
25 Jun, Friedenskirche, Ludwigsburg, DE
Judith Weir: Holy Innocents
Abbey Girls’ Choir, Nicholas Freestone (org)/
Winpenny
25 Jun, St Albans Cathedral, UK
Bob Chilcott: Ophelia, Caliban and Miranda
PicFest Youth Choral Festival Choir
26 June, Hult Center for the Performing Arts,
Eugene, OR, US
Festival (19-23 Oct) invites school,
national and international choirs to take
part in a range of competitions across the
five-day festival including Equal Voice,
Mixed Voice, Youth, Sacred, Pop, Jazz,
Gospel and Barbershop categories. An
initiative of the City of Derry Civic Choirs
with the support of Walled City Music, the
festival is in its 4th edition and has already
gained international standing. Closing
date for entries: 6 May (International
Competition); 10 June (School, national
and non-competitive applications.
Details: www.codichoral.com

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 13

COMJ16_006-014_R_News T.indd 13 30/03/2016 12:43:50

 NEWS & PREVIEWS
REMEMBERING BERNARD ROSE
THE CENTENARY OF Magdalen Choristers attending Magdalen College School.
BERNARD ROSE on 9 May Roderic Dunnett, a countertenor Academical Clerk (Choral
is giving rise to a number Scholar) at Magdalen College in 1966-69, remembers: ‘Bernard
of events celebrating the Rose (1916-96) was one of the most inflential figures in the church
enormous contribution he music of his time. While the protégés of his Cambridge rivals,
made to the world of church George Guest and David Willcocks, filled the organ lofts of English
music. Among events already cathedrals, vastly raising standards nationally, and produced many
planned is a live broadcast of today’s top opera soloists, it was Evensong at Magdalen – notably
on BBC Radio 3 (3.30pm, 27 the singing of music by John Sheppard and a vast Tudor reper-
July) of Choral Evensong from toire – that inspired the Clerkes of Oxenford (founded by David
Gloucester Cathedral during Wulstan) and those early music pioneers who still lead the field
the Three Choirs Festival, today: the Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, Ex Cathedra, and their imita-
at which Rose’s Responses tors and successors.
and anthem The spacious ‘Rose was a masterly, surprisingly sensitive trainer of boy choris-
firmament on high will be ters, and of lower voices also. He replaced the lay clerks with choral
sung by the Three Cathedral scholars, which dramatically enhanced the choir’s sound. His atten-
‘The stuff of genius’: Bernard Rose Choirs conducted by Adrian tion to psalmsody was unique: to hear psalms sung in Magdalen’s
Partington; the service rich acoustics was an unrivalled experience. His ruthless insistence
concludes with Jonathan Hope playing Rose’s Passacaglia for organ. on consonantal clarity yielded results, on a good evening, of special
On Sunday 11 September, a concert at St Mary’s Church, excellence. He despised any bland, smooth “blend”: individual voices
Bampton, Oxfordshire, where Rose and his wife Molly had lived, spoke in their own way. To sing Thomas Tomkins’s Third (“Great”)
is devoted entirely to Rose’s music. His son Gregory will conduct Service – involving the most complex counterpoint, often one voice
a choir comprising alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford – where to a part – could be terrifying, being exposed to the undisguised
Rose was Organist and Informator Choristarum from 1957-81 venom, if you committed errors, of Dr Rose’s glare. Tomkins’s
– and Magdalen College School. Works to be performed include music, which he edited, was precious to him. Such was his musical
the Three Addison Anthems, Feast Song for Saint Cecilia, and Lines command, he would loudly take over your part if things went awry,
for the Magdalen Choir to sing, written for a ceremony to celebrate and restore you, red with shame, to your rightful spot.
the completion of the restoration of the College’s Great Tower in ‘Rose was fierce, demanding, prickly, hypersensitive, witty, and
1981, on which the Magdalen Choir traditionally sing each May unscrupulous in getting results. His electrifying, flawed but brilliant
Day. There are no tickets for the concert, but there will be a retiring and intermittently lovable personality often won through, first with
collection, to be divided equally towards the restoration of St Mary’s the boys, to whom he was fiercely loyal; and finally, all voices would
organ (with which Rose was involved in its 1991 rebuild) and the Dr rally to produce unsurpassed results. On those key occasions, his was
Rose Benefaction Fund, which contributes towards the costs of the the stuff of genius.’

LETTERS
THEY SHALL RISE AGAIN
It was lovely to read David Wordsworth’s
article ‘Casting spells’, on the varied and
highly satisfying choral music of Richard
Rodney Bennett (pictured, right). I
thought it a pity that Wordsworth did
not mention the terrific And Death Shall
Have No Dominion, setting the poem by
Dylan Thomas for male-voice chorus
and french horn. Commissioned by the
New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, I took
part in the UK premiere (and possible
world premiere) when London Concord
Singers, conducted by Malcolm Cottle,
performed it in 1995 with horn player
Patrick Clements. A powerful, and
unforgettable work.
ROBERT HUGILL, by email

Letters to the editor for publication in the Jul/Aug 2015 issue must be received by Friday 27 May.
Email choirandorgan@rhinegold.co.uk or send to The Editor, Choir & Organ, 20 Rugby Street, London WC1N 3QZ

14 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_006-014_R_News T.indd 14 30/03/2016 12:44:14

CO0316.indd 15 11/04/2016 11:18:28
 ABCD 31 st AnnuAl Convention
26-28 August 2016
university of WinChester
A whole year ’s motivation from one weekend!

Practical sessions for all, including

masterclasses
repertoire
vocal & conducting technique
women as choral leaders
the wider choral world
inspiration for everyone working with young voices
CONCERTS
More information at:
Plus: www.abcd.org.uk
large trade fair JUNE 11TH NYCGB FELLOWSHIP OCTET
pre-convention conducting course + CANTORIA HONG KONG LONDON
young conductors’ course
Gala concert with choirs from latvia and the usA JULY 30TH NATIONAL YOUTH GIRLS’ CHOIR GIGGLESWICK
AUGUST 13TH NATIONAL YOUTH TRAINING CHOIR TONBRIDGE
AUGUST 13TH NATIONAL YOUTH TRAINING CHOIR PERTH
AUGUST 17TH NATIONAL YOUTH CHOIR SNAPE
CHURCH MUSIC SOCIETY AUGUST 20TH NATIONAL YOUTH BOYS’ CHOIR HOLT
founded in 1906

FREE POP-UP CONCERTS

JULY 29TH NATIONAL YOUTH GIRLS’ CHOIR SETTLE

2016 ANNIVERSARIES:
AUGUST 11TH NATIONAL YOUTH TRAINING CHOIR TONBRIDGE
CHARLES WOOD & BERNARD ROSE
AUGUST 11TH NATIONAL YOUTH TRAINING CHOIR PERTH
Thursday 21 July 2016 11.00 am AUGUST 18TH NATIONAL YOUTH BOYS’ CHOIR HOLT
St John’s Chapel, Chichester
Hear Professor Jeremy Dibble on FREE FAMILY SINGING DAYS
The Church Music of Charles Wood
[1866-1926] MAY 15TH TONBRIDGE SCHOOL
The Dichotomy of JUNE 11TH PERTH CONCERT HALL
Antiquarian versus Romantic
JUNE 24TH GIGGLESWICK SCHOOL
Admission Free – No ticket required
A Southern Cathedrals Festival Event
presented in association with the Church Music Society
FOR BOX OFFICE AND FURTHER
Join our Bernard Rose Centenary Event INFORMATION FOR ALL EVENTS:
in Oxford NYCGB.ORG.UK/SUMMERFEST16
at Merton College - Thursday 8 November 2016
AGM 3.30 – SYMPOSIUM 4.00 – TEA 5.15 – EVENSONG 6.30 U25s
s £5
SELECTED EVENTS
NYCGB is a registered charity in England & Wales, No. 515660
www.church-music.org.uk

CO0316.indd 16 11/04/2016 17:30:15

 Jacques van Oortmerssen
1950 – 2015

J
acques van Oortmerssen died unex-
pectedly on 21 November 2015. His
untimely death, from a brain haem-
orrhage, has taken away a musician of
immense talent and generosity, and robbed
us of a man devoted to the organ and its
role as an exquisite, expressive, communi-
cative instrument. He was internationally
renowned as a performer, acclaimed in
particular for his Bach and pre-Bach
playing, and as a teacher, with a large cohort
of former students from all over the world
who can testify to an exacting and trans-
forming teaching method. They will also
testify to his deep thinking and his intel-
ligent, dry sense of humour.
Born in Rotterdam, Jacques van
Oortmerssen completed his soloist’s
diploma for organ, as a student of André
Verwoerd, and for piano, as a student of
Elly Salomé, at the conservatoire of his
home city. He undertook postgraduate
study with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris,
where he was awarded the Prix d’Excellence
in 1976. He won the second prize in the
Tournemire Competition at St Albans in
1979. In the same year, at an exceptionally
young age, he was appointed professor of
organ at the Amsterdam (then Sweelinck)
Conservatorium, and in 1982 he succeeded
Gustav Leonhardt as organiste titulaire of
the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam. He became
synonymous with the magnificent Christian
Müller organ (1734) in that church.
Van Oortmerssen enjoyed international
acclaim as both a soloist and a pedagogue.
He regularly performed throughout
Europe, North and South America, Africa,
Japan, and South Korea, and was frequently
invited to play at prestigious international
festivals. As a recording artist, he featured
on dozens of recordings for prominent
international labels, and he broadcast
regularly on both radio and television.
Sadly, his project (for Challenge Classics)
to record the complete organ works of
J.S. Bach on historical organs, and in
imaginative all-Bach programmes rather
than in the predictable ‘Collected Works’
mould, remains incomplete at this death.
Though frequently associated with early
music, he recorded the complete works of
C.P.E. Bach and Brahms. As a teacher he
taught and gave masterclasses at universi-
ties and conservatoires throughout the
world, and on many short courses. In the
UK he taught regularly at Oundle and for
the RCO. He was a visiting professor of
organ at the Universities of Gothenburg,
where he was closely associated with the
Göteborg Organ Art Center (GOArt), and
Helsinki. Van Oortmerssen was nominated
guest professor of organ (Betts Fellow) at
the University of Oxford in 1993/4, and in
2012 he received an honorary doctorate
from the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki. He
was a frequent participant in international
competition juries and as an adviser he was
involved with a number of organ building
and restoration projects, including the new
organ at the Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo
(Van Eeken) and a new organ by Munetaka
Yokota at Cornell University, Ithaca, USA.
I was one of the first from the UK to
study with Jacques in Amsterdam. His short
courses at the John Loosemore Centre (my
first encounter) and appearances at Oundle
in the mid-1980s broke new pedagogical
ground, particularly in the sphere of early
music performance. Jacques’s extensive
knowledge of Bach and the pre-Bach
repertoire, his scrupulous attention to the
detail of sources (scores and treatises),
and his holistic comprehension of how
touch at the keys and pedals should be
conceived – a synthesis of relaxed posture,
refined choreography for hands and feet,
acute aural perception, and an understand-
ing of the behaviour of actions and pipe
speech – made for a compelling musical
and intellectual education. His knowledge
of historical instruments of all periods was
second to none. It was always a privilege to
accompany him on concert trips through-
out The Netherlands to assist and, in the
process, get an extra tutorial. His class in
Amsterdam became hugely popular – a sign
of his growing international profile – and
the mingling of nationalities and traditions
provided a conducive and broadening expe-
rience. Jacques, supported by his wonderful
wife, Tony, was always concerned with both
the musical evolution and personal well-
being of those in his charge. He challenged
his students on all fronts but set extremely
high standards for himself; he transformed
students’ musical horizons and, moreover,
enriched their lives as human beings.
Andrew McCrea

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 17

COMJ16_017_R_Obituary Oortmerssen T.indd 17 30/03/2016 10:46:08

 Andrew Potter
1949 – 2016
C
horal music in the UK is the poorer
for the loss of Andrew Potter on
18 February. Through his work as
head of music at Oxford University Press
and as co-founder (with John Rutter) of
the Association of British Choral Directors
(abcd), Andrew became one of the key
figures in the explosion of choral activity
we have witnessed in this country since
the 1980s.
Born in 1949, Andrew won a place as
a chorister in Durham cathedral in 1956,
and started a lifelong love of the city. After
completing his schooling at Clifton College,
Bristol, he returned to Durham to study
Law, English and Music, being a prime
mover in the University G&S Society, and
singing in the Cathedral choir again, this
time as a bass. In his final year, Andrew
read in the newspaper that Lord Goodman
– then chair of the Arts Council – had
announced the intention to build a new
opera house in Manchester. Andrew wrote
to Goodman asking if he could go and
help. The building did not go ahead, but
Goodman advised Andrew to enrol for a
new arts administration course in London.
Positions at the London Symphony
Orchestra, Glyndebourne, Oxford
University Press and the National
Federation of Music Societies followed, then
three years as assistant director at Wexford
Arts Festival in Ireland, before Andrew
returned in 1979 to the UK and to OUP as
its head of music – a position he held until
2004, when he retired from both OUP and
as chair of the Music Publishers Association.
OUP colleague Simon Wright remembers:
‘In 1985 Andrew succeeded Christopher
Morris as head of music publishing, having
organised the relocation of OUP’s music
department from London to the company’s
main offices in Oxford in the previous
year. Andrew’s immediate imperative was
to modernise both the list and the opera-
tion, and to bring focus to those things
that he instinctively knew were essential to
a classical music publisher’s growth (and
even survival): financial stringency, strong
18 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_018_R_Obituary Potter T.indd 18
relationships, an embracing of technology,
keen artistic judgement, and an enjoy-
able scattering of risk. Andrew signed up
a range of young composers, while always
ensuring relationships with OUP’s existing
writers and composer estates were set fair
for the future. He supported early attempts
at computerised music engraving software
and data management programs, and he
recognised the need for music publishers
to seek their businesses (and thus their
income) within an increasingly diffuse
and ever-changing digital environment.
World travel was second nature to him, but
somehow he always came home having
found a new composer here, business part-
ners and agents there, and performers for
the Press’s music everywhere. He stepped
down in 2004 while at the top of his game
as a publisher, but in retirement continued
to serve the industry, most recently working
again for OUP as a consultant. Andrew
enjoyed negotiation, and driving a hard
bargain, but his humanity and sense of fair-
ness inevitably won the day: it is as a bringer
together of people that his colleagues at
OUP will best remember him.’
A career in the music industry gave
Andrew an invaluable perspective on how
things should be run – experience that he
passed on after retirement through teach-
ing at Buckinghamshire New University. As
chair of the Performing Rights Society, he
steered that organisation through one of its
rockiest periods – when the classical subsidy
was attacked by the majority of members
and abolished – and ensured that compos-
ers who earned little from their royalties
would have the chance to apply for grants
from the PRS Foundation which was set
up, very much Andrew’s idea. After retire-
ment from OUP he continued his support
of the creative community by chairing the
Design and Artists Copyright Society that
campaigned for artists’ rights when the UK
implemented the resale right. He was also a
director of the Copyright Licensing Agency,
and these three roles demonstrate his
utmost commitment to artistic creators.
CHRISTINE TAPP
Then, of course, there would be no
Association of British Choral Directors
without Andrew Potter. It was only through
his vision and commitment to the establish-
ment of an association for choral directors
in the UK that abcd was founded in 1986.
Andrew led the Association forward follow-
ing a major restructuring in 2001 that
strengthened its corporate governance.
Even after relinquishing the chairmanship
for the second time, Andrew was always
present – at trustees and council meet-
ings, at conventions, at events – offering
wise words, encouraging others, keeping a
critical eye on how things were done and,
crucially, how the finances were.
Andrew’s family remember him as ‘the
impresario’ and it is perhaps an entirely
appropriate description of someone who
‘made music happen’. In the latter stages
of his life he ran the Sussex Gruffs Male
Voice Choir, enjoying the challenge of
developing mature voices from growl-
ing to relative purity and giving them the
confidence to perform! Amid the unfail-
ing modesty that concealed considerable
achievements during his lifetime – who, for
instance, in the music community knew
he was chair of the London Arts in Health
Forum? – Andrew was always positive,
good-humoured and a tremendous support
to others. Our sadness at his death must be
tempered by the privilege of knowing such
a remarkable man.
With thanks to Simon Wright and Andrew’s
brother, Jim, for their contributions towards
this tribute.
Leslie East
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 10:47:57
 Peter Williams
1937 – 2016
O
bserving the musical legacy of
Peter Williams, one is struck by the
sheer volume of his writings, the
quality and quantity of his musical perfor-
mances, and his influences as an educator.
He was unique, combining skills as an
organ historian, internationally renowned
Bach scholar, brilliant harpsichordist and
organist, distinguished organologist and
curator of historical instrument collections,
indefatigable editor of both Handel’s and
Bach’s music, editor of journals (The Organ
Yearbook) and book series, and an inspi-
rational educator in performance practice
studies. In later years he was also a probing
philosopher in music and musical aesthet-
ics, an acute and perceptive reviewer of new
books and music volumes, and a fearless and
merciless critic of the latest trends in musical
scholarship. But three subjects occupied him
throughout his career: the organ, J.S. Bach
and performance practice.
Born in Wolverhampton, Peter’s most
formative influences were studies with
Thurston Dart in Cambridge (1955-62),
where he obtained his BA, Mus.B and
PhD degrees at St John’s College, and with
Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. In 1962
he was appointed lecturer at the University
of Edinburgh, later becoming professor,
head of department, and dean in 1983.
From 1968 he was director of the Russell
Collection of Early Keyboard Instruments;
from 1985-97 he was Arts & Sciences
Distinguished Professor at Duke University,
North Carolina, USA, a period when he
led an extremely active life teaching in the
university, being university organist, as well
as giving concerts and teaching at summer
schools; from 1996-2002 he was John Bird
Professor at Cardiff University, supervising
PhD students and performing memora-
ble concerts including Bach’s Goldberg
Variations; and from 1996 to 2006 he
served as chairman of the British Institute
of Organ Studies (BIOS), subsequently
becoming president, and he was patron of
the Cambridge Academy of Organ Studies
(CAOS) from its inception in 2004.
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_019_R_Obituary Williams T.indd 19
It was first-hand experience of perform-
ing on historical harpsichords and organs
(particularly the organs by Gottfried
Silbermann) that inspired his writings. His
first major publication, The European Organ,
1450-1850 (1966), described the major
European organ building traditions that
were little known in England at the time.
Performing as harpsichordist in concerts at
St Cecilia’s Hall, Edinburgh, led him to write
Figured Bass Accompaniment (1970), and the
installation of the Ahrend organ in the Reid
Concert Hall was a catalyst for the three-
volume The Organ Music of J.S. Bach (CUP,
1980 and 1984, re-thought and revised in
2003). His mission to elevate organology
and performance practice to new critical
levels is enshrined in The Organ Yearbook,
the annual journal which he edited from its
inception in 1970. Further books include
A New History of the Organ (1980); Bach:
The Goldberg Variations (2001); The Organ
in Western Culture 750-1250 (1993); The
Chromatic Fourth through Four Centuries
of Music (1998); J.S. Bach: A Life in Music
(2007); The King of Instruments (2012). His
editions of Handel and Bach’s keyboard
music are full of information concern-
ing sources and performance practice
considerations, which inspire enthusiastic
engagement and lead to more enlightened
and authoritative performance.
Peter’s writings on Bach, organological
and performance practice issues were all
founded on historical sources, and charac-
terised by intellectual precision and literary
conciseness. In reaction to ‘positivist’ musi-
cology which he saw as emanating from
Germany and the USA, he analysed and
deconstructed historical sources, leading
more to the framing of questions rather than
defining answers regarding authenticity,
chronology, context, style and performance
practice. He was the first to question, for
example, the accuracy of every single word
in the title of the most famous organ work
‘J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor for
Organ’ (BWV 565), with which all organists
have now agreed. As a teacher, his breadth of
knowledge and wealth of stimulating ideas,
combined with constructive criticism, kind-
ness and generosity, made him extremely
effective in developing the skills of the next
generation of scholars and performers
of historical music. He would frequently
lecture on topics such as ‘What notation
doesn’t tell us’, and he very much regretted
that performance practice had not been
adopted more comprehensively as a subject
in university music departments, with all the
topics that emanate from it: source studies,
notation, genre and style studies, analysis,
instrumental techniques, harmony, counter-
point, improvisation, rhythmic conventions,
ornamentation, organology, tuning systems,
historical contextual studies, as well as the
science and art of editing. Peter’s teaching
philosophy has been summed up as not so
much ‘answering the questions’ but ‘ques-
tioning the answers’.
In spite of a terrible accident to four of
his fingers, he still maintained his annual
ritual of playing through all of Domenico
Scarlatti’s 555 Sonatas, and the timing of
his death was especially poignant. The final
proofreading corrections (painstakingly
assisted by his wife Rosemary) of his new
book Bach – A Musical Biography, focus-
ing primarily on the composer’s music and
to be published in May, were signed off
within hours of his death. He died at 23:55
GMT on 20 March, five minutes before
the start of J.S. Bach’s birthday anniversary
(although in Leipzig it was an hour later).
I like to think that JSB extended a hand to
Peter to join him, and Peter accepted.
David Ponsford
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 19
30/03/2016 12:45:34
 SLUG
JOHN BATTEN

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COMJ16_020-024_F_Kaye Glover T.indd 20 30/03/2016 10:53:31


Shining light
Conductor Jane Glover is preparing for a busy summer of choral music and opera.
Graeme Kay visited her at the Royal Academy of Music, where her work is on the
brink of new beginnings
‘M
usic of the Baroque had many inspired
nights – the Mozart Requiem among
them – but it was the brilliantly played
and sung performance of Bach’s glorious Christmas
Oratorio earlier this month that proved most memo-
rable.’ Such was the opinion of Chicago Classical
Review critic Lawrence A. Johnson, writing in 2010:
the conductor referred to was Jane Glover, and that
Bach performance was also listed elsewhere in Illinois
media as one of the top five Chicago concerts of the
year, alongside performances by the ultra-prestig-
ious Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by
Riccardo Muti and Bernard Haitink.
UK audiences have seen rather less of Jane Glover
in recent years than those across the Pond and in
Europe: still based in London, after notable periods
as music director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera
and the London Mozart Players, the shifting patterns
common to any long-standing conductor’s career,
in Glover’s case, have seen her imparting her accu-
mulated worldwide expertise in opera to students at
the Royal Academy of Music, where she will shortly
step down as director of Royal Academy Opera after
eight years in post. Not that the RAM is letting her
go: from July, Glover will become the institution’s
first Felix Mendelssohn Emeritus Professor of Music,
in which role she will continue to contribute to the
Academy’s musical life as a conductor, coach, mentor
and researcher; and this summer she will conduct
Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in Shoreditch
Town Hall, directed by John Ramster.
Opera and vocal music have been at the centre
of Glover’s career from the start. How could it be
otherwise when, at the age of 16, the daughter of
Monmouth School’s headmaster met her heroes
Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears when they came
to give a concert: ‘The doorbell rang at the head-
master’s house, and I went to answer it. There on the
step, looking for all the world as they did on one of
my record sleeves, distinguished, elegant and with
the kindliest of eyes, were Peter Pears and Benjamin
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_020-024_F_Kaye Glover T.indd 21
JANE GLOVER
Britten, my hero.’ Studies at Oxford for a DPhil in Jane Glover: her choral
conducting repertoire
Venetian opera culminated in Glover publishing a covers hundreds of years,
biography of Francesco Cavalli; but her specialist from Bach to Tippett
knowledge, and experience gained conducting at
Oxford, led to a breakthrough when, in 1975, Wexford
Festival artistic director Thomson Smillie offered
Glover her first professional engagement conducting
the first modern performance of Cavalli’s Eritrea; it
was also the first appearance by a woman conductor
at Wexford, inaugurating a series of many such ‘firsts’
as Glover’s career took off around the world.
Naturally, the operas of Monteverdi, Handel,
Gluck and Mozart feature prominently in her
repertoire (experience of the latter leading to the
publication in 2005 of her acclaimed book, Mozart’s
‘The doorbell rang, and there on the
doorstep, distinguished and elegant,
were Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten’
Women), and it was with Julie Taymor’s production
of Mozart’s The Magic Flute that she made a splash
on her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2013 (only the
third woman to conduct there, the Met being slow
out of the blocks on that issue …) – the New York
Times headlined the show as ‘A Rollicking Treat
Infused With Grace and Gravitas’. But in practice,
Glover’s repertoire resists pigeonholing: music of
every period features in it, including comprehensive
coverage of the choral works of Bach, Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Brahms,
Szymanowski, Stravinsky, Tippett and her beloved
Britten – it could hardly be otherwise for a former
music director of the Huddersfield Choral Society.
And, meeting in the week in which the death of Sir
Peter Maxwell Davies was announced, Glover recalls
conducting the 2011 world premiere of Max’s opera
for students, Kommilitonen!, at the RAM, as one of the
most exciting projects of her career. ‘Though it’s a sad
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 21
30/03/2016 10:53:47
 RACHMANINOV Temple Church

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CO0316.indd 22 11/04/2016 11:18:31


SCOTT BARROW
moment, I am full of the happiest memories of that
brilliant collaboration: Max gave me the first page of
his first draft, with a wonderful tribute and signature.
I had it framed and it hangs proudly on the walls of
my study.’
After the forthcoming Poppea, Glover will turn her
focus to Handel, leading Dartington Summer School’s
Big Choir and Baroque Orchestra in Alexander’s Feast,
a prospect to which she looks forward with relish.
‘It’s a wonderful “chorus opera”,’ she says, ‘and for
so many reasons, not least – speaking as a “prima le
parole” person – because Dryden’s text is so amazing.
Handel could probably have set Three Blind Mice and
it would have been brilliant, but even when it’s his
fourth language (which English is) he does respond
to brilliant text, as he did with Milton in L’Allegro, il
Penseroso ed il Moderato.’ Glover has form with the
latter: her collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance
Group, conducting L’Allegro for his company with
the English National Opera Orchestra at the London
Coliseum in 2010, garnered rave reviews. ‘Those two
scores set Handel quite apart,’ she continues. ‘He
might not have understood the nature and nuance of
every word, but he certainly understood the meaning.
It’s a perfect piece for Dartington – the choruses are
astonishing, it’s a manageable length, there are oppor-
tunities for three great soloists, and for the orchestra
it’s lovely to play. What’s not to like?’
Handel is occupying a lot of Glover’s thoughts at
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_020-024_F_Kaye Glover T.indd 23
SLUG
the moment, and not just because of the forthcom- Jane Glover conducts
the massed ranks of the
ing Alexander’s Feast: fitting in research around her BCI Chorus
conducting and teaching engagements, she is two-
thirds of the way through preparing a book on the
composer: ‘There is an angle – I can’t really tell you
precisely because I don’t want to let any cats out of the
bag, but broadly it’s about Handel in London – which
is most of his years. I’m very aware, as I was when I
wrote my book on Mozart, that the field is very well
mined already, with many brilliant books: I haven’t
discovered anything new, but I think when you shine
your own lamp on this particular field from another
angle, you highlight different things; and obviously as
a practitioner, I’ve conducted an awful lot of Handel
– that, and the whole performance world, of which he
was so much a part, will have some bearing on it.’
Handel scholarship and performance, as advanced
as it is today, prompts a reflection on how far things
have progressed since the pioneering work of the
Handel Opera Society (1955-85) and its music direc-
tor Charles Farncombe. ‘Performance practice has
come on so much since the days when, year after year,
we used to troop off to see them at Sadler’s Wells,’ says
Glover. ‘But weren’t we lucky to have it? Charles did us
all such a service, but yes, the two things that I think
have really contributed to where we are now are what
we call HIP [Historically Informed Performance]
and the rise and rise… and rise of the counter-tenor:
they are literally getting higher and higher, aren’t
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 23
30/03/2016 10:54:12
 JANE GLOVER
they? There is nothing they can’t do now in the way
of castrato roles. It’s very exciting – all of Handel is
now recorded and accessible: wherever you go in the
world, look at opera house schedules and Handel is
there – it’s great!’
Glover’s career has clearly been enriched by her
work in North America. Since 2001 she has directed
Chicago’s Music of the Baroque [‘I have learned to
say, “Ba-roke”!’] – a 60-strong ensemble of players,
mainly from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and
Lyric Opera, and local professional singers – which
draws audiences from across the Chicago metro-
politan area, performing at the Harris Theatre in
Millennium Park, and other local venues. ‘They’re
not “HIP” players, but a bit like the Academy of St
Martin-in-the-Fields, they’re the best players in
Chicago – for them, it’s often the third session in
their day. We do a lot of 17th- and 18th-century
music: they love it, and we have a very loyal audi-
ence. Our choir is professional: we pay them well
and we train them well, under our wonderful chorus
master, William Jon Gray. They’re not operatic
voices, but the soprano sound has guts: they make
a thrilling sound, and are incredibly malleable – I
can do anything with them, and in the last work we
did, Judas Maccabaeus, their passion for it made the
whole thing a great joy.’
Glover also works with Berkshire Choral
International (BCI), based in Sheffield,
Massachusetts. Established in 1982, BCI operates
Dartington’s Big Choir
rather like a ‘Dartington-on-tour’, offering amateur
in rehearsal singers week-long immersive choral experiences in
KATE MOUNT
Jane Glover will conduct The Big Choir in Handel’s Alexander’s Feast at Dartington International Summer School 2016 week 2
(6-13 August). Book a place by calling +44 01803 847080 or online at bit.ly/1RkFrMe
24 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_020-024_F_Kaye Glover T.indd 24
culturally rich locations in the US and abroad. Last
year, Glover trained them for what proved to be an
outstandingly successful performance of Britten’s War
Requiem – all in the space of a week. Paying tribute
to the dedication and standards of today’s amateur
choruses in the US and in the UK, she notes that in
the case of Britten, ‘You need to put in the work, but
when you have, at any level, it is just so rewarding.
The thing about Britten is that, like Mozart, he chal-
lenges and pushes you, but he never defeats you.’
In the run-up to the Dartington Alexander’s Feast,
during July, Glover will train and conduct the BCI
Chorus in performances of Haydn’s Theresienmesse
and Schubert’s Mass in E flat in the Great Hall of the
Vienna Konzerthaus.
The tour of Jane Glover’s international horizons
concludes and we are back in the elegant surround-
ings of the RAM. She brims with enthusiasm for
her work with Royal Academy Opera, but is realistic
about the benefits of stepping down as director, not
least for her other commitments and that Handel
book which is bubbling away in the background. ‘It
is a vortex here: the standard is incredible, and it’s
refreshing to be involved with young talent at this
stage, especially if I can impart anything to it, and
also humbling.’
www.janeglover.co.uk; www.berkshirechoral.org;
www.dartington.org; www.ram.ac.uk
Graeme Kay is a former editor of Classical Music,
Opera Now, and BBC Music magazines. He is
currently a multiplatform producer for BBC Radio 3.
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 10:54:30
 Gail Archer
ORGANIST

European Tour 2016

June 15 Organfestival, Brno, Czech Republic
June 23 St. Nicholas Lutheran Church Kiel, Germany
June 26 St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Odessa, Ukraine
June 29 - 30 North Caucasus State Philharmonic,
Kislovodsk, Russia
July 2 Organalia, Provincia di Torino,
Church of San Damiano d'Asti, Italy
July 3 St. Paul's Within the Walls, Rome, Italy
July 9 Dunblane Cathedral, Dunblane, Scotland
July 13 Holmens Kirche, Copenhagen, Denmark
July 16 Festival d'Organo di Alessandria,
Parish Church of Garbagna, Italy
July 25 Festival d'Organo, Ravenna, Italy
August 13 Lutheran Church of Annaberg-Buchholz,
Germany
August 14 St. Georgen Kirche, Glauchau, Germany
August 21 Lutheran Church of Radebeul, Germany

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CO0316.indd 25 11/04/2016 11:18:33

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26 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_026-030_Ambrosino T.indd 26 30/03/2016 10:57:12


Plymouth ho
A structural renovation of Seattle’s oldest Protestant congregation enhances the
brilliance of C.B. Fisk’s new French-inspired organ. PHOTOS DANA SIGALL / C.B. FISK, INC.
T
he new Fisk organ Opus 140 at Plymouth
Church is an intriguing addition to the
Seattle scene. As that region is rich in new
organs, the Fisk aims to be different, by its emula-
tion of the landmark organs of 19th-century France.
Certainly it is a vast improvement on its predecessor,
a Schlicker installed behind a vast, pipeless, cloth
screen. (The poor thing resembled a giant radio won
on a quiz show.) In the church’s former meat-locker
acoustics, the old organ made little impact. In prepa-
ration to receive the Fisk, Plymouth underwent a
remarkable acoustical transformation. As renovated,
the mid-century room, all white and light, still has
a cool Nordic feel, but the sound has become bril-
liantly alive and evenly responsive. Visually, the
new Fisk echoes a grammar of design begun at the
University of Buffalo in 1989 and riffed upon for the
last quarter-century.
The musician at Plymouth Church, Douglas
Cleveland, was anxious that the new instrument
should not merely echo the language of the French
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_026-030_Ambrosino T.indd 27
GALLERY
romantic organ, but that it should not be over-
powering, as some Fisk organs are perceived to be.
Moreover, this would hardly be Fisk’s first essay in
French romanticism: there is the comprehensive
concert organ for Rice University completed in 1997
(a collaborative project with Manuel Rosales), and
that at Oberlin University finished in 2001 (a solo
effort). But the Seattle project comes at a different
time, in the arc of a company now achieving middle
age. The older staff, who all trained personally with
Charles Fisk, are eyeing retirement; current presi-
dent Steven Dieck will step down next year, and the
accomplished senior reed voicer Michael Kraft will
take his place.
Insecurity has never been much present in the Fisk
canon, but their position within the field has shifted.
For a time, riding on the success of their spectacular
1992 concert organ in the Dallas Symphony Hall,
many jobs simply came Fisk’s way, and custom-
ers were content to wait. More recently, it hasn’t
been so easy. Naturally, there were challengers in
The three-manual
amphitheatre-style
console is eminently
comfortable and
logically arranged
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 27
30/03/2016 10:57:28
 GALLERY
The lowest notes of the the field, while there also arose a feeling that Fisk’s
32 Contre Bombarde
have wood resonators. French essays might have spoken with too much of
The plexiglas inspec- an American accent, possibly even a boorish one.
tion windows allow the
tongues to be observed in When Dennis Keene wanted a French-type organ for
action the Church of the Ascension in New York, he went
Fisk routinely makes 1:16 straight to France and Pascal Quoirin. Keith Toth
models of their organs in at New York’s Brick Church had similar goals, and
context
opted for Casavant, getting a best-of-breed effort
from the final days of Jean-Louis Coignet and the
site voicing of Jean-Sébastien Dufour. More recently,
Christ the King in Dallas, also wanting a French-style
organ, went to Juget-Sinclair, whose instrument was
featured recently in these pages.
Thus, the Seattle contract was a boon, but the
customer still had concerns. Fisk solved the quan-
dary in the time-tested manner of the middle-aged:
they had an affair with a Frenchman – specifically,
the urbane organ builder Bertrand Cattiaux, who
integrated into Fisk’s tonal team for the final site
voicing. Cattiaux had previously worked with one
of Fisk’s younger voicing talents, Nami Hamada,
and his easy manner and solid knowledge (even-
tually) put everyone at ease. Cattiaux’s late entry
into the process, however, meant that his input was
purely tonal, well after scaling and shop voicing
was completed. Indeed, inside this organ can be
seen evidence of post-construction pipe changes
(formerly chimneyed flutes now solidly canistered,
various re-scalings). If I surmise correctly, the
Cattiaux influence is heard principally in the fonds
d’orgue, which come across as less driven than Fisk
norms and harmonise into a more natural form of
ascendancy. The tierce options between Grand Orgue
28 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_026-030_Ambrosino T.indd 28
and Positif are beautifully balanced, and the wide
and shallow swell enclosures, coupled to the superb
shutter fronts, give particularly the Positif flues a
crispness and articulation reminiscent of unenclosed
ranks. The strings have intensity without becoming
nail-biters; those of the Positif are warmer and float-
ing. And the reeds continue a seam of Fisk excellence
across all spectra, from a graceful, plangent Cor
anglais, a not over-loud Hautbois, and a Clarinette
just plucky enough to impersonate a cromorne if
needed. The chorus reeds are more refined than one
really ever finds in France, and yet no less thrilling:
first-class voicing right through.
The Great has a specification straight out of the
Cavaillé-Coll playbook, as does the Positif if it were
one that had received a few 20th-century additions
for Tournemire, Alain or Duruflé. The Récit seems
similarly standard issue until we arrive at the Carillon
I-III, a wide-scale compound register whose 22/3, 13/5
and especially 1 pitches have a real impact on the
tutti. Such are almost always found on the Positif;
placing this register in the Récit indelibly recalls the
1890 Cavaillé-Coll at St Ouen in Rouen, whose large
Récit has both Cornet V and Carillon I-III. At Rouen
the Carillon imparts an unmistakable piercing cry
to the treble of that department. Here, it seems
flutier, its balance to the reeds more muted. The
other stoplist oddity is the lack of an independent
Pedal 16 Bombarde. French romantic organs are
regimented in their provision of reeds. If a Grand
Orgue has a Trompette and Clairon, the Pédale will
have a Bombarde and a Trompette, even in an organ
of 19 stops. If the Grand Orgue has a Bombarde,
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 10:57:48
 GALLERY

Plymouth Congregational Church, Seattle

C.B. FISK OPUS 140 (2015)

I. GRAND ORGUE Plein jeu V Montre (from Gt) 16

Montre (façade) 16 Trompette  8 Soubasse16
Montre (façade) 8 Cor anglais 8 Flûte (ext.) 8
Gambe8 Clarinette8 Gambe (from Gt) 8
Flûte harmonique 8 Trémolo Bourdon (ext.) 8
Bourdon8 Flûte (ext.) 4
Prestant4 III. RÉCIT EXPRESSIF (ENCL.) Contre Bombarde (ext.) 32
Flûte ouverte 4 Quintaton16 Bombarde (from Gt) 16
Doublette2 Viole de gambe 8 Basson16
Plein jeu harmonique  II-VI Voix céleste 8 Trompette8
Plein jeu VI Flûte traversière 8
Cornet (A sharp0-f3) V Cor de Nuit 8 Couplers: II-I, III-I, III-II, I super, I-Ped,
Bombarde16 Dulciane4 II-Ped, III-Ped
Trompette8 Flûte octaviante 4 Vent flexible
Clairon4 Quinte22/3 Clochettes
Trémolo Octavin2
CarillonI-III Key action: direct mechanical except for
II. POSITIF EXPRESSIF (ENCL.) Basson16 large bass pipes
Bourdon16 Trompette8 Kowalyshyn Servopneumatic Lever
Principal8 Basson-Hautbois8 Stop action: electric solenoid
Salicional8 Voix humaine 8 Combination action by Solid State Organ
Unda maris (t.c) 8 Clairon4 Systems
Bourdon8 Trémolo Manuals 61 notes CC-c4, cowbone
Prestant4 Trémolo rapide naturals, ebony sharps
Flûte douce 4 Pedals 32 notes CC-g1
Nasard22/3 PÉDALE
Doublette2 Principal (ext. Gt) 32
Tierce  13/5 Contrebasse16

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 29

COMJ16_026-030_Ambrosino T.indd 29 30/03/2016 10:58:10

 GALLERY

Trompette and Clairon, it is the rare Pédale not

F isk’s servopheumatic lever acts like a sensitive Barker machine, on the action and couplers of
the lowest manual
Minimalist design conceals the entrance to the organ’s insides (below)
similarly equipped. In those portions of the music
where ‘anches Grand Orgue’ is drawn, almost always
the pedal coupler is engaged too, giving a full,
satisfying effect in both hands and feet, so generally
bass-aggressive are the manual reeds. Drawing
‘anches Pédale’ engages an entirely fresh army for the
feet; in some organs, particularly those at Toulouse
and Rouen, the resulting dominance of the pedal
line remains startling in power, no matter how many
times one has heard it before.
With a lone 16 Bombarde shared between Grand
Orgue and Pédale, the Seattle organ makes a compro-
mise. It remains for the independent 8 Trompette
and 32ft extension to provide that pedal drama; the
bass end of the Bombarde seems set more for ‘anches
Pédale’ than its manual role. Details like this remind
us that any essay with such a strong cultural impera-
tive can be seen through different lenses. Does it fulfil
its mission of trying to bring the land of grand wines
and duck fat 7,000 miles westward? Or, if we fall back
upon a more universal yardstick of appearance, action
and tone, is it simply a good organ? At some point
we no longer care whether the cassoulet is prepared
exactly as history dictates; we are more concerned
with whether it sets our modern taste buds ablaze.
Taken as a new organ, this is a mighty whopper.
It’s (slightly) less oppressive than other Fisk organs
because the flues are more restrained, while the grand
and glorious reeds are still clear and transparent.
Taken as an essay in the French style, much about it
gives a credible impression of what it aims to emulate.
In the end, though, something isn’t quite right.
Perhaps it’s the lack of slotted principals, and the
unmistakable colour and drive that element might
otherwise instil into the fonds d’orgues. Maybe it’s the
Grand Orgue 16 Bombarde jumping the gun on pedal
melodies. And maybe, in the end, in almost no French
church of this size would you be likely to hear an
organ this powerful. It is certainly possible to encoun-
ter organs this loud in France, Pugets especially. But
even the small(er) churches of Toulouse – Notre-
Dame de la Dalbade, Notre-Dame du Taur – with
organs of Seattle size are three to four times the cubic
volume of Plymouth Church. Head into a Plymouth-
sized church in France, and you’ll find a 14-stop organ
giving the impression of being much larger.
But that is quite a different thing, and in that
consideration we remember that we are in the US and
the Seattle organ is, after all, a Fisk. And a very good
one at that.

Boston-based pipe organ technician and adviser

Jonathan Ambrosino has contributed to Choir & Organ
since 1998.

30 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_026-030_Ambrosino T.indd 30 30/03/2016 10:58:37

 Glorious
sights and sounds

info@dobsonorgan.com
200 N. Illinois Street, Lake City, IA 51449 USA

www.dobsonorgan.com

Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd.

Lake City, Iowa

CO0316.indd 31 11/04/2016 11:18:34

 ALBAN NOTES ONLY
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St Albans Cathedral

Alban Notes charts the previously untold history of the choirs and musicians of
St Albans Cathedral, from foundation through to the present day.
Malcolm G Bury, a St Alban ex-chorister himself, examines the unique
environment in which the cathedral choirs have developed, and shows how
successive choral generations have contributed to the rich musical and spiritual
life of the cathedral.
Illustrated throughout with colour and black and white photographs.
Includes personal recollections from the author, choristers, masters and more.

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11:53:42

IN PRAISE OF SONG
Jeremy Dibble explores the hidden richness and diversity of the English
Romantic partsong
It is not too much to say that his ‘songs for singing in
the open air,’ so redolent of blue sky and sunshine and
nature’s freshness, worked a revolution, or, to speak
more accurately, inaugurated a revival, in the choral
music of England, the influence of which is ever
widening and extending. The appearance of these
delightful works was coeval with the commencement
of that movement which has since resulted in the
establishment of choral societies and more modest
singing-classes in every district throughout the length
and breadth of the land.1
T
his assessment of Mendelssohn’s partsongs
and the deeply influential part they played
in the repertoire of English unaccompanied
choral music cannot be overestimated. The
entire compass of Mendelssohn’s choral style, his
understanding of vocal range, dexterity and texture
undoubtedly captured the English imagination
and proved a worthy successor to a familiar
18th-century repertoire led by Handel. Yet Frost’s
defining of English Romantic partsong purely in
Mendelssohnian terms (and in this regard one thinks
particularly of the opp. 41, 48, 59, 88 and 100 sets for
mixed voices) is misleading and fails to acknowledge
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_033-036_F_Dibble T.indd 33
SLUG
other contributory factors distinctive to this A Village Choir, painted by

Thomas Webster c.1847,
country’s history of unaccompanied choral music. captures the popularity
Prior to the emergence and popularity of the part- of amateur singing by the
19th century
song in England there were at least two important
traditions, that of the glee, which sprang from the
mid-18th century, and, even earlier than this, the
revival of the madrigal tradition. Both traditions were
given life by the forming of social institutions: the
madrigal by Pepusch’s Academy of Ancient Music
(1710) and the founding of the Madrigal Society
(1741), the glee by the formation of clubs in London
(the Noblemen’s and Gentlemen’s Catch Club in
1762) and many provincial capitals (the Hibernian
Catch Club, founded in 1680, and the Canterbury
Catch Club of 1779 are two notable examples).
Although the tendency has been to accentuate the
differences of genre between the madrigal and the
glee – the former associated with a more ‘serious’
demeanour, the latter with light-hearted entertain-
ment – as David Johnson has demonstrated2, both
shared similar structural (episodic) characteristics
as well as a colourful treatment of words using both
imitative and homophonic techniques. And certainly,
by the end of the 18th century, the glee had estab-
lished itself as a more assured idiom in the vividly
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 33
30/03/2016 11:01:06
 COURTESY BRISTOL CHAMBER CHOIR
ENGLISH PARTSONGS

The advent of cheap scores allowed groups like Bristol

COURTESY BRISTOL CHAMBER CHOIR

Madrigal Society (above) to explore the repertoire. They

rehearsed in the Montague Tavern (left and below) and
their members included Robert Pearsall (bottom left)

illustrative ‘Here in a cool Grott’ (1779) by Lord

Mornington, which drew mention from Stanford for
its eminence3. Moreover, both were enjoyed with the
lubrication of alcohol and food in public houses. By
the 19th century Glee Clubs and Madrigal Societies,
whose members invariably consisted of choral vicars
from the cathedrals, sang both repertoires liberally
at their meetings and the advent of cheap published
vocal music in score (by Novello and others) allowed
both glees and madrigals to become widely known
and performed. This was certainly the case with the
so-called Bristol Madrigal Society (BMS), founded in
1837, which met at the Montague Tavern.
Among members of the BMS was the antiquarian
Robert Pearsall, whose many unaccompanied choral
COURTESY BRISTOL CHAMBER CHOIR

COURTESY BRISTOL CHAMBER CHOIR

works featuring glees, madrigals and the lately-

adopted style of the continental partsong exuded the
new spirit of modern romanticism. Pearsall is best
known for his arrangement of the macaronic carol
‘In dulci jubilo’ (1834), a wonderfully imaginative
madrigalian recreation for solo voices and choir, a
transformative zeal also evident in the six-part ‘Sumer
is acumen in’ (undated). But his many madrigals,
among them ‘Light of my Soul’ (1838), ‘Great God
of Love’ (1839) and ‘Lay garland’ (1840), reveal not
only a skilful handling of polyphonic methods, but a
highly developed sense of dissonance and suspension

34 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_033-036_F_Dibble T.indd 34 30/03/2016 11:01:22


which, as Nicholas Temperley has noted, runs ‘to
lengths undreamt of by Wilbye or Monteverdi’4.
Numerous partsongs, among them ‘The Hardy
Norseman’, ‘O who will o’er the downs so free’ and the
ballad-dialogue ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ (for ten voices),
were especially popular during the 19th century, but
there are hidden gems, not least a five-part, deeply
expressive setting (styled a ‘glee’ by the composer) of
Shakespeare’s ‘Take, O take those lips away’ (1836).
The intermingling of glee, madrigal and partsong
styles can be observed in John Stainer’s little-known
collection of madrigals which he wrote for the
Magdalen College Madrigal Society while he was
organist at the college. Published in Oxford by private
subscription in c.1865, few copies now survive. The
stanzaic ‘Love’s servile lot’ (Robert Southwell) is a
homophonic partsong but expands into six parts for
its more polyphonic conclusion. Another partsong,
‘The Castle by the Sea’, is a setting of Longfellow’s
translation of Uhland’s ironic (and deeply moving)
narrative and is a dialogue between two five-part
choirs who join forces in a powerful threnody. This,
along with several other works in this collection, are
notable for their harmonic experiment. The five-part
‘The frozen heart’ is a tour de force of invertible coun-
terpoint, though it is its dissonant harmonic resource
which sticks in the mind. The same may be said of
the more genuinely madrigalian pieces, ‘Dry your
sweet cheek’ (a8), ‘Disappointment’ (a6) and the two
balletts ‘Encouragement to a lover’ and ‘The Queen of
May’ (both a6).
In 1864 the English 19th-century madrigal was
given additional fillip by the Bristol Madrigal Society’s
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_033-036_F_Dibble T.indd 35
ENGLISH PARTSONGS
announcement of a prize. The competition attracted
no fewer than 95 entries. The winner was a six-part
setting of Thomas Watson’s ‘Thine eyes so bright’
by Henry Leslie, then well known in London for the
performances of madrigals and partsongs by his
eponymous choir. The two other prizewinning works,
W. J. Westbrook’s ‘All is not gold that shineth bright
in show’ (a5) and Henry Lahee’s ‘Hark, how the birds
on ev’ry bloomy spray’ (a6), are worth exploring,
but most of all, Stainer’s unpublished setting (a8) of
Spenser’s sonnet ‘Like as a ship that through the ocean
wide’ (which did not win a prize) gives us ample
evidence of how the fusion of madrigal and partsong
could produce a new romantic genre, full of passion,
imaginative texture and arresting chromatic harmony.
Enthusiasm for the partsong, and for an idiom
which promoted an extension of the lieder tradition
for unaccompanied voices and in which the constitu-
ent components of melody and harmony (invariably
in four parts) took precedence over contrapuntal inge-
nuity undoubtedly gathered momentum in the 1860s;
and of the numerous works by Macfarren, Smart,
Leslie, Benedict and others (and Novello’s publica-
tions run to some 18 volumes5) perhaps the most
significant is the collection of six partsongs by Sullivan
of 1868, which includes ‘Now the long day closes’,
‘The Beleaguered’ and ‘Parting Gleams’. The madrigal
was, however, by no means dead. One of Stanford’s
first secular unaccompanied choral works was a
madrigalian setting ‘To Choris’, which he wrote for the
Cambridge University Musical Society in c.1873; and
the desire to reconnect with the Elizabethan ‘golden
age’ is clear from his three sets of Elizabethan Pastorals
Pearsall’s ‘Great God
of Love’ (l) shows a
highly developed sense
of dissonance and
suspension; and Stainer’s
‘The Castle by the Sea’ is
notable for its harmonic
experimentation
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 35
30/03/2016 11:04:53
 ENGLISH PARTSONGS
Stainer’s ‘Like as a ship’
(left) shows how madrigal
and partsong fused to
create a new romantic
genre; and Parry’s ‘Who
can dwell with greatness’
combines expressive
homophony with
imitation and antiphony
English
Romantic
Madrigals
Choir of Royal
Holloway / Rupert
Gough (dir)
Hyperion CDA 68140
To be released on
27 May 2016
36 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_033-036_F_Dibble T.indd 36
(1892-97) written for Lionel Benson’s Magpie
Minstrels, a mixed choir founded in 1886 to special-
ise in the performance of renaissance and modern
British unaccompanied vocal music. Parry, too, got
in on the act with his Six Lyrics from Elizabethan Song
Books (1897), Six Modern Lyrics (1897) and Eight
Four-Part Songs (1898), as did Hurlstone in ‘A Litany’
(1899). A culmination of this Elizabethan spirit can
be witnessed in the Choral Songs for Queen Victoria,
written for the monarch’s 80th birthday in 1899 and
published in a limited edition of 100 copies. In a
desire to recreate The Triumphs of Oriana in terms
of its tribute to the queen, its musical editor, Walter
Parratt, wisely left the question of genre – madrigal,
glee and partsong, or a diverse diffusion of all three
– entirely to the 13 composers who contributed.
Elgar’s ‘To her beneath whose stedfast star’ and Arthur
Murray Goodhart’s ‘Lady on the silver throne’, both
symphonic in scope, are fine partsongs; Stainer’s
six-part ‘Flora’s Queen’ is thoroughly madrigalian
and consciously apes Gibbons in its final section;
Stanford’s ‘Out in the windy west’, also for six-part
choir, is styled ‘madrigale con alcune licenze’, while
Parry’s five-part ‘Who can dwell with greatness’
conflates elements of expressive homophony with
passages of imitation and antiphony.
By the end of the 19th century the ethos of the
partsong had become a more challenging idiom in
which the English language was now as much a vital
national component in the shaping of style as was
the environment of the English choral tradition, and
the well-established competitive festivals at which
partsongs were habitually sung, Parry’s neglected
eight-part ‘In praise of song’ (commissioned for
the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Competitive Festival
of 1904) and Elgar’s ‘Evening Scene’ (Morecambe
Festival 1906) being two prime examples. Indeed,
the ‘Edwardian’ partsong, invariably written for a
large choir or choral society, could now vary widely
between the most poignant and eloquent miniature,
as one finds in Stanford’s highly original ‘The Blue
Bird’ (1911) and Parry’s ‘Sorrow and Pain’ (1909), and
imposing settings of symphonic aspiration such as
Stanford’s ‘God and the universe’ (1906) for double
choir, Elgar’s orchestrally conceived ‘Go, song of
mine’ (1909) and Alexander Campbell Mackenzie’s
‘My thoughts would drink those echoes’ (from Four
Partsongs 1910-12). Yet, though the madrigal as a
genre may have been eclipsed by the new earnestness
of partsong composition, it still remained a potent
source of inspiration, as is evidenced by Stanford’s
setting of Milton’s ‘On Time’ (styled a ‘choral song’)
and Parry’s setting of Keats’s ballad ‘La belle dame
sans merci’ (styled a ‘madrigal’). Composed in 1914
for the Bristol Madrigal Society as commemora-
tive pieces for the Jubilee of the Society’s conductor,
Daniel Wilberforce Rootham, and sung by the Society
in a ‘Ladies’ Night’ programme given on 14 January
1915 in the Victoria Rooms, Bristol, under Rootham’s
direction, both these colourful essays represent the
summit of a sophisticated 19th-century hybrid genre
whose artistic potential and fecundity would be felt
well into the 20th century.
References
1. Frost, H. Frederick, ‘Part-song’ in Grove 2 (Macmillan:
London, 1913).
2. Johnson, D., ‘The 18th-Century Glee’, Musical Times, cxx
(March 1979), 201.
3. Stanford, C.V., Pages from an Unwritten Diary (Edward
Arnold: London, 1914), 63.
4. Temperley, N., ‘Pearsall, Robert Lucas’, Grove Music Online
updated 16 Oct 2013.
5. See Novello’s Part-Song Book: A Collection of Four-Part
Songs and Madrigals (London, 1885). It is nevertheless inter-
esting that ‘madrigals’ was still retained in the title.
A Professor of Musicology at Durham University,
Jeremy Dibble has a research specialism in British
music of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 11:05:14
 BIRMINGHAM
CONSERVATOIRE

“As the Earth Turns” –

Birmingham Conservatoire Messiaen Forum
Friday 8 July 2016
Birmingham Conservatoire and St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, UK
Join us for an unmissable day of events that reexamines
the life and music of one the 20th century’s most important
composers, Olivier Messiaen.
Distinguished organist, Colin Mark Andrews is one of only a Colin Andrews (credit: Alain

handful of musicians to have recorded Messiaen’s complete

Barker, Indiana University)

organ works and offers both a masterclass and recital.

Leading Messiaen authority, scholar and author, Christopher
Dingle, whose orchestration of Messiaen’s Un oiseau des
arbres de Vie was recently premiered at the BBC Proms,
Chris Dingle

Olivier Messiaen delivers a fascinating lecture.

Multi-award-winning Head of Organ Studies, Henry Fairs, who performed Messiaen’s
complete organ works in 2008, gives an illustrated talk on the composer’s musical language
in La Nativité. Henry Fairs

For further details and booking, please visit:

www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/messiaen-forum

Max Reger Festival

Friday 14 - Tuesday 18 October 2016
Birmingham Conservatoire, St Chad’s Cathedral
and Birmingham Town Hall, UK
This five-day festival will focus on different aspects of
Reger’s compositions and those who influenced him,
as well as placing his organ works in the wider context John Thwaites Thomas Trotter (credit: Adrian
Burrows)

of his chamber and solo music.

Lectures and performances will be given by
conservatoire musicians, scholars and distinguished
guests, including Thomas Trotter, Johannes Yue Yu: Reger’s Suite no.1 Johannes Goritzki (portrait by
Esther Elenor)

Goritzki and Ulrich Walther.

For further details and booking, please visit:
www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/reger-festival
Max Reger Elsabe Raath: Reger’s Suite no.3 Anna Barsegjana: Reger’s Ulrich Walther (credit: Aleksey
Suite no.2 Vylegzhanin)

CO0316.indd 37 11/04/2016 11:18:35

 Oxford Hymn Settings for Organists 2
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Oxford organ music is available from music shops or from OUP’s website. www.oup.com
US customers buy from Edition Peters, OUP’s US distributor.

Choir & Organ presents

THE NEOCLASSICAL ORGAN AND

THE GREAT ARISTIDE CAVAILLÉ-COLL
ORGAN OF SAINT-SULPICE, PARIS

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In this finely analytical survey of the Cavaillé-Coll organ in
PHOTOGRAPHY © PHILIPPE DUB-ATTENTI

Saint-Sulpice, Paris, Daniel Roth considers the instrument in both its

19th- and 20th-century contexts, and argues that it is a suitable vehicle
for interpreting music from a wide circle of repertoire. Chapters include:
• Techniques used by neoclassical organ builders, including the
importance of Victor Gonzalez
• The path traced by Cavaillé-Coll in the 19th Century, including the
differences between the organs of Notre-Dame and Saint-Sulpice
• An interview with author Daniel Roth

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CO0316.indd 38 11/04/2016 11:18:36

 Master builder
His organ music is of central importance in the organist’s repertoire. What is it that
makes Franck’s output such a major building-block in the 19th-century canon?
Stephen Farr explains. PHOTOS COURTESY FUGUE STATE FILMS

C
omposed in a period when
the quality of French organ
music was at something of a
low point, Franck’s numerically modest
but musically significant body of works
occupies a position of central importance
in the 19th-century repertoire. Apart
from a handful of minor short works
and juvenilia, and variant versions of
major works – the Fantaisie in C, in
particular, has a complex source history
– the canonical works are generally
acknowledged to be as follows: the Six
pièces (comprising the Fantaisie in C;
Grande pièce symphonique; Pastorale;
Prélude, fugue et variation; Prière; Final);
the Trois pièces (Fantaisie in A; Cantabile;
Pièce heröique): and the Trois chorals.
There are several intriguing
performance practice issues associated
with Franck’s organ music, and the
conscientious interpreter will want to
consult some useful secondary literature.
Rollin Smith’s two volumes on the organ
works (Towards an authentic interpretation
of the organ works of César Franck and
Playing the organ works of César Franck)
remain essential reading, along with
Archbold and Peterson’s collection of
essays, French organ repertoire from the
Revolution to Franck and Widor. Issues of
The American Organist of April 1985 and
November/December 1990 contain several
important articles, while Robert James
Stove’s César Franck: his life and times is
also particularly valuable, as much for its
bibliography as for its thought-provoking
comments on performance traditions
in the organ music – even if some of the
prose inclines to the purple.
Before embarking on a discussion
of specific interpretative issues, the

César Franck

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 SLUG

40 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

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The Cavaillé-Coll organ in Ste Clotilde, Paris
question of reliable editions must first be
considered. Laying aside the question of
specialised editions that seek to unravel
the compositional history of works like
the Fantaisie in C, the player’s choice of
score needs to be informed by a range of
factors. In Daniel Roth’s view, the Durand/
Schoenwerk edition of the Six pièces from
1880, the Durand Trois pièces of 1883 and
Durand’s Trois chorals of 1891 offer the
most reliable texts. But most players will
encounter the score published by Durand
and reissued by Dover in a widely available
cheap modern reprint. This presents an
essentially reliable text for general use,
although there are some errors, and in
particular the 1956 landscape format of
His improvisation sketches are so imaginatively
coloured as to suggest that they were intended
not solely for the organ in Ste Clotilde
the editions has many misprints, some
of them serious. Marie-Louise Jaquet-
Langlais summarises these discrepancies
in Archbold and Peterson, and those using
the Dover volume should also consult the
useful lists of misprints contained in TAO
1985 and Rollin Smith.
In recent years other ‘urtext’ editions
have appeared, most notably from Henle
and Schott/Universal (the latter is espe-
cially useful for its full editorial notes).
Archbold and Peterson gives a valu-
able summary of available editions, but
players should note that certain versions
should be approached with a degree of
circumspection. These include Harvey
Grace for Novello (which recasts Franck’s
original markings in terms of the English
romantic instrument) and – somewhat
paradoxically, in view of his line of musical
descent from Franck via Guilmant and
Pierné – Marcel Dupré. Dupré’s preface
outlines his position that the notation of
Franck’s works reflects what he describes
as ‘lack of precision’ in contemporary
performing style, and he corrects these
perceived deficiencies by means of modi-
fications to phrasing, ties and slurs, and
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_039-043_F_Farr and Freestyle T.indd 41
CÉSAR FRANCK
fundamental aspects of the distribution of of course, the same thing as knowing how
parts between manuals and pedals. These Franck played freely). Dupré suggests
editions shouldn’t be too hastily dismissed. that there was a general sense of impreci-
In their time they performed a useful role, sion in organ playing of Franck’s era, but
and in their own right give useful insights Tournemire’s remarks on interpretation
into performance traditions; but they’re and his own practice suggest something
not always close to Franck’s intentions. more sophisticated, a constant flexibility in
From editions, it’s a short step to tempo, with emphasis on non-harmonic
interpretation, and this is where things notes and a penchant for lingering on the
become more involved. Marie-Louise highest point of phrases.
Jaquet-Langlais identifies four distinct Questions of registration will also occupy
traditions of performance: the schools the thoughtful interpreter. The instrument
of Dupré, Langlais, Tournemire, and with which Franck’s music is indivis-
Tournemire-Duruflé (in the Trois chorals, ibly associated is of course the legendary
which Duruflé edited for Durand in 1973). Cavaillé-Coll organ of Ste Clotilde in Paris,
Even superficial acquaintance with each inaugurated in 1859. The exact composition
approach reveals that in many fundamen- of the stoplist has been the subject of some
tal aspects (not least tempo: Archbold debate, but Rollin Smith provides details of
and Peterson contains a fascinating table its earliest form. The only evidence surviv-
ing of the sound of the original organ is
Tournemire’s recording of the Chorals in
1930: in 1933 the instrument underwent
substantial rebuilding and enlargement.
More than one commentator has pointed
out that the extent to which inspiration for
Franck’s published registrations was derived
from the Ste Clotilde organ is overstated;
collating the tempi of recordings of the Franck’s improvisation sketches are much
works) there is considerable disagree- more imaginatively coloured, suggesting
ment. In the end, of course, each player that the published works were intended for
must form their own view on the valid- a ‘general’ organ type rather than inspired
ity of these traditions, but Rollin Smith’s solely by the qualities of the Ste Clotilde
books are of inestimable value in collecting organ. Even the absence of certain couplers
(for example) Tournemire’s observations at Ste Clotilde – notably Récit-Pedal and
on Franck performance (particularly Récit-GO, which occasioned the left hand
concerning the use of rubato) and also in and pedal doublings found in several of
collating details of the interpretative habits Franck’s works – was not an uncommon
of performers from the various schools feature on similar Cavaillé-Coll instruments.
of Franck performance. One commenta- Franck’s registrations are specified in
tor remarked that it’s difficult to imagine the normal French romantic manner,
how freely Franck played (which is not, with registration controlled by a system of
FRANCK IN THE CITY
The rising stars of this year’s John Hill Memorial Organ Recitals series
each include a work by César Franck in their programmes:
Grande pièce symphonique (Freddie James, 3 May)
Choral no.3 in A minor (Gabriele Marinoni, 10 May)
Prélude, fugue & variation (David Cassan, 17 May)
Pièce héroïque (Pierre Queval, 24 May)
Cantabile (Zita Nauratyill, 31 May)
Recitals are at 1pm in St Lawrence Jewry, City of London EC2V 5AA. Admission free.
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 41
30/03/2016 11:38:11
 CÉSAR FRANCK
Ex.1 Choral in A minor: stretch of tenth
Exx.3 & 3a Examples of fingering supplied by Franck
Ex.4 Opening bars of Prière with widely spaced manual textures
Ex.5 Choral in A minor: a possible context for the use of notes communes
ventils which supplied wind to groups of
stops when activated, enabling the addi-
tion and subtraction of registers without
direct manipulation of stop controls.
Their most important function was to
effect the addition/removal of the reeds
(anches) of each manual, but it’s impor-
tant to remember that it was not only
reeds which were classified as Anches. The
ventil for the Anches Récit at Ste Clotilde,
for example, added Flûte Octaviante
and Octavin along with Trompette and
Clarion. Despite one or two strikingly
42 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_039-043_F_Farr and Freestyle T.indd 42
Ex.2 Choral in B minor: stretch of tenth
unusual sonorities (notably the passage
for 16ft Bourdon and 4ft Clairon in the
Grande pièce) Franck’s published registra-
tions are not hugely colourful, and show a
fondness for particular sounds – Hautbois/
Trompette solos, for example. The essen-
tial point remains that the fundamental
pitches of Franck’s original markings
must be preserved – for example, by not
drawing 16ft reeds in the Récit tutti unless
indicated – but beyond that, the main
challenge is in finding equivalents to
Cavaillé-Coll sonorities. The frequent lack
of a Positif equivalent in British instru-
ments, and the development of an effective
means of reproducing the effect of adding
the anches of the various divisions remain
particular challenges. Many Great reeds,
for example, lack the brilliance of their
French equivalents; using upperwork, or
coupling through registers from another
division, may give a better effect than
following the literal instruction of the
scores. The ear must be the arbiter, guided
by close acquaintance with the general
character of the Cavaillé-Coll sonority.
How to play once the sounds are chosen?
Legato presents a real challenge for most
players. Franck had big hands, and the
organ works contain frequent stretches
of a tenth, beside many places where the
part-writing is awkward to manage easily.
Examples of passages which present diffi-
culty can be found in the A minor Choral
bars. 45-47, and the B minor Choral bars
35-36. It’s often possible to recast such
passages (as Joseph Bonnet did) to circum-
vent the difficulty and make the cultivation
of a seamless line more feasible: legato
may well have been the default touch for
Franck, as his fingerings and pedallings
for a Braille edition of works by J.S. Bach
suggest (see Karen Hastings’s article at
http://bit.ly/1Rh5qnR), and he supplied
fingerings for a small number of passages
in the organ music. But in one especially
notorious passage – the opening of the
Prière, where even Vierne resorted to using
the pedal to help with stretches – a particu-
lar expressive effect results from playing on
manuals alone and embracing the effect of
struggle and the breaks in legato as part of
the expressive force of the music. The tech-
nique is the expression, as Carlos Kleiber
so memorably said.
Closely related to the legato question is
the issue of notes communes. Within this
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30/03/2016 11:38:30

convention, notes of the same pitch occur-
ring in different voices in successive chords
should be tied, rather than separated as the
letter of the notation indicates. It’s a device
which enables the cultivation of an endless
cantabile, but, as Daniel Roth points out,
it can cause aural confusion over details
of voice-leading. This approach derives
from the Lemmens school of teaching, but
it’s important to note that Franck trained
before the use of notes communes in organ
pedagogy arrived in Paris (possibly in
1853, but certainly with Widor in 1891).
Whatever the aural appeal of its applica-
tion, the historical position is not entirely
straightforward; but as with other conflict-
ing views on the ‘correct’ performance of
this repertoire, players shouldn’t miss out
on some of the finest music written for the
instrument for fear of transgressing some
unwritten convention of performance prac-
tice. Robert Stove’s analogy of the donkey
who starves to death, unable to choose
between two equally appealing bales of hay,
is a useful thing to bear in mind.
Stephen Farr is director of music at St Paul’s
Church, Knightsbridge. He previously held
posts at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,
Christ Church and Worcester Colleges,
Oxford, and Winchester and Guildford
cathedrals. His performing career encom-
passes works as a solo recitalist, continuo
player and accompanist with many leading
choirs and ensembles.
Monument to Franck in Samuel Rousseau Sq, Paris
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_039-043_F_Farr and Freestyle T.indd 43
Freestyle BY GRAEME KAY
Stalking the mystery organist; and organs at the opera
F inding myself in beautiful downtown Prague this spring,
I was pleasantly surprised to see that, apart from solicita-
tions to boat trips and jazz clubs, most of the flyers pressed
into my hand as I joined the throngs crossing the historic Charles Bridge were for
classical concerts. An advert for a concert by Musica Philharmonica at the Clam-
Gallasovsky baroque palace – which naturally included the city’s signature tune,
Smetana’s Vltava – provided time-poor tourists with the helpful information, ‘60 mins’.
Another panel stated simply, ‘Heated’. The full significance of this only became clear to
me later when I responded to an urgent printed summons to an ‘Organ Gala Concert’
at the late-17th-century St Kajetan Church which promised Boëllmann, Mozart, Bach,
Brahms and Franck, and was only five minutes’ walk from my hotel. So I went.
After handing over 500 Czech crowns (about 17 quid – quite steep for a bog-
standard recital in a not-especially-expensive country), I discovered that the ticket
came with neither a programme, much in the way of electric light in the church, nor,
indeed, heat – although the friendly ticket-seller at the door did wave me towards a
pile of neatly folded blankets. But what I really wasn’t expecting was to be pitched into
a full-on MI5-style internet sleuthing exercise when I got back to my hotel. The reason?
The organist who gave the recital wasn’t identified! Now, I knew that these ‘Organ
GRAEME KAY
Spot the organ
Gala Concerts’ consisted of the same programme repeated every day for a month. I
therefore surmised that unless one individual was making money for old rope, there
was likely to be a rota of performers. Forensic Googling flushed out Daniela Valtova
Kosinova who had listed five of the gigs on her personal website, but not the one on
the date in question. Beyond that, nichts. Why the need for secrecy? And why not give
the punters programme notes for their 500 crowns, including some basic information
about the organ? I’ve fired off a speculative email to the estimable Ms Kosinova: if I
hear back before this goes to press, I’ll let you know…
I had to leave the aforementioned recital before the end (thus missing the opportu-
nity to ambush the nameless performer at the bottom of the steps to the organ gallery)
in order to make the start of Boris Godunov at the National Theatre. Allowing my gaze
to wander over the opulent gilded tiers of this spectacularly beautiful and symbolic
theatre, near the roof level I noticed … an organ case! Wandering down to the pit rail,
I spotted the console tucked away under the stage, but as the organ didn’t feature in
this production of Musorgsky’s opera, the pipes remained silent. The only other opera
house in which I’ve seen a permanently installed pipe organ (the Metropolitan Opera’s
II/22 Aeolan-Skinner is mobile) was backstage at what is now known as the Old Stage
of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen – handy, certainly, for Peter Grimes. Needless
to say, even with the aid of a deerstalker, a Meerschaum pipe, Dr Watson and the ubiq-
uitous Maestro Google, my efforts to find out anything about the organ in the Narodni
Divadlo drew a blank. Phantom organists and unknown organs? I know The Third Man
is set in Vienna, not Prague, but it was all a bit Harry Lime …
Graeme Kay is a multiplatform producer for BBC Radio 3.
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 43
30/03/2016 11:39:14
CO0316.indd 44 11/04/2016 11:18:46
 NEW MUSIC
Bertie Baigent
SANCTI SPIRITUS
Text: Sequence Hymn for Pentecost, attr. Notker Balbulus (c. 840-912)
In seeking a text for his upper-voice piece for Pentecost at St Paul’s Cathedral,
Bertie Baigent was inspired by an emotional medieval poem. He talks to Shirley Ratcliffe
Bertie Baigent: ‘I was keen to exploit the particular pure sound of trebles’
‘U
ltimately, I’d like to end up
primarily as a conductor, but
one who composes too,’ says
Bertie Baigent, senior organ scholar at
Jesus College, Cambridge. While still an
undergraduate he is gaining experience in
many areas of the music profession. What
made him decide to make music a career?
‘First, I’ve always loved music as a
listener, then as a cellist, pianist and organ-
ist. I think the first time I knew I would
make it my career was when I won the
National Centre for Early Music Young
Composers’ Award in 2011. My piece In
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_045-047_R_New Music T.indd 45
ZEUXIS PHOTOGRAPHY
memoriam In Nomine for viol consort was
performed by Fretwork in King’s Place
[London], and then broadcast on BBC
Radio 3. It was the first time one of my
pieces had won a competition, and the
whole experience of hearing my music
performed so well and in such an amazing
venue really inspired me to compose
more.’ Baigent based his work for Fretwork
on a piece of early English viol music, In
Nomine. ‘Sixteenth-century composers
wrote contrapuntal music based on this
melodic fragment from a Mass by John
Taverner,’ Baigent explains. ‘I used the
melody too, and developed it in a more
modern way. Now a lot of my music is
contrapuntal, but my harmonic language
changes according to what the piece is.’
Baigent went to Jesus College straight
from school. ‘The main thing that drew me
there were the two choirs: the mixed choir
of undergraduates and the chapel choir
of boy trebles and male undergraduates.
Working with the choirs and writing for
them has been such a valuable experi-
ence, all of which feeds into my work as
a conductor and composer. For the last
couple of years I’ve really been enjoying
opera. I’ve conducted operas by Handel
and Mozart and three chamber operas by
student composers, including one by me!’
Baigent is our third young composer to
be commissioned to write a piece for St
Paul’s Cathedral, this time for Pentecost,
set for the trebles. ‘A lot of my music
is contrapuntal,’ he explains, ‘but my
harmonic language changes a lot accord-
ing to what the piece is. For instance, my
piece for St Paul’s has quite a lot of soft
dissonance, whereas the opera I have just
finished is much grittier. I was keen to
exploit the particularly pure sound of
trebles, so I haven’t written much very
loud music – I like the sound when trebles
are singing comfortably, rather than when
they are competing to be heard against
the organ. I was immediately drawn to the
concentration of the Sancti Spiritus text,
which has a great range of emotions, and
the fact that the first line seems to follow
all the others as well as summing up the
spirit of the text.
‘I decided to compose quite a sectional
piece, taking each line of the text in turn,
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 45
30/03/2016 11:42:01
 NEW MUSIC
Download and print
your FREE score now!
New Music is a series of pieces for choir or
organ by talented young composers featured
in Choir & Organ. Visit our website to
PRINT unlimited copies of the work
free of charge.
Download your free copy
of Sancti Spiritus.
Simply visit
www.choirandorgan.com
and click on New Music series.
New Music scores are available under licence to be
printed free of charge for a period of six months,
after which copies must be destroyed as copyright
reverts to the composer. See our website for details.
The premiere of Sancti Spiritus will
take place in St Paul’s Cathedral on
17 May at the 5pm Evensong.
46 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_045-047_R_New Music T.indd 46
and giving the work shape by including
the first line between each section as a
sort of refrain. The basis for the piece
is the harmonic gesture in the first
half bar – this dictated much of the
harmony for the rest of the music, and
a lot of melody was crafted so it fitted
with that harmony, which is repeated
sequentially. Quaver movement is
preserved almost throughout; this
drives the music forward, but also
represents the flowing Holy Spirit.’
In 2014 Baigent founded the
Percival Ensemble, a small chamber
orchestra that specialises in late
romantic and early 20th-century
music. ‘I chose this period
because I find the music written
around the turn of the century
fascinating. Tonality was being
threatened, and composers
wrote extraordinarily rich harmonies and
textures – it’s some of the music I enjoy
listening to and studying.’
To widen his experience Baigent became
a member of the National Youth Orchestra
as a composer. ‘I’d really recommend it, as
it taught me so much and provides excel-
lent opportunities for having your pieces
played by fantastic musicians. While the
orchestra rehearses, the composers are
given a brief for a composition, which they
have to write in a few days. At each course
you’re given a different ensemble drawn
from the orchestra, and the pieces are
performed in events just before the main
NYO concerts. The courses were intense,
but the very specific brief, plus teaching
from the course tutors Larry Groves and
Anna Meredith, and the advice of the
players and conductor, really helped me to
improve how I pace and shape my compo-
sitions, as well as how to write for a broad
range of instruments and ensembles.’
Baigent was in the NYO in 2013 when
the Royal Philharmonic Society celebrated
its 200th anniversary. The orchestra was
playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
at the Proms and a plaque was put up at
the building in Regent Street where the
symphony was first performed in England.
‘To mark the occasion I was commissioned
to write a fanfare for brass, Joie de vivre. It
was fantastic working with the NYO players
as I was writing it, since I could ask them all
sorts of technical questions. There are quite
a lot of effects in the piece that I would
never have thought of without them!’
Last year Baigent was commissioned by
the Elysian Singers of London for a piece
to be performed at a concert of Lenten
music in St Martin-in-the Fields. ‘This
was perhaps my most specific commis-
sion, since I had to write a piece to be
sung halfway through John Sheppard’s
Media vita. The choir sang the first section,
immediately followed by my piece Noli
claudere aures tuas (which sets part of
Sheppard’s text), and then the first section
was repeated. The biggest challenge was
writing something that worked in that very
particular situation and which could also
be sung on its own.’
Baigent is developing a working rela-
tionship with one of his contemporaries,
the young organist Robert Smith. ‘Robert
was the organ scholar at Somerville
College, Oxford, where I sang in the choir
for a year. He and a friend organised a
concert tour of Germany and they asked
me to write a piece for his programme.
The CD label Jubal, a German radio
station and a publisher were all interested
in my commission Bright spark, shot from
a brighter place, and I’ve been asked to
write another piece for Robert’s tour this
summer.’ He is currently studying organ
with Gordon Stewart and Stephen Farr:
‘It’s really nice to have more than one
teacher so that you’re exposed to a broad
range of ideas. I tend to bring different
repertoire to each of them, and normally
the different influences really complement
each other.’
Currently Baigent is thinking about how
to refine the structure of his compositions.
Next year he wants to study conducting
at music college and has obtained a place
at the Royal Academy of Music to do this.
‘I’ve got various concerto and symphonic
projects coming up,’ he tells me, ‘and I’ll
certainly continue composing alongside
that. I’m building up to writing a big
orchestral piece by thinking of different
ways to develop material over long periods
of time – and I’ve also got my final exams
for my degree to prepare for!’
www.bertiebaigent.com
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 11:42:24
 NEW MUSIC
INSIDE JOB Outreach Programme, supported by
government funding from 2007-2010.
This legacy continues, and, regardless of
Outreach work at whether a link can be forged between
St Paul’s Cathedral outreach and chorister recruitment,
cathedral music is worth sharing.
St Paul’s recently launched a project
to take organ music – and digital organs
COURTESY ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL
– into primary schools. This was given
impetus by the William Drake organ in the
OBE chapel, which has now been heard
by thousands of London children. This
project is about broadening horizons and
enriching school curricula.
There is no need to over-simplify organ music
for children. The instrument is mechanically and
acoustically mesmerising
Children in Hackney improvise during a school visit
There is no need to over-simplify
Up and down the country, churches and organ music for children. The instrument
cathedrals are responding imaginatively to is mechanically and acoustically
the need to support the musical education mesmerising, and partner schools have
of the next generation. Above and beyond enjoyed music from Bach to Messiaen.
promoting the excellent opportunities All workshops encourage children to
which choristership offers to boys and improvise and craft class compositions
girls, institutions have partnered with based on simple stories, recognising the
schools and education hubs to deliver place of their creativity in learning.
outreach and education programmes. Thanks to further support from the
The Choir Schools Association Order of the British Empire, St Paul’s is also
championed this work with its Chorister piloting a singing scheme. This involves
Exploring the sound of the OBE Organ in St Paul’s Cathedral
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_045-047_R_New Music T.indd 47
choral workshops, singing assemblies,
and opening up the Cathedral to partner
schools and their choirs. This is in addition
to the Cathedral Choir’s commitment to
sing Evensong in every Deanery in the
Diocese of London over the course of
eight years.
The singing scheme also involves a
partnership with the Hackney Children’s
Choir. In January 2016, they sang with the
Cathedral Choir at the Patronal Festival,
and will return later in the year. The
Hackney Children’s Choir teaches children
to read music, learn the choral repertoire,
and gain from culturally enriching
experiences. The formula is a simple one –
musical and behavioural expectations are
high, and the environment is friendly and
supportive.
While music education suffers from
budget cuts, it is ever more important
for church institutions to share the many
social, spiritual and educational benefits of
music-making.
Tom Daggett,
OBE Organ Outreach Fellow
COURTESY ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 47
30/03/2016 11:43:01
 SUBSCRIBE TO
EARLY MUSIC TODAY AND SAVE UP TO 25%!
XXX
the line-up for the Brandenburg concertos recording
a conductor ultimately.’
Does he have a favourite venue?
‘Wigmore have been brilliant – I mean, we
held this amazing position of Ensemble in
Residence which gave us up to six
concerts a year for three seasons, and that
was really wonderful. We’ve had a very
good relationship with them, I mean, over
60 concerts at Wigmore Hall – I suppose
that’s quite a lot for any group.’
A significant facet of Florilegium’s work
has been their Bolivian Baroque project, a
major undertaking that has involved not
only the small matter of editing,
performing and recording the music of the
18th-century Bolivian mission churches
both in situ and further afield into north
America, Europe and even Singapore, but
major matters of education in its
performance for everyone from
schoolchildren and their teachers to the
young Bolivian professionals he brings on
board – not to mention fundraising on a
grand scale for musical instruments in
Bolivian schools and campaigning for the
music’s status. Is he happy for the Bolivian
project to be thought of as Florilegium’s
greatest contribution to the field of
historical performance? ‘Yes! Three of our
25 CDs are Bolivia, and I’ve spent the last
14 years going back and forth. My father-
in-law worked out that it’s about half a
Why subscribe?
million miles – terrible for my green
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footprint. Bolivia’s been a massive part of
my life.’
How did it come about? ‘The wonderful
Piotr Nawrot, a priest, runs a festival,
“Misiones de Chiquitos”, in Bolivia, and
Florilegium went out to play. We did a
programme of English Baroque music,
and we were the first English group to go
there. Every group that goes is given a
piece of music from the archive, and so on
arrival in Bolivia I was given a piece called
“Pastoreta Ychepe Flauta” – clever man!
I’m a recorder player, and he gives me a
recorder concerto that I’d never come
across before to play! We incorporated this
into our programme and went to the
mission of San Javier; there were
900 people in the audience, some of whom
had walked three or four hours for the
concert. We play our Telemann concertos
and Bach, and then we play “Pastoreta
Ychepe Flauta”. I start playing it, and
almost the entire congregation sing it with
me while I’m playing! Extraordinary. It
prompted me to ask whether there was
any more music like this, at which point
Piotr laughed and said, “Yes, I have access
to 14,000 pages of manuscript from the
18th century! Are you interested in
pursuing this further?” This was in 2002,
and in 2003 Piotr sent over 60 kilos of
music and we put on a concert at the
Wigmore Hall.
‘Next came four Bolivian soloists, and
so then I could say to our record
company, “Wouldn’t it be great to record
this?” Jared Sacks, who’s the director of
Channel Classics, said it would be, and I
said, “Good! We’re going to record in
Bolivia, in the church where this music
was discovered, and they can offer you a
generator but you’re going to have to
bring all your equipment out to Bolivia
for this recording, and I haven’t been to
this venue yet, and there are four
unknown singers who are going to sing
all the solos with Florilegium” – and he
agreed to do it! Then Piotr and I spoke
about six masses by Bassani that he’d
discovered, and I said that if we had a
choir we could do them, and that became
Arakaendar Bolivia.
‘Two years later we were at the
festival, Channel Classics came out and
made the recording, and we managed to
get CBS 60 minutes to do a documentary
on the programme which was shown on
Good Friday across the states as we
launched the disc – 14 million people
watched it! You can imagine the knock-
on effects; it led to a third project, and
this time it was connected to a tour in
Europe so we recorded the third CD in
the Westerkerk in Amsterdam because
we were touring Holland at the time.
‘And it grows year on year. On even
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12/02/2016 17:10:39
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News
the orChestra of the age of Chetham’s
enlightenment aPPoints john sChool of
Butt oBe as PrinCiPal artist musiC hosts
since 2001, Butt has a huge variety of
english
© david BarBour
accolades beneath his belt, including
guest conducting with the Philharmonia
Baroque
Baroque Orchestra and becoming ProjeCt
founding director of the chorus King’s
Voices, as well as being music director of The first English Baroque Project was
the Dunedin Consort. held in Chetham’s School of Music, in
As a leading conductor, organist, association with Chetham’s Library and
harpsichordist and scholar, the OAE the Early Music Shop in a collaboration
feels Butt will bring much to their that aimed to provide a unique platform
richly textured group. ‘Butt joins us at for young early music performers.
an exciting time in the OAE’s history,’ The project was led by Dr Martyn
confirms Chief Executive Crispin Shaw, historical performance specialist,
Woodhead. ‘The new season sees the who wanted to lay focus on the style of
launch of a five-year focus on J.S. Bach, music present during the late baroque
led by John’s unique knowledge of the period, with works by Thomas Arne,
latest research and performance practice.’ George Frideric Handel and Edward
Of his new appointment, Butt says,
‘It is a huge honour, given the very
Purcell.
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THE BEST OF THE LATEST CDS AND BOOKS IN EARLY MUSIC
New oae Principal artist John Butt oBe
it’s a great responsibility to uphold the
artistic integrity of the group.’ Bach: Magnificat BWV 243a; and appropriate organ preludes. Because of the length of
the CD (78 minutes), it is necessary to download several
Cantata BWV 63
Butt co-curated and will direct an Dunedin Consort, John Butt (d) items to complete the service.
Linn CKD 469 While the reconstruction is obviously of considerable
Award-winning musician John Butt all-Bach programme on 10 March at St  interest in its own right – it follows a similar format to that
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Passion – it would be to little avail were the performances
Artist of the Orchestra of the Age Southbank season, the programme not of a high standard. As in his other Bach recordings, Butt
Rarely, very rarely, a recording comes along that because favours one-per-part choruses, though in this sumptuously
of Enlightenment. ‘promises to shed extraordinary new
of its content and level of performance seems to be hors scored music (4 trumpets and 3 oboes in the cantata), he
concours. This is just such a recording. ‘Content’ here takes employs ripieno support throughout, something Bach is
Having held the Gardiner Chair of light on this well-loved composer,’ on special relevance, since beyond the bald heading above unlikely to have done. Both singing and orchestral playing
Music at the University of Glasgow Woodhead confirms. what we have is a reconstruction of Bach’s first Leipzig (special kudos for Alex Bellamy’s oboe solos) are outstanding
Christmas Vespers as given in the Nicolaikirche on
25 December 1723. Thus in addition to Christen, ätzet
diesen Tag, BWV 63, composed in Weimar in 1714, and the
throughout. All the singing is especially remarkable for the
strong rhetoric and dramatic intensity it conveys, giving, for
example, Bach’s wonderfully contrasted movements in the
E-flat version of the Magnificat, with its inserted Magnificat even greater point. What we are given is nothing
Christmas Laudes, there is also a Giovanni Gabrieli motet, less than an enthralling glimpse of Bach’s Lutheran church at
musiC at Woodhouse congregational hymns (sung with spine-tingling fervour) its most resplendent. BR
DUNEDIN CONSORT
announCes 2016 Programme
Monika Saunders, Artist Director of Music Cleopatra and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
at Woodhouse, has revealed the 2016
programme, which looks to be expanding
on 4–5 June, all with the Baroque Opera
Academy; the last opera of the year is
its baroque repertoire and adding new
textures to an
Puccini’s La bohème on 10–11 September
with the Opera Festival.
already rich
company.
‘This year at Woodhouse we are offering
three baroque operas, all with a poignant
On offer later theme of tragic queens in antiquity,’
this year are confirms Saunders. ‘The intimate,
three baroque sometimes candlelit playhouse inside the
operas: Lully’s hall creates a very special atmosphere for The Dunedin Consort in a recording session
Armide on 20–21 the singers and the period ensemble to tell
WIN A COPY!
February, a double- their stories.’ EARLY MUSIC TODAY has five copies of ‘Bach: Magnificat BWV 243a; Cantata BWV 63’ to give away. To win a copy, send a postcard to ‘Disc of the Month – March 2016’,
bill of Hasse’s Bookings can be made at
Early Music Today, Rhinegold Publishing, 20 Rugby Street, London WC1N 3QZ.

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Marc’Antonio e www.musicatwoodhouse.com
Baronial Hall, chetham’s school of music
36 EARLYMUSICTODAY MARCH–MAY 2016 www.earlymusictoday.com
www.earlymusictoday.com march–may 2016 earlymusictoday 13 EMTMM16_036-049_R_Reviews.indd 36 15/02/2016 16:03:46
EMTMM16_006-013_R_News.indd 13 15/02/2016 15:50:27
3 YEARS:
12 ISSUES – £44.85
QUOTE MAM16C
11/04/2016 14:56:09
 READERS’ OFFERS
Your chance to WIN CDs, tickets and scores
CD JOHANN GOTTFRIED WALTHER: COMPLETE ORGAN
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The Great Fire of 1666, which devastated the capital city at the same
time as helping to remove traces of the previous year’s Plague, was
captured in eye-witness accounts by writers such as Samuel Pepys
and his contemporaries. Now, a vivid new work by Iain Bell marking
its 350th anniversary is brought to life by the enterprising New
London Chamber Choir (see feature, p.56).
Courtesy of Spitalfields Festival and Rebecca Driver Media
Relations, we have 2 pairs of tickets to give away; quote code ‘FIRE’.
NB Offer closes 20 May.
COURTESY BOOSEY & HAWKES

CHORAL MUSIC BY
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Offers end 31 May 2016 unless otherwise stated.

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 49

COMJ16_049_R_Readers offers T.indd 49 31/03/2016 12:14:15

 FESTIVALS visit our online listings at www.choirandorgan.com

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 visit our online listings at www.choirandorgan.com FESTIVALS

FESTIVALS 2016 Contact Box office +44 333 666 3366, JUNE
info@cambridgeearlymusic.org Spitalfields Music Summer
YEAR-ROUND www.cambridgeearlymusic.org Festival
Westminster Cathedral Grand Organ London Festival of Baroque Music 2-26 Jun, London, UK (see p.102)
Festival 15-19 May, London, UK Contact +44 20 7377 0287,
20 Apr-23 Nov, London, UK Contact Box office +44 20 7222 1061, Box office +44 20 7377 1362,
See separate box, below info@lfbm.org.uk info@spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
www.lfbm.org.uk www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
MAY Bath International Music Festival Aldeburgh Festival
London Festival of Contemporary 20-29 May, Bath, UK 13-29 Jun, Suffolk, UK
Church Music Contact +44 7790 518756, Contact +44 1728 687110 (Box Office),
7-15 May, London, UK sallyreeves@btinternet.com enquiries@aldeburgh.co.uk
Contact +44 20 7388 1461, www.bathfestivals.org.uk/music www.aldeburgh.co.uk
info@lfccm.com Spoleto Festival USA St Magnus Festival
www.lfccm.com 27 May-12 Jun, USA 17-26 Jun, Orkney, UK
Cambridge Early Music – Festival of Contact +1 843 579 3100, Contact +44 1856 871445,
the Voice info@spoletousa.org info@stmagnusfestival.com
12-15 May, Cambridge, UK www.spoletousa.org www.stmagnusfestival.com

Westminster Cathedral Grand Organ

Festival
20 Apr-23 Nov, London, UK
Westminster Cathedral’s annual Grand
Organ Festival opened in April with a
recital given by Jane Parker-Smith. This
year’s programme includes a wonder-
fully broad range of recitalists from across
Europe, including Norway, Spain ( Juan
de la Rubia (below), 31 Aug) and France,
as well as some of the best British players,
performing a wide and eclectic range of
music, from Dupré, Duruflé and Reger to
Wagner, Bach and Rachmaninoff.
Tickets are priced £12 (£10), or £60 for a
season ticket.
Contact Info and tickets from +44 20
7798 9055, musicadmin@rcdow.org.uk
www.westminstercathedral.org.uk/music
COURTESY WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

COURTESY WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 51

COMJ16_051-054_F_Festivals Listings T.indd 51 30/03/2016 12:11:52

 FESTIVALS visit our online listings at www.choirandorgan.com

St Davids Cathedral Festival

Gwyl Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi
27 May – 05 June 2016
The Sixteen • BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Natalie
Clein (cello) • British Sinfonietta • Concert performance of the
GLOUCESTER opera ‘A Village at War’ • Sarah Gabriel with Galos Piano Trio
2016 Haverfordwest Male Voice Choir • Vox Angelica • Callum Alger
St Davids Cathedral Choir • Goodwick Brass Band
23–30 JULY Children’s Festival Chorus • Young Musician of Dyfed
Live Music Now • Festival Chorus
Choral Evensong broadcast live on BBC Radio 3
on Wednesday 1st June

3choirs.org www.stdavidscathedralfestival.co.uk
twitter.com/3choirs Tickets on sale from 21st March
facebook.com/3ChoirsFestival
07506 117901 stdavidsfestival@gmail.com

CO0316.indd 52 11/04/2016 11:18:50


DEREK FOXTON
Three Choirs Festival
23-30 Jul, Gloucester, UK
From the single ethereal lines of
medieval plainchant to the vastness of
Mahler’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand’,
Fiestalonia – Musica Del Mar
19-22 Jun, Spain
Perform in the old fortified town of Tossa
del Mar, Costa Brava, with the beautiful
Mediterranean sea as a backdrop.
Contact + 34 688 276 249
gary@fiestalonia.net
www.fiestalonia.net
City of London Festival
20 Jun-8 Jul, London, UK
Contact +44 845 120 7502,
info@colf.org
www.colf.org
East Neuk Festival
22 Jun-3 Jul, London, UK
Contact +44 131 669 1750,
ian@eastneukfestival.com
www.eastneukfestival.com
JULY
Fiestalonia – Golden Voices of
Barcelona
3-7 Jul, Barcelona, Spain
The festival gives a chance to sing in
the fantastic Sagrada Família Basilica,
designed by Gaudí and a UNESCO World
Heritage Site. This year international choir
director Colin Touchin will be a judge and
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_051-054_F_Festivals Listings T.indd 53
visit our online listings at www.choirandorgan.com FESTIVALS
this year’s festival embraces the
spectrum of classical choral music.
The Three Choirs Festival Chorus and
Three Cathedral Choirs are resident;
Conductus, Rodolfus and Stile Antico
give masterclasses.
Contact + 34 688 276 248,
gary@fiestalonia.net
www.fiestalonia.net
Llangollen International Musical
Eisteddfod
5-10 Jul, Llangollen, UK
Contact +44 1978 862001 (Box Office),
tickets@international-eisteddfod.co.uk
www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk
Voices of London Festival
6-10 Jul, London, UK
www.voicesoflondonfestival.com
9th World Choir Games 2016
6-16 Jul, Sochi, Russia
Contact +49 6404 69749 25,
mail@interkultur.com
www.interkultur.com
Oundle International Festival
8-16 Jul, Northamptonshire, UK
Contact +44 1832 274734 (Box Office),
information@oundlefestival.org.uk
www.oundlefestival.org.uk
International Organ Festival Haarlem
12-26 Jul, Netherlands
Contact +31 20 4880481,
office@organfestival.nl
www.organfestival.nl
are guests, and Thomas Trotter gives a
celebrity organ recital.
Contact +44 845 652 1823 (Box Office),
info@3choirs.org
www.3choirs.org
Westminster Abbey Summer Organ
Festival
14 Jul-11 Aug, London, UK
Contact +44 20 7222 5152,
info@westminster-abbey.org
www.westminster-abbey.org
Fiestalonia – Golden Voices of Notre
Dame
14–17 Jul, Paris, France
This international choir competition
enables choirs from around the world to
demonstrate their skills in the Cathedral
of Notre-Dame in the heart of Paris.
Contact + 34 688 276 250,
gary@fiestalonia.net
www.fiestalonia.net
BBC Proms
18 Jul-13 Sep, London, UK
Contact +44 845 401 5040 (Box Office),
proms@bbc.co.uk, www.bbc.co.uk/proms
Southern Cathedrals Festival
21-23 Jul, Chichester, UK
Contact (General enquiries) +44 1243
782595, enquiry@chichestercathedral.org.uk
www.southerncathedralsfestival.org.uk
Three Choirs Festival
23-30 Jul, Gloucester, UK
See separate box, above
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 53
30/03/2016 12:12:06
 FESTIVALS visit our online listings at www.choirandorgan.com
MARTYN COOK
Musica Deo Sacra
1-7 Aug, Gloucestershire, UK
In the 47th year of this festival, the 22
voices of the choir, directed by David
Ireson, sing a week of music within
the liturgy, with Evensongs, Compline,
Masses (Sunday with orchestra)
Tallinn International
Organ Festival
30 Jul-9 Aug, Estonia
Contact andres.uibo@concert.ee
www.concert.ee/organ-festival-eng
AUGUST
Musica Deo Sacra
1-7 Aug, Gloucestershire, UK
See separate box, above
Edinburgh International Festival
5-29 Aug, Edinburgh, UK
Contact +44 131 473 2099/Box Office:
+44 131 473 2000, eif@eif.co.uk
www.eif.co.uk
Lahti Organ Festival
8-14 Aug, Finland
Contact +358 3 877230,
urkuviikko@lahtiorgan.fi
www.lahtiorgan.fi
Edington Festival
23-30 Aug, Wiltshire, UK
Contact +44 7525 793426,
info@edingtonfestival.org
www.edingtonfestival.org
Presteigne Festival
25-30 Aug, Presteigne, UK
54 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_051-054_F_Festivals Listings T.indd 54
FESTIVALS 2017
Orgelfestival Holland
26 Jun-4 Jul, Alkmaar, Netherlands
Contact +31 63955 0458
www.orgelfestivalholland.nl/en/academie-en
St Albans International Organ Festival
and Competition
10-22 Jul, St Albans, UK
Contact +44 1727 844765,
info@organfestival.com
www.organfestival.com
Canadian International Organ
Competition
10-20 Oct, Montreal, Canada
Contact +1 514 510 5678,
info@ciocm.org
www.ciocm.org
and Benediction in the glorious Toulouse les Orgues International
surroundings of Tewkesbury Abbey Festival
(above); with organist Carleton 6-16 Oct 2016, France
Etherington. This special 21st anniversary Festival
Contact +44 1684 850959, focuses on dialogue between cultures.
office@tewkesburyabbey.org.uk The city of Toulouse boasts world-
www.tewkesburyabbey.org.uk famous organs which are centre-stage
throughout the Festival. International
artists and 35 events: organ recitals, and
Contact +44 1544 267800, concerts combining organ with other
georgevass@presteignefestival.com instruments or other art forms, with a
www.presteignefestival.com wide repertoire from ancient music to
improvisation and rock.
OCTOBER Contact +33 5 61 33 76 80,
Toulouse les Orgues International infos@toulouse-les-orgues.org
Festival www.toulouse-les-orgues.org
6-16 Oct, France
See separate box, right
City of Derry International Choral
Festival and Competition
19-23 Oct, Derry, Ireland
Contact info@codichoral.com
www.codichoral.com
Festival Bach de Lausanne
30 Oct–27 Nov, Switzerland
Contact info@festivalbach.ch
www.festivalbach.ch
DECEMBER
Spitalfields Music
Winter Festival
Dec/Jan, London
Contact +44 20 7377 0287,
Box office +44 20 7377 1362,
info@spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:12:38
 visit our online listings at www.choirandorgan.com FESTIVALS

rsar y!
th annive
20
Les l
Festiva th
tional
interna 6 to 166
er 201
Octob
SE,
ULOU
IN TO A NCE
O F FR
SOU T H
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C I T Y VER ,
A TO > 2 event-filled weekends :
AV E L
TO TR R “Dialogue between cultures”
FO
EVEN
AY ! (8/9 oct) & “Toulouse les
R ST
T
A SHO Orgues is 20!” (15/16 oct)
> Organ recitals
> The organ conversing
with other instruments
> 150 international
performers
> All repertoires : from
baroque to rock music
www.toulouse-les-orgues.org
> A day for amateur
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Untitled-7 1 18/04/2013 13:10:11

CO0316.indd 55 11/04/2016 11:18:52

 SLUG

Trailblazers
A new work marking the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London is just the
latest in a chain of imaginative commissions from the New London Chamber Choir.
Helen Cocks helps to fan the flames

56 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_056-060_F_Cocks T.indd 56 30/03/2016 12:13:25

 NEW LONDON CHAMBER CHOIR
O
ne of the reasons for my lifelong
ANDREW MOSS
love of a cappella choral music is
an abiding wonder at the extraor-
dinarily diverse range of sounds which can
be produced by the human voice. After a
performance by a really first-rate choir, I
find myself struggling to remember why
instruments might ever be needed, when
such vivid colours and intense emotions can
be portrayed simply by a group of human
beings. Composers similarly in thrall to the
human voice, wanting to portray a speed-
ing car, irate crowd, storm at sea or indeed a
lovely melody, have long chosen the fearless
members of the New London Chamber
Choir (NLCC) as their interpreters.
The NLCC has long been known and
respected as an ensemble committed to
premiering new works, and to working with
living composers. Founded in the 1980s
by the Nadia Boulanger-trained composer
James Wood, the New London Chamber
‘The more extreme, the more outrageous, the
wackier, the more apparently impossible, the
better! That’s our main raison d’être’
Choir has new music at the heart of its
output. It has worked extensively with
many giants of late 20th-and 21st-century
composition; Pierre Boulez was a patron
of the choir until his death in January this
year and the group has commissioned
works from major composers including
Jonathan Harvey and Michael Finnissy.
Iannis Xenakis was a close collaborator,
and a recording of his music released by the
NLCC in 1998 was described as ‘phenom-
enal’ by Gramophone magazine. The
choir performed music by Xenakis at the
2003 BBC Proms and in 2011 presented a
special concert marking ten years since the
composer’s death.
After the group’s second music director,
James Weeks, moved on in 2014, Matthew
Hamilton took over with the remit of a
relaunch of the choir and a return to the
vitality which so characterised its earlier
years. Hamilton, recently appointed choral
director of the Hallé, has worked extensively
with new music, giving him an excellent
‘Fearless’ interpreters of new music:
the New London Chamber Choir
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_056-060_F_Cocks T.indd 57
background to bring into his position with
the NLCC. Aubrey Botsford, long-time
choir and committee member, feels that
the group has made the right choice in
appointing Matthew: ‘He has developed a
good rapport with the choir – we see that
he is a very fine musician with an excellent
ear, and we’re looking forward to working
with him to develop a long-term vision
for the group.’ Hamilton himself is equally
complimentary about his singers, speak-
ing warmly of their fearlessness in tackling
repertoire and compositional techniques
that would be beyond the reach of many
ensembles. Tenor and committee member
Sam Wilcock echoes this; an experienced
chamber choir singer, Wilcock was struck
by the unusual attitude of the ensemble as
soon as he joined the choir: ‘The remark-
able thing about the choir is that the more
extreme, the more outrageous, the wackier,
the more apparently impossible, the better!
That’s the main raison d’être of the group;
to do new things.’
The most recent of these new things
is the latest in the NLCC’s long line of
commissions. London’s Fatal Fire is a
20-minute cantata for unaccompanied
choir and two soloists, a joint commission
by the NLCC and Spitalfields Music from
composer Iain Bell. Marking the 350th
anniversary of the Great Fire of London in
1666, the new work will be premiered at St
Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch on 11 June
as part of the Spitalfields Festival, when
the NLCC will be joined by solists Julia
Sitkovetsky (soprano) and Andrew Bidlack
(tenor). It was an initiative from within
the choir that kick-started the upcoming
project, a member not only proposing
the partnership but also contributing
significantly to the financial element of the
commission. Iain Bell is a prolific writer of
vocal music, especially known for his stage
works, which have been commissioned
by companies including Houston Grand
Opera and the Welsh National Opera. Bell
has also written extensively for the concert
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 57
30/03/2016 12:13:39
CO0316.indd 58 11/04/2016 11:18:54
 NEW LONDON CHAMBER CHOIR


The Great Fire of London, which destroyed the capital city in 1666, inspired a new choral work by Iain Bell

platform, and a good relationship with the
Wigmore Hall has seen several of his song
cycles premiered there by major artists
including Diana Damrau.
The Great Fire project had been in Bell’s
mind for several years before the partner-
ship with the festival and choir came about.
With the 350th anniversary of the fire
approaching, Bell decided that he would
like to mark it and began to research texts.
The work that stood out – ‘I just knew it was
the one,’ the composer says – was a poem
feel and part of the story to tell in chart-
ing the progress of the fire. This inherent
structure was essential, as it would focus
each movement of the work as I composed
it, preventing it from being 20 minutes of
frenzied blaze while ensuring that each
movement cried out for its own sound-
world.’ After abridging the text from its
epic complete length of nearly 3,000 words,
Bell used this clear structure to guide the
composition process: ‘I then decided which
of the movements would be chorus only,
and of those, which would be more male-
or female-heavy, and also which of those
would lend themselves to a more homo-
phonic or polyphonic treatment.’ Bell chose
to let the chorus provide most of the atmos-
pheric background and underpinning of
the tale, portraying the fire itself and the
atmosphere it engenders, while the two
soloists evoke the human experience.
More experienced in composing for
ANDREW MOSS

by Samuel Wiseman, written just after the

fire in 1667. Wiseman arranged the verses
day by day, charting the progress of the fire,
from the peace before the event, then the
fire’s beginnings as a spark, the terror as it
spread throughout the neighbourhood and
then the whole city, and finally the mourn-
ing of the lost lives and the city destroyed.
For Iain Bell, such a vivid text gave him
the most positive possible starting point
for his new work: ‘The poem is in a seven-
movement structure, each with its own
Matthew Hamilton, the choir’s conductor since
2014, has worked extensively with new music

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COMJ16_056-060_F_Cocks T.indd 59 30/03/2016 12:14:05

 NEW LONDON CHAMBER CHOIR
Composer Iain Bell (top): ‘I prevented it from being 20 minutes of frenzied blaze’
Matthew Hamilton and the New London Chamber Choir will focus on creating ‘a beautiful, cantabile sound’
the stage or for solo voices in a chamber
setting, Bell found he needed to consider
clarity of text – an important issue with so
rich a source – and allowing the singers to
keep hold of a tonal centre during the more
dense harmonic writing. Hamilton, having
studied the score and looking forward to
starting to rehearse it, feels that Bell has
achieved an excellent balance between
interesting writing and ‘singability’: ‘What
Iain’s done, while not at all conservative,
60 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_056-060_F_Cocks T.indd 60
PATER M. MAYR
ANDREW MOSS
is actually very vocal, graceful writing.’ He
went on to comment that, while the choir
enjoys ‘making bonkers, crazy noises’, it will
be fascinating this time to be able to ‘focus
on creating a beautiful, cantabile sound.’
The premiere concert in June will also
include Berio’s The Cries of London, which
uses the calls of London street vendors to
evoke the atmosphere of the old city, and
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s Three
Stages (2003), which also uses a cacophony
of voices to represent a street scene. Both
Hamilton and Bell are clear that the pieces
with which a premiere is paired can make or
break that critical first hearing. ‘We talked
a lot about what pieces would support and
reflect well upon Iain’s piece,’ says Hamilton.
‘I think it’s really important to give new
pieces the best chance of coming over well
at their first performance, and that has got a
lot to do with what else the audience hears.’
Also appearing on the programme will be
Sven-David Sandström’s eerie arrangement
of Purcell’s Hear my prayer, in which the
familiar melancholic suspensions of the
original are subverted and deconstructed,
and the Pavane Fantasia by Bo Holten,
which takes as its source material a pavane
by Orlando Gibbons.
As well as this very particular sense of
time and place evoked by the carefully
chosen programme, the location of the
concert – St Leonard’s, Shoreditch – is
one which will resonate strongly with the
concert’s subject matter. Although the
present building dates from the 18th
century, there has been a church on the site
since at least 1185. At the time of the fire
the area was a slum on the very outskirts
of London, spared the conflagration itself,
but undoubtedly caught up in the drama
and tragedy of the event. Iain Bell finds
this sense of being at the heart of London
past and present inspirational, calling the
Spitalfields Festival ‘awesome’ and ‘a beacon
for composers’. ‘London has formed the
centrepiece of so many of my pieces, so to
have a relationship with an organisation
slap-bang in the centre of the City that is as
committed to new works as Spitalfields is,
is tremendous.’
Helen Cocks is a writer and singer based in
London and Cambridge. She is particularly
interested in music education and liturgical
choral music and also writes regularly for
Classical Music magazine.
Iain Bell: London’s Fateful Fire
(world premiere)
New London Chamber Choir /
Matthew Hamilton (dir)
7pm, 11 June, St Leonard’s, Spitalfields,
London E1 6JN
Tickets from bit.ly/1Uwau6Z
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:14:46
 Supported by Beethoven-Haus Bonn.
Supported by Beethoven-Haus Bonn.

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His 200 year-old compositions are still packing concert halls today. You too could leave a
lasting contribution to music with a gift in your will.
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with illness or retirement.
Show your love for music and contact us today.

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CO0316.indd 61 11/04/2016 11:18:55

 SLUG

62 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_062-066_F_Maidment T.indd 62 30/03/2016 12:16:17

 MOOT HALL

Edwardian
opulence regained
Visiting the 1902 Norman & Beard organ in the Moot Hall, Colchester, felt like a
home-coming for John Maidment. PHOTOS BY JOHN MAIDMENT

A
t the start of the 20th century, the
Norwich-based firm of Norman & Beard
was enjoying a dramatic ascendancy.
Competitors Henry Willis & Sons had suffered from
the recent death of its founder and somewhat lost its
artistic direction, Hill & Son was coasting along on
established reputation, and T.C. Lewis had left the
firm he founded. Harrison & Harrison at that stage
was only a relatively small regional firm. Meanwhile,
Norman & Beard was forging ahead, developing
its exhaust-pneumatic actions (later emulated by
Harrisons), many new tonalities and even deriv-
ing features from the work of Robert Hope-Jones
and utilising some of his patents. The sound of its
instruments was opulent and richly symphonic,
and these characteristics may be found in the organ
the firm built for the Moot Hall in Colchester,
opened in 1902. This was one of the earliest concert
organs built by the firm, for which it developed a
market niche in Britain and the Empire. There were
major instruments at Usher Hall, Edinburgh and
the town halls at Battersea, Lancaster, Cape Town,
Johannesburg, Wellington and Auckland. It is said
that the firm’s reconstruction in 1905 of the less-
than-successful Willis instrument at Colston Hall,
Bristol, gained it many admirers.
The firm had a colossal factory in Norwich and
a branch factory at Chalk Farm, London, for a
short time under the direction of T.C. Lewis, who
had been dumped from his firm. Remnants of the
Norwich factory remain at St Stephen’s Square,
converted to apartments. In its heyday, the firm was
producing almost a new organ every week, with
sales vigorously pursued by George Wales Beard.

The Norman & Beard organ for Moot Hall: ‘opulent and
richly symphonic’

The Choir Organ pipework showing the reconstructed Viol

d’Orchestre to the left and the Orchestral Clarinet to the right

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 MOOT HALL
The renovated console The firm’s first organs were produced in the 1870s,
remains almost
completely unaltered and by 1916, when it amalgamated with Hill &
from the original Son, it had completed close to 1,500 contracts.
The Norman brothers – Ernest William and
Herbert John – were not content to rest on their
laurels, and they pursued new designs of key
actions (including exhaust pneumatics and electric
actions) as well as much experimentation and
development of new sounds, such as the Cor Oboe,
Corno Flute, Diapasons with inverted languids,
imitative reeds with harmonic trebles – even the
Vox Mystica, allegedly modelled upon the voice of
Dame Clara Butt!
64 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_062-066_F_Maidment T.indd 64
Sadly, a great many of the firm’s productions
succumbed to the neo-baroque movement in post-
war years. Orchestral tonalities were discarded in
favour of crudely added upperwork, and superbly
crafted actions were ruthlessly electrified. Organs by
the firm were simply broken up or junked. Mercifully
though, the concert organs at Cape Town, Wellington
and Colchester remain largely unchanged, although
tragically the firm’s magnum opus at Johannesburg
(designed by Alfred Hollins) was inappropriately and
irretrievably rebuilt in the 1970s.
The Colchester organ, the firm’s job number 419
costing £1,101, has fortuitously remained largely
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31/03/2016 12:27:20
 MOOT HALL

unaltered, apart from some tonal fiddling in the
1970s that displaced four Norman & Beard stops.
These have been reconstructed in the recent resto-
ration work carried out most capably by Harrison
& Harrison Ltd, Durham, advised by Dr William
McVicker, and completed in 2015.
The project has included the meticulous and
labour-intensive releathering of the wind reservoirs
and the complete restoration of the exhaust pneu-
matic key actions and the stop actions, together with
renovation of the console, which remains almost
totally unaltered from the original. This sort of work
requires considerable expertise and regrettably many
custodians faced with renovating such instruments
have chosen the easy, but less authentic, option of
electrification – even the removal of wind systems
and installation of sprung regulators.
The organ has two complete choruses up to four-
rank Mixtures, with very sonorous but brilliant
chorus reeds (voiced by the famed W.C. Jones), the
trebles of which have short reed boots in the Willis
style for prompt speech (a feature also adopted by
Lewis and Harrisons). I thought initially that Lewis’s
presence in the firm’s London factory may have
influenced the presence of these Mixtures, but not
so, as their composition is very different from what
Lewis would have done. The Great is based upon a
colossal Grand Open Diapason, whose upper lips
are partially leathered, of large scale and heavy metal
The Great is based upon a colossal Grand
Open Diapason … which alone fills the hall
with a splendid wash of sound
with large footholes, which alone fills the hall with a
splendid wash of sound. This is the foundation for
a hugely effective Great chorus, voiced on a quite
heavy pressure of 125 mm (5 inches). The string
and flute stops are exquisite and varied, and include
a most unusual Claribel Harmonic Flute (with
double-length wooden pipes) and a keen-toned
Viol d’Orchestre, a reconstructed stop, based upon a

MOOT HALL, COLCHESTER

NORMAN & BEARD (1902), REST. HARRISON & HARRISON (2015)

GREAT Tremulant Choir to Pedal

(125 mm wind pressure) Reeds Sub Octave Great Pistons to Ped. Compos. (1938)
Double Open Diapason  16 Swell Octave
Grand Open Diapason  8 Compass: 61/30
Claribel Harmonic Flute  8 CHOIR (UNENCLOSED) 4 thumb pistons to Great (added 1938)
Octave  4 (80mm wind pressure) 4 thumb pistons to Swell (added 1938)
Hohl Flute  4 Lieblich Gedeckt (reconstructed) 8 4 thumb pistons to Choir (added 1938)
Fifteenth  2 Viol d’Orchestre (reconstructed) 8 1 Great to Pedal reversible thumb piston
Mixture  IV Dulciana  8 4 composition pedals to Great
Posaune  8 Concert Flute  4 4 composition pedals to Swell
Clarion  4 Orchestral Clarinet (reconstructed) 8 1 Great to Pedal reversible pedal
Reeds Sub Octave Tremulant Balanced mechanical swell pedal
Swell to Great Choir Sub Octave
Choir to Great Choir Octave Pitch: A = 440 cps @ 17° Celsius (slightly
Swell to Choir raised from the original in 1952)
SWELL
(98 mm wind pressure) PEDAL Mixture compositions
Contra Gamba (1-12 stopped) 16 (96 mm wind pressure) Great
Open Diapason  8 Open Diapason  16 C112.15.19.22
Rohr Flute  8 Bourdon  16 G208.12.15.22
Viol d’Amour  8 Principal (from Open Diapason 16)  8 G325.8.12.15
Voix Celestes (t.c.)  8 Flute (from Bourdon 16)  8 G441.8.12.15
Principal  4 Bombarde 16 Swell
Harmonic Gemshorn (reconstructed)  2 (prepared for only at console) C115.17.19.22
Mixture  IV Trumpet (prepared for only at console) 8 C#268.12.15.22
Horn  8 Great to Pedal G#451.8.12.15
Oboe  8 Swell to Pedal

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 MOOT HALL
Great Organ pipework similar example at Usher Hall, Edinburgh, which also
showing the hooded
Posaune and Clarion, provided a model for the silky Orchestral Clarinet.
and the wooden Claribel The overall sound is full of character and vital-
Harmonic Flute to the
right ity, fulfilling its role as a concert organ admirably,
although only of modest size (this being dictated by
the size of the organ chamber – the two proposed
pedal reeds could not be accommodated, nor even
a choir box). Access for maintenance is far from
generous, with a constricted ascent to the Swell. The
provision of independent sub-octave couplers for
the Great and Swell reeds adds much to the overall
versatility of the organ – these ranks are placed
on separate actions. Indeed, it can be considered
66 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_062-066_F_Maidment T.indd 66
a multum in parvo concert organ, as it delivers far
more than its modest array of stops would suggest.
Sitting at the finely crafted oak console, one
admires the clearly engraved ivory-headed draw-
stops, with ebony stems, and the ebony and ivory
ferrules – later copied by Rushworth & Dreaper
when that firm was headed up by Llewellyn Simon.
Many of the major English firms at this time devel-
oped their own house styles not only for consoles
and fittings, but also for casework, tonal design and
voicing. These days, it would be difficult to find this
level of individuality and creativity.
Harrison & Harrison’s comprehensive and
conservative restoration shows great attention
to fine detail. Even the pneumatic tubing is very
securely bound together with black cotton tape,
while the piston action, operated by large vertical
book motors, functions admirably. The key actions
are most responsive, while the reconstructed stops
fulfil their roles admirably and authentically.
It was excellent to be accompanied by Dr
McVicker, who demonstrated the organ and showed
me its internal workings, and Edward Kemp-Luck,
who so ably played later (including the Stanford
Postludes, ideally suited to its resources) and
enabled me to absorb its sound from the opposite
end of the hall in a fine selection of works contem-
porary with the organ. It also looks wonderful,
benefiting from a very fine three-tower carved oak
case of classical design (with newly repainted façade
pipes) designed by the hall’s architect, John Belcher,
as well as fine and resonant acoustics, at least when
the hall – around 30 metres in length – is empty.
The restoration was funded by a generous grant
from the Heritage Lottery Fund together with an
‘Adopt a Pipe Appeal’ run by the Friends group in
Colchester. The inaugural recital on 21 May 2015
was given by David Drinkell, born in Colchester,
now resident in Canada.
In some ways this instrument was almost a home-
coming for me, as I listened to a 1913 Norman &
Beard organ almost daily during my schooldays in
Melbourne. I still recall the massive Open Wood and
colossal diapasons and reeds, audible well outside
the chapel, characteristics also found at Colchester.
It is entirely commendable that this outstanding
example of Edwardian organ building has regained
its vitality through such a fine restoration, and
eloquently demonstrates what an imaginative organ-
building style was pursued by Norman & Beard.
John Maidment OAM is chairman of the Organ
Historical Trust of Australia; he has researched and
written about organ building in Australia and advised
on many projects in that country and New Zealand.
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:17:13
 Care and subtlety taken in an organ’s
wind system design can contribute
buoyancy, liveliness, and energy to the
music.

BREATH
“The organ is nothing but a machine,
whose machine-made sounds will always
be without interest unless they can appear to
be coming from a living organism. The organ
has to seem to be alive.”

Charles Brenton Fisk, 1969

The Organ’s Breath of Life

Expertise. Artistry. Commitment. www.cbfisk.com

CO0316.indd 67 11/04/2016 11:18:56

 RAISING STANDARDS
Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms gave a fresh perception of
liturgical music, writes David Hill

Chichester Psalms has been performed by choirs all over the world and has, in many ways,
effected major change as to how liturgical music may be conceived and performed. The
Judeo-Christian heart of the work is a reminder that over consecutive days in Roman and
Anglican cathedrals, the cycle of 150 psalms is gradually worked through (said or sung)
© EDWARD WEBB

David Hill is one of the UK’s leading choral direc-
tors. He has made over 70 recordings in his various
posts as chief conductor of the BBC Singers, and
musical director of the Bach Choir and Leeds
Philharmonic Society, among others. He is also
associate guest conductor of the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra.
and acts as shared aspects of faith between Jews and Christians. Walter Hussey, Dean of
Chichester in the 1960s, was very well connected to the artistic world. His passion for art, in
all its forms, left an enviable legacy in Chichester Cathedral, the most significant, musically,
being the Chichester Psalms. Hussey was a shrewd networker. Through Bernstein’s physician
friend Cyril Solomon, whom Hussey had got to know, the composer was approached to
write a work for the Southern Cathedrals Festival in 1965. Hussey declared, ‘I think many of
us would be very delighted if there was a hint of West Side Story about the music.’
Hussey and the choir got more than a hint of West Side Story. The male chorus’s dramatic
intervention halfway through the second movement of Chichester Psalms is a reworking of
the chorus cut from the Prologue to West Side Story. Sondheim’s original lyric ‘Mix – make
a mess of ’em! Make the sons of bitches pay’ was transformed into ‘Lamah rag’shu goyim’
(‘Why do the heathen so furiously rage together?’). What isn’t generally realised is that the
thematic material (and some of the workings) for all three movements of the Psalms was
adapted from music Bernstein had just composed for the musical The Skin of our Teeth.

Scoring Movement I Practise in front of a mirror, (something we

Once Bernstein had agreed to write the
work, Hussey wrote with details of the
musical resources available. Although
most performances now use the reduced
version (organ, harp and percussion), the
composer went on to produce a full orches-
tral version, which was used for the original
performance: strings, 2 harps, 3 trumpets,
3 trombones, timpani and percussion. As
Hussey said, ‘It is not really possible to have a
full symphony orchestra for reasons of space
and expense, and the fact the combined
strength of the three cathedral choirs is
about 70 to 75.’ This is still the case today.
Only one soloist is required: a treble or
counter-tenor – Bernstein specifies the role
as male, and not soprano. There are addi-
tional roles for alto, tenor and bass.
Edition
Chichester Psalms is published by Boosey &
Hawkes, in both possible orchestrations.
Language
The text is in Hebrew, but this shouldn’t put
anyone off attempting the work: there is a
very useful pronunciation guide, and rela-
tively few difficulties.
Bernstein uses a fragment of Psalm 108
(verse 2) as a way of introducing the work.
It’s a firecracker of an opening, needing as
much attack and projection as possible.
Printed commas denote a breath and space
but never holding things up. Bar 8 is an
example where time is needed for breathing
and placement of the percussion sffz, but no
more time than that.
Conductors: How do we deal with bar 10?
There is no indication of any break between
the opening and Allegro molto. There is a
straightforward solution: by subdividing the
final beat of bar 10 into two quavers, they
will equal the speed of the following minim.
[Ex.1]
Once the Allegro is under way, it is up to the
conductor to keep a tight rein on the proceed-
ings. Use the shape of three (triplet time) with
an extended 3rd beat to ensure clarity.
The shape of the beat should work something
like this:

 
should all do more of), and if it looks right,
excellent! However, the acid test is keeping it
going while looking up and providing other
leads. So, once you are confident, turn on the
metronome to crotchet = 240 and see if the
right hand is still in time. One further tip: by
extending the 3rd beat, it is very easy for the
following 1st beat to be late. That will cause
confusion (big time!) and slow the tempo as
everyone attempts to adjust.
Choral writing
When the choral scores first arrived in
Chichester, they were met with excited
anticipation and an equal dose of incredu-
lity. Learning it is as complicated now as it
was then.
Conductors: Treat text and notation
separately. Anyone who reads this column
regularly knows how passionate I am about
this.
1. Speak the text slowly remembering to
produce a neutral ‘u’ sound when there is
a letter followed by an apostrophe, eg k’(u)
fa-nav bi-r’(u)-na-nah. This procedure
should be adopted for all three movements.
2. Slowly rehearse notes, being particularly
careful about moments of divisi.

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Ex.1 Movement 1: the quaver beat becomes the minim beat
3. In bar 22, I ask S/A/B to place the grace
note before the beat. Bar 65 is often sung to
the final rest, causing bar 66 to start very
late: the attack at this point is the priority.
At bar 80, ask all altos to sing alto 2, and all
2nd sopranos staying on their allotted line.
The final pause [Ex.2] is a complex
moment requiring calm delivery.
Conductors
1. Once you are on the pause, hold still, avoid-
ing anyone anticipating the next move.
2. Listen to the quavers in the percussion and
engage with the player.
3. One up-beat will be sufficient. The choir
should finish as soon as the hand is raised
for the up-beat.
➞
up beat in time of
3
3 men should be instilled with the confidence
➞ ➞
➞
1 2 1
Conducting shapes
Movement II
This possesses the tranquillity of Psalm 23,
with an earworm of a melody for treble or
counter-tenor, alongside the more visceral
text of Psalm 2 (Why do the nations rage?).
It mustn’t be too slow (crotchet = 92) as the
tempo leads naturally into con moto at bar
31 (crotchet = 96), the sopranos’ canon. The
echo effect of soprano 2 is often ignored;
it should sound as if they are singing from
another space.
Allegro feroce: This section heralds the
change of text and mood, Bernstein incor-
porating part of Psalm 2 at this point. It
continues to challenge any choir undertak-
ing it. I recall a rehearsal in Winchester (for
the Southern Cathedrals Festival) when the
tenors and basses were cursing the speed of
the Hebrew. Dr Richard Seal was conduct-
ing (then organist of Salisbury Cathedral
and participant in the first performance),
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_068-069_R_Raisins Standards T.indd 69
Ex.2 Movement 1 final pause: listen to the percussion quaver rhythm
and I am sure I heard an easier, humorous
alternative text being sung (something to
do with ‘seven popadoms and a chicken
rogan josh’…) Amusing as substituting
text might be, there is no alternative to slow
and patient preparation of this section, best
achieved in a sectional rehearsal for the
tenors and basses.
Conductors
If your choir has a plethora of basses, you
might consider placing all tenors on tenor 1
at bar 85 ‘yahad’, with some 1st basses
singing tenor 2, and the remainder on the
bass part.
When the sopranos and altos enter at bar
102, strict time must be maintained.
The interjections of the tenors and basses
must sound loud, almost shocking. The
to deal with these without the conductor
having to show too much, which lessens the
impact.
The final unison A of the movement often
wavers in pitch. This is due to the instru-
mental writing: C minor with A flat. While
it adds additional tension, some singers are
magnetically drawn to switch allegiance
from A natural to A flat.
Movement III
If you are presenting the full orchestral
version, the Prelude presents technical chal-
lenges for the conductor. The organist is
usually best left alone. The tempo ebbs and
flows and the commas can be confusing.
I would suggest the following:
Bars 2, 4, 6 and 13 fall into the category of
‘breaths’ and careful placement of the
following moment.
Bar 3 – here it is possible to add a little
time following the pause.
Bar 15 – these are still ‘breaths’, but the
chords are more emphatically separated.
At the end of this bar I add time before
placing the first beat of bar 16.
SLUG
‘Peacefully flowing’ is in the unusual time
signature of 10/4.
Conductors: As in Movement I, it is worth
practising how you intend conducting this
passage so as to avoid experimenting on the
singers and players. Here are two suggested
shapes. The first is the more ambitious, the
more professional; the second is a clear and
possible alternative.

    
Choral writing: It is best when phrases are
long and very legato; two phrases with one
breath works well, though I suggest breath-
ing in bar 25 and a run-through in bar 26.
In the final section from bar 54, sanctioned
by Bernstein, it is possible to omit the solo
tenor part if it overshadows the treble
soloist. The commas are breaths with time.
Intonation in the final section causes
anxiety among most groups and conduc-
tors, not least as the instruments reappear
for the final two bars.
Conductors
Since it is marked ppp, ask half the choir to
hum, the other half singing with words.
Tune soprano and bass together, adding
alto and tenor gradually with humming
and, finally, text.
All singers should take two breaths for the
final ‘Amen’.
Chichester Psalms is a work that is as fresh
as the day it was conceived. It is always
thoroughly enjoyed by singers and instru-
mentalists alike, having celebrated 50 years
in the repertoire in 2015.
NEXT ISSUE
Orff: Carmina burana
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 69
30/03/2016 12:18:43
 SLUG

Upper
case
As his new Missa Brevis for Wells
Cathedral is being rehearsed, Joseph
Phibbs talks to Maggie Hamilton about
the thrill of writing for upper voices

COURTESY JOSEPH PHIBBS

Up for a challenge: composer Joseph Phibbs

‘I
love the sonority of two- or three-
part upper harmony, and I especially
love the sound of female choirs.
I like the sound of boys’ voices, but it’s
not the “Britten” special attraction to that
sonority; it’s simply the upper voices that I
find intriguing.’
Some musicians tend to the view that
such compositions are not ‘serious’ music,
that they are written for amateur children’s
or women’s choirs, and as such don’t carry
the same weight as music for ‘professionals’.
But Joseph Phibbs couldn’t disagree more: ‘I
find writing for SSA three-part texture to be
a really satisfying one to work with, because
it’s so pared down, which for me means
there’s a greater fusion between melody,
harmony and counterpoint. In a three-
part texture, every note has to count and
contribute – you don’t have a functional
bass in the way you might in an SATB piece.
If you’re creating harmony with just three
parts, you really have to think about how
the melodic phrases are contributing to the
harmonic rhythm as well, and in a more
exposed texture too. It also gives greater
flexibility in interweaving the parts. Of
course, I like writing for SATB as well, but
it’s a different challenge.’
Our conversation has been prompted
by a new Missa Brevis that Phibbs has
been preparing for Wells Cathedral Choir.
‘[Director of music] Matthew Owens
identified a liturgical need, as there are
very few short Masses for upper voices that
are a cappella – even the Britten has organ
accompaniment.’ A recent signing with
Boosey & Hawkes for some of his choral
works proved additional encouragement
to Phibbs to complete the Mass, which has
come together piecemeal: ‘It was written
over the course of about seven years, on and
off! One of the movements, the Sanctus, was
commissioned by Matthew in 2009, and I
wrote it as a one-off. The Gloria and Agnus
Dei came later, as a commission completely
out of the blue from a Malaysian children’s
choir run by Roni Sugiarto. Then Booseys
suggested that it would be quite a useful
piece to turn into a complete Missa Brevis.’
Isn’t there a danger that it might not hang
together, given that it wasn’t mapped out
as a whole? ‘It was an interesting process
and has developed more from the middle
outwards. As I’ve been working on it, I’ve
revised it and made harmonic links; and
I’ve looked carefully at which keys the
movements are in so it could be performed
as a stand-alone piece without too many
harmonic problems.

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 JOSEPH PHIBBS

‘The Gloria has a somewhat eastern feel different sound – it isn’t the SATB “beautiful (published by OUP) for that occasion
harmonically which has influenced the other choir” sound, and it frees up the possibilities was premiered by Andrew Lucas and St
movements a bit in terms of their harmonic for a different type of expression in other Albans Cathedral Choir, and so impressed
identity. I extended the Gloria, then wrote parameters, harmonic and melodic, which was Lucas that he commissioned a second
the Kyrie and Benedictus to complete the I find quite liberating. I’d be interested to work, this time for St Albans Bach Choir.
Mass, and an additional Sanctus – so there explore that soundworld more, especially in Tenebrae, for choir and orchestra (2005,
are two Sanctuses, which is a bit odd! The an ecclesiastical context – a slightly different and also published by OUP), set the seal
second one can follow on attacca from the take on the liturgy. I love the timbral aspect on Phibbs’s attraction to choral writing. A
first, so it could almost work as a composite of female voices: boys’ voices have a unique year of teaching at Wells Cathedral School
Sanctus. But one is considerably simpler purity of sound, but I equally think an a resulted in an ongoing collaboration with
than the other one, so choirs could choose cappella female choir has a unique sound Matthew Owens, including a number of
which one to use, or do them together.’ which I enjoy writing for.’ short introits for upper voices, starting
Given that the Mass is to be premiered Until he was invited to compose a piece with Gaudeamus (now also available in an
by the excellent combined boys’ and girls’ for the choral supplement of Choir & SATB version). From that point on came
voices of Wells Cathedral, it is not surpris- Organ in 2003, Joseph Phibbs had never further choral commissions including, in
ing to learn that the piece has some musical written for choirs. But the Ave verum 2010, a substantial 25-minute piece for
challenges: ‘Rhythmically, the Gloria is
quite syncopated and there’s a lot of time
signature changes in that movement. And
I love using false relations, often in relation
to a play on the major/minor tonalities with
their clashes. But even though the piece is
largely modal, there is a sense of harmonic
gravity in that the movements each return
to their own key at the end, and I’m hoping
that there won’t be too many sections that
will create difficulty in terms of actually
pitching the notes.’
Phibbs’s writing also nods to female
choirs in Bulgaria and other eastern
European countries: ‘They have a very
different sonority and vocal delivery,
which creates a completely different, and
thrilling, soundworld. It’s a very visceral
and emotive way of singing – emotive in a
different way from the English cathedral
sound, which is of course wonderful and
beautiful. It has much more of a gutteral,
nasal tone, raw delivery, sometimes without
vibrato. Although I haven’t replicated
that in this piece, harmonically I think it
has taken something from that tradition.
I was exploring the superb BBC World
Music archive, and came across some
funeral music from a church in Georgia
– utterly powerful and moving in a very
non-Anglican, non-English way. I love the
English tradition, but there was something
about the rawness that I found really
gripping. Writing just for upper voices does
perhaps free up the possibilities for a slightly

The openings of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and

Benedictus of Phibbs’s Missa Brevis
© COPYRIGHT 2016 BY BOOSEY & HAWKES MUSIC PUBLISHERS LTD.
REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF BOOSEY & HAWKES MUSIC PUBLISHERS LTD.

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 71

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 JOSEPH PHIBBS
mostly upper voices and percussion as part
of a project called Sing Out, sponsored by
Suffolk Rotary Club. ‘Shadows of Sleep was
commissioned with the idea of trying to
involve as many local schools as possible. In
the end it was sung by about about 400-500
singers aged 8-16 – a real community-based
project. Before I started writing, I went into
the schools to gauge their level of ability.
Very few could read music so I had to keep
‘Eastern European female choirs have a vocal
delivery that creates a very different, and
thrilling, soundworld – visceral and emotive’
the melodic material simple. It was a huge
challenge to find a text that would fire the
imagination of such a wide age range. In
the end, I set a variety of texts, including
Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade, a
Matthew Owens, a proponent of new music, will conduct the upper voices of Wells Cathedral in the premiere of the Missa Brevis
72 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_070-073_F_Phibbs and Stateside T.indd 72
beautiful poem by Belloc which acted as
a refrain, and a second world war poem
called Night Bombers by Flt Lt Owen Chave,
who was later killed during the war. Each
of the poems was related to “night” – hence
the title Shadows of Sleep. The premiere
was conducted by Peter Nardone, who
subsequently performed it in Chelmsford,
and I was delighted when Adrian Partington
did it at a later Three Choirs Festival.’
How does Phibbs approach writing for
upper voices without running the risk of
‘dumbing down’? ‘I think that’s a difficult
one. I think the use of more modal mate-
rial has helped me to try to do something
that’s true to myself, so I don’t see it as
being at odds with my musical language
(as I use modality in some of my orchestral
works too). I think that the challenge, and
what makes writing for choirs a different
challenge from writing for orchestra, is
that it is entirely created by humans – and
most obviously so when the choir is unac-
companied – so one needs to be quite
conscious of pitch, how a singer will find a
particular pitch, whether a clash is going to
put them off course for their next melodic
phrase, or whatever. But I don’t see that as
dumbing down: in a strange way it’s more
of a distillation of technique – in those
tiny pieces one has to be mindful of pitch
control, of line, of interval and so on.
‘In the case of Wells Cathedral, you’re
aware you’ve got some really first-rate
singers and sightsingers. When writing
for primary schools, you’re writing for
completely untrained voices and can’t
COURTESY WELLS CATHEDRAL
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:25:59

assume they can read music, so you’re
dealing with a different set of chal-
lenges. In writing for primary schools,
I’ll typically write in two parts (SS),
but though most of my choral music is
harmonically diatonic, I’m interested in
exploring modal inflections within that
language and play on major and minor
harmonies, false relations. But it’s never
white-note diatonicism in that sense, and
that brings up challenges of singability.
You have to be quite careful with young
voices, not to make it too complicated
and difficult to sing.’ And isn’t it the case
that young voices might be, if anything,
more open to tackling music that is a bit
less conventional? ‘Yes, when Andrew
Lucas performed Gaudeamus the reac-
tion from the choir was that they enjoyed
singing something a bit different from
what they usually do, and that might
have something to do with the slightly
modal language of that piece. Perhaps the
younger singers don’t have preconcep-
tions of what a choral piece is, so it didn’t
strike them as such a daunting challenge.’
Some composers can become labelled,
rightly or wrongly, as ‘choral compos-
ers’; not so Joseph Phibbs. With a slew of
chamber and orchestral works already in
his canon, he is completing a 20-minute
piece for the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
Partita, to be premiered on 21 May, a
short orchestral work for this year’s Three
Choirs Festival (Philharmonia Orchestra,
conducted by Adrian Partington), and
is soon to start his first chamber opera,
a modern adaptation of Strindberg’s
Miss Julie jointly commissioned by the
Presteigne and Cheltenham festivals
(Nova Music Opera). Although he
currently has no other choral commis-
sions in his in-tray, he says he’s ‘always
happy to! I love writing for choirs, and
enjoy the challenge.’
A number of Joseph Phibbs’s choral works are
published by Boosey & Hawkes: www.boosey.
com; see Readers’ Offers, p.49. Additional
information at www.josephphibbs.com
Matthew Owens conducts the premiere
of Missa Brevis in Wells Cathedral on
5 May, during the morning service for
Ascension Day.
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_070-073_F_Phibbs and Stateside T.indd 73
BY DIANE MEREDITH BELCHER
Reflections from across the Pond
The Ivy League, technically an athletic conference named for
the foliage creeping along the bricks and mortar of its historic
buildings, is the U.S. equivalent of Oxbridge, where bright minds
can achieve mastery in virtually any academic subject. Harvard, Yale, Penn, Princeton,
Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell are all known for expertise in musicology,
composition and music theory, and boast some of the biggest names in those fields.
Serious performers continue to train at conservatories such as Curtis, Juilliard et
al, but increasingly many artist-scholars are following in the footsteps of Yo-Yo Ma,
turning to the academy for a rigorous undergraduate liberal arts curriculum while
maintaining musical pursuits. Facilities and opportunities for performers vary between
the Ivies, but the bottom line is that top-notch organ study is definitely available to
the brainy set.
The Harvard experience is typical of the Ivies in that the undergraduate degree is in
the Arts (not Music), with no performance major possible; but the unique, student-
led Harvard Organ Society with its historic
LEN LEVASSEUR
organs (Fisk, Skinner, and Flentrop) combine
winningly with the academic and musical
culture of Boston. Yale appeals for its
combined five-year BA/MM degree (and
DMA) with the Graduate School, and for those
lucky students advanced enough to learn with
stellar professors Thomas Murray and Martin
Jean on Yale’s famed organs at Woolsey Hall,
Dwight Chapel, and Marquand Chapel.
The University of Pennsylvania houses the
curious and mammoth Irvine Auditorium
Cornell’s baroque GOArt organ
organ, though its access is strangely limited
for both students and faculty; proximity to both Curtis and the Philadelphia Orchestra,
however, is a considerable plus. Just an hour up the road in Princeton, young artist-
scholars can glory in practising on the Skinner/Mander organ in the University Chapel,
take in the musical offerings of nearby Westminster Choir College and Princeton
Theological Seminary with its fine Fritts organ, and have the opportunity to apply for a
joint BA/MM with London’s Royal College of Music.
Columbia and Brown also provide organ instruction, with the latter offering
undergraduates the ability to formulate their own major and curriculum, including study
abroad. A large, almost cult-like following for organ recitals on Brown’s 1903 Hutchings-
Votey instrument dates back to the midnight concerts of former university organist Fred
MacArthur, and is a delightful way to get performing experience.
Dartmouth student organists practise on the largest pipe organ in New Hampshire
(the Austin family’s gift for Rollins Chapel), and may apply for the Foreign Study Program
where they are immersed in the musical culture of such cities as London or Vienna for a
full term, receiving private lessons and attending daily concerts. Meanwhile, at Cornell,
a magnificent new installation (the baroque GOArt organ) and two smaller instruments
have been acquired to support both lessons and performance opportunities for
undergraduate and graduates alike, tempting the finest of these to apply for the unique
DMA in Performance Practice/Keyboard Studies.
Still lacking at most American academic institutions is the equivalent of the British
organ scholar training, so critical in sacred music. With a resurgence in both pipe organ
study and choral singing in the States, perhaps it is not too much to hope for such a
tradition to be established before long, as the talent is definitely coming to the Ivies.
Diane Meredith Belcher is a concert organist, music director at St Thomas Episcopal Church
in Hanover, New Hampshire, and lecturer in organ and music theory at Dartmouth College.
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 73
30/03/2016 12:26:17
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 SLUG

DOUGLAS BATON
Hostages to fortune: wheeling a Mander organ at ‘gunpoint’ from the former RCO building to the Royal Albert Hall

THE CRAZY GANG

David Willcocks on a penny whistle? Gillian Weir dressed as Little Bo-Peep? Allan Wicks
in boxing shorts? Catherine Ennis tells the tale of a remarkable concert 50 years ago
when the organ world let its hair down. PHOTOS COURTESY PAT HURFORD; CARTOONS BY JOAN FREEMAN

T
he year 1966 saw an explosion of
popular culture in the UK: not
just the World Cup, but also the
mini (car and skirt), flower power, and
the Beatles; the Crazy Gang, Cambridge
Footlights, That Was the Week that Was,
and later Monty Python; soon André Previn
(‘Mr Preview’) would be the straight man
for Eric Morecambe playing ‘all the right
notes, but not necessarily in the right order’.
National Service had recently ended, and
the genteel comedy of Gerard Hoffnung
had inspired many a humorous concert.
Meanwhile, in the non-psychedelic world
of the organ, the Royal College of Organists
had just celebrated its centenary, and
Council member Peter Hurford determined
(against how much opposition from more
conservative colleagues?) that there was
to be a Happening. Part concert, part
revue, the event to raise funds for the RCO
would become so famous that those of us
too young yet to realise we’d be organists
heard about it for decades afterwards. It
is still spoken of in rapturous terms today
by those who were among the 5,000-plus
in the Royal Albert Hall 50 years ago on
24 September 1966, who enjoyed (hugely,
as the laughter on the recording attests)
a fund-raising evening of organ-based
entertainment entitled Organ In Sanity
And Madness.

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 RCO 100 CONCERT

Alter egos: Peter Hurford as J.S. Bach (l) and the Queen of Sheba (r), borne by choral scholars from King’s College, Cambridge

What made this mixture of great Westminster Abbey organist since Henry Ralph Downes, Martin Neary, Francis
playing and comedy so memorable, and Purcell, made a cameo appearance playing Jackson, Jack Westrup, William Cole, and
such a successful public relations coup Bossi’s G minor Étude symphonique (deliv- John Birch. The popular virtuoso percus-
for the RCO? The LP, which brings us ered with dashing aplomb). Gillian Weir, sionist and lecture-recitalist James Blades
the live recording of highlights, hints star of the 1964 St Albans Competition played a major role, and Willcocks brought
at a few reasons. First, the content was (and the only organist ever to have been the choral scholars of King’s College,
absolutely of its time. The crazy booklet photographed by the glamorous Harpers Cambridge (soon to be the original King’s
for the evening (festooned with cartoons & Queen magazine) appeared twice in the Singers) and the Jacques Orchestra, via
and music manuscript gags), the in-jokes programme, first in John McCabe’s Mini- mutual association with the Bach Choir. So
about Bach Gesellschaft, musique concrète, Concerto (for which she sported that most this was a most attractive line-up for any
etc., the English Cadence thrown into topical garment, a mini-skirt) and then for concert-goer interested in organ and choral
The Lost Chord, and the many quotations Les heures bourguignonnes by Georges Jacob music in the London of 1966.
in the very silly Gordon Jacob variations (dressed as Little Bo-Peep). Both manifesta- Third, the Royal Albert Hall itself
(similar in style to music for radio shows tions will have raised the blood pressure contributed much to the appeal of the
such as ITMA) betray the considerable of quite a few, and of course her playing event. It was the dream venue for drawing
musical knowledge and experience of was superb. Other stellar participants national attention to its neighbour, the
concert-goers 50 years ago. Recent memory included David Willcocks, Allan Wicks, terracotta- fronted mansion which was
of National Service resulted in universal
hilarity at the instructions given on playing
the penny whistle by RCO President-Elect
and distinguished former soldier David
Willcocks, a parody of army instructions on
the handling of firearms.
Second, there was the draw of celebrity.
A panoply of big names from the world of
organists was assembled for the evening.
Not only were they establishment figures
giving performances of quality, but also
all entered into the informal aspect of the
evening. Among them were some striking
young stars whose careers were causing
interest way beyond the organ loft. The bril-
liant young recording artist Simon Preston,
in demand as soloist and collaborator with
major London orchestras and the youngest

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then RCO Central, just across the road from
Door 9. A photo in the programme booklet
shows an organ, loaned by Mander, being
reluctantly hauled across the small divide
by participants in the concert (apparently
at gunpoint!). Close proximity to the Hall
might imply a close relationship, but the
reality was otherwise. Such a rare opportu-
nity to focus on the celebrated Willis, other
than in its function as drowner of rowdy
fans’ clamour at boxing matches, would be
eagerly anticipated by organ fanciers. An
advertisement in the 1966 RCO yearbook
warns members that ‘tickets are selling fast’.
So to the programme itself. With a
seasonal nod to the Last Night of the
Proms, it began with Rule, Britannia; from
then on, specially composed works were
interleaved with standard repertoire pieces,
comedy sketches and copious visual gags.
Eminent music critic Felix Aprahamian
and controversial organ designer Ralph
Downes mocked themselves and their
subject (ostensibly, the tenth-century organ
at Winchester Cathedral), to the delight
of all in the know. Hurford, resplendent
in Bach wig and green costume, revisited
the composition of BWV 532 with the
Suitably attired, a mini-skirted Gillian Weir takes to the bench for John McCabe’s Mini-Concerto
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_075-078_F_Ennis T.indd 77
help of his comic ‘stooge’ (Martin Neary).
The King’s choral scholars searched afresh
for Sullivan’s Lost Chord, while a boxing-
ring appeared for a battle between organ
and percussion in Alan Ridout’s Musique
concrète, with Allan Wicks and James Blades
in boxing shorts, dressing gowns and towels.
The first half culminated in John McCabe’s
Mini-Concerto for 485 penny-whistles, organ
and percussion. Critic Basil Ramsey [later to
be Choir & Organ’s founding editor] wrote
in his pithy review for the Musical Times,
‘the dreadful squeal … from the auditorium
… probably terrorised all within a three-
mile radius.’ No doubt the interval thirst
following this activity was further inspired
by cartoonist Joan Freeman’s drawing of
an organist pulling a pint from an organ
pipe, one of the many charming images she
RCO 100 CONCERT
contributed to the booklet.
A couple of Handel items began the
second half. A spoof note about recent
archeological discoveries was the excuse
for semi-clad King’s Scholars in fetching
helmets to bear an outrageously-costumed
Hurford for the eponymous Arrival of The
Queen of … Shhhh … (and yes, that advert
is 50 years old and more. As Basil Ramsey
noted, ‘it was surprising she did not enter
astride an enormous tonic water bottle.’)
You can see audience members on their feet
in the packed boxes, applauding behind her
litter, in the grainy photograph (opposite)
which survives of the moment. Allan Wicks
continued with Lemmens’s Storm (with
appropriate percussion and noises off from
James Blades and assistants) and Francis
Jackson with the Widor Toccata, before the
grand finale, which employed all available
forces. David Willcocks reprised his
deadpan comedy role from the first half to
instruct audience participation in Gordon
Jacob’s Humpty Dumpty and his false
relations, in which snippets of The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice (Dukas), BACH (Liszt), Elegy
(Thalben-Ball), Pop Goes The Weasel,
Beethoven’s Symphony no.5, Mozart’s
COURTESY GILLIAN WEIR
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 77
30/03/2016 12:27:56
 RCO 100 CONCERT

colleagues of high calibre to give their

services, facilitating orchestra and singers,
cartoons and costumes, micro-managing
the event and ensuring (as his wife, Pat,
tells me was his principal aim) that fine
performance could also be great fun.
All this on top of his day job as Abbey
organist, founder of the St Albans Festival
and competition, composer, recitalist
and teacher.
It’s pure coincidence that 1966 also saw
the launch of Action Man.
‘Jupiter’ Symphony, Auld Lang Syne and his words hit home on the night, though Grateful thanks to Pat Hurford, Dame Gillian
Over The Hills and Far Away were greeted evidence appears only in the review, and Weir, Simon Preston CBE, Martin Neary
with delight, as the tumultuous applause not on the recording. To quote Ramsey LVO, Stephen King and Andrew McCrea for
on the recording at the conclusion of the again: ‘The RCO can only be delighted at help in the preparation of this article.
evening demonstrates. the resultant leap in the size of the Appeal
Could an event like this be repeated? If Fund coffers.’ For the man who dreamed up Catherine Ennis is director of music at St
so, would an audience of 5,000 turn up? If it the programme, there was also the matter Lawrence Jewry, London, founder-editor of
did, would it appreciate the jokes, given the of securing the venue at no cost, the loan the London Organ Concerts Guide, a recital-
decline in music education during the last of chamber organs, commissioning of new ist, teacher, and past president of The Royal
50 years? Conversely, are we now too serious music within a tight budget, persuading College of Organists.
for such an event – how much of it would
we simpy find jejeune? Is there somewhere
an animateur today, like the young Hurford
50 years ago, who could design and execute
such an event with similar success?
Here is an opportunity, perhaps, to
review current organ programmes and see
how far we have (or haven’t) travelled. If
organists then were aiming to move further
into the mainstream, and if that is still our
aim today, what has been achieved since?
How far are we organists closer to the centre
of professional music-making, which itself
now appears to have been reclassified as
classical music-making, not a distinction
Hurford and his contemporaries would
have had to consider? Perhaps these days
we have even further to go, to fight our way
out of a niche within a niche. Bold initatives
must be taken by each generation to
reaffirm the ability, humanity and versatility
of organists and their music; let’s hope
that the mantle will be taken up by likely
candidates in our time.
In Hurford’s archive, soon to be housed
at Jesus College, Cambridge, a meticulous
schedule for 24.09.66 has survived. Not
only does it reveal minute control of every
aspect of the event, but it also includes
drafts of speeches heard at various points
of the evening, notably an appeal for funds
worthy of the late Terry Wogan. Hurford
was always a dynamic speaker and evidently

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 RECITAL ROUND-UP
COLLINS TRIBUTE
Douglas Hollick’s recital in Oakham
School pays tribute to Peter Collins on an
organ by the British builder which has a
set of keyboards by Hollick himself. The
programme includes works by Matthias
Weckmann, whose 400th anniversary
is this year, and seasonal pieces by
Buxtehude, Grigny and J.S. Bach.
Alton, St Lawrence at 8pm
Neil Wright (3 May) 01420 543628
Berwick-upon-Tweed, Holy Trinity
& St Mary’s at 7pm
James Lancelot (22 Jun) 01289 306136
Bridlington Priory at 6pm
James Lancelot (28 May) 01262 672221
Brighton, St John the Evangelist at 6pm
John Kitchen (14 May) 01273 553311
Cambridge, Clare College at 5.25pm
Douglas Hollick (8 May) 01400 230363
Chelmsford Cathedral at 12.30pm
James Davy (6 May), Rosie Vinter (10
Jun) 01245 294484
Cheltenham College at 7pm
Alexander Ffinch (15 Jun) 01242 265600
Chichester Cathedral at 1.10pm
Daniel Cook (10 May), Laura Erel (21
Jun) 01243 812488
Doncaster Minster at 1.10pm
John Kitchen (17 Jun) 01302 323748
Dublin, St Patrick’s Cathedral at 8pm
David Leigh (1, 8, 11 May)
+353 1 453 9472
Dulwich College Chapel at 7.45pm
Douglas Hollick (12 Jun) 01400 230363
Durham Cathedral at 7.30pm
Jonathan Allsopp (18 May)
0191 374 4066
Dursley, St James-the-Great at 11am
Benedict Todd (28 May), Martin Bell
(25 Jun) 01453 549280
Edinburgh, Usher Hall at 1.10pm
John Kitchen (6, 20 Jun) 0131 228 1155
Ely Cathedral at 7.30pm
Roger Judd et al (14 Jun) 01353 667735
Finedon, St Mary the Virgin at 7.30pm
William Whitehead (14 May)
01933 779059
Framlingham, St Michael’s at 3pm
Douglas Hollick (19 Jun) 01400 230363
Gloucester Cathedral at 12.30pm*
William Peart (1pm, 2 May), Jonathan
Hope (12 May), George Castle (16 Jun),
Benjamin Chewter (30 Jun) 01452 528095
Hereford Cathedral at 1.15pm*
Tuesdays in May; Peter Dyke (7.15pm,
14 Jun), Justin Miller (21 Jun), Owain
Park & Alexander Hamilton (28 Jun)
While every effort is made to provide correct information, readers are strongly advised to telephone the numbers given to confirm details before attending.
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_079_R_Recitals T.indd 79
SPIRIT OF JOY
Coming three days after Pentecost, Jonathan Allsopp’s recital in Durham Cathedral
includes Bach’s Komm, heiliger Geist from the Leipzig Chorales, Duruflé’s Veni
Creator, Messiaen’s Messe de la Pentecôte, and Thierry Escaich’s Évocation II, ‘a
piece that begins in darkness and finishes in radiant light,’ says Allsopp. In the
centre of his programme is the premiere of Francis Jackson’s contribution to the
Orgelbüchlein Project: Nun freut euch, Gottes Kinder all, ‘a Bachian pastiche, with
flowing counterpoint in the right hand supported by statements of the chorale
melody in the left hand – but not without Francis’s own harmonic twists…’
01432 374210
Keswick, Crosthwaite Church at 2pm*
Ian Hare (21 May), Jordan English
(7.30pm, 16 Jun) 017684 83886
King’s Lynn Minster at 12.30pm
Roger Judd (31 May) 01553 767090
Leicester Cathedral at 1pm
Christopher Ouvry-Johns (6 Jun)
07813 565447
Liverpool Cathedral at 11.15am
David Poulter (2 May), Daniel Bishop
(30 May), Thomas Trotter (7.30pm,
18 Jun) 0151 709 6271
Liverpool, St George’s Hall at
12.45pm
Ian Tracey (17 May, 21 Jun)
0151 225 6909
London EC2, St Lawrence Jewry
at 1pm
Freddie James (3 May), Gabriele
Marinoni (10 May), David Cassan (17
May), Pierre Queval (24 May), Zita
Nauratyill (31 May), Catherine Ennis
(7, 14, 21, 28 Jun) 020 7600 9478
London EC4, St Paul’s Cathedral
at 4.45pm*
Mark Williams (1 May), Peter Holder
& City of London Sinfonia (7pm, 5
May), Ben Sheen (8 May), Andrew
Lucas (15 May), Huw Williams (22
May), Simon Johnson (6.30pm, 2 Jun),
Neil Chippington (5 Jun), Ourania
Gassiou (12 Jun), Sarah Svendsen (19
Jun) 020 7236 6883
London N1, St John the Evangelist,
Duncan Terrace at 7.30pm
Ben Bloor (28 May), Graham Barber
(25 Jun) 020 7226 1218
London SE1, Royal Festival Hall
at 7.30pm
Margaret Phillips (6 Jun); pre-concert
talk at 6.15pm 020 7960 4200
London SE1, Southwark Cathedral
at 1.10pm
Peter Wright (9 May, 27 Jun), Karen
Beaumont (16 May), Alexander Binns (23
May), Stephen Disley (6 Jun), TBC (13
Jun), Colin Walsh (20 Jun) 020 7367 6700
London SW1, Holy Trinity, Sloane
Square at 5.30pm
Robert Patterson (11 May) 020 7730 7270
London SW1, Westminster Abbey
at 5.45pm
Sundays until 19 Jun 020 7222 5152
London SW1, Westminster
Cathedral at 7.30pm
Bjørn Andor Drage (18 May), Kevin
Bowyer (22 Jun) 020 7798 9057
London SW19, Sacred Heart,
Wimbledon at 8pm
Martin Baker (11 Jun) 020 8946 0305
London W1, St George’s, Hanover
Square at 1.10pm
Iestyn Evans (10 May), Tak Chow
(24 May), David Thomas (7 Jun),
Edward Picton-Turbervill (21 Jun)
020 7499 1684
London W1, Grosvenor Chapel
at 1.10pm*
Adrian Gunning (3 May), Richard
Hobson (6.45pm, 14 May),
Christopher Strange & Richard
Hobson (17 May), Chris Bragg (31
May), Richard Hobson & Moyra
Montagu (ob) (14 Jun), Christopher
Strange (28 Jun) 020 7499 1684
London W11, St John’s,
Landsdowne Crescent at 7pm
Adrian Gunning (13 May)
020 7727 4262
London WC2, Bloomsbury Central
Baptist Church at 4pm
Stephen Hamilton (28 May), Tom Bell
(25 Jun) 01953 688393
Ludlow, St Lawrence at 1pm
Shaun Ward (28 May), Andrew Lucas
(11 Jun), Birmingham Conservatoire
students (13 Jun) 01584 875154
Norwich Cathedral at 11am*
Jonathan Stamp (2 May), Malcolm
Archer (30 May), Jane Watts (7pm, 22
Jun) 01603 218300
Oakham School at 4pm
Douglas Hollick (15 May) 01400 230363
Oxford, Merton College at 1.15pm*
Alexander Little (12 May), Benjamin
Nicholas (19 May), Simon Johnson
(4pm, 21 May), Stephen Hamilton (26
May), Hans Leitner (2 Jun), Benjamin
Cunningham (9 Jun), Thomas Ospital
(4pm, 11 Jun) 01865 276310
DURHAM CATHEDRAL
Oxford Town Hall at 12 noon
John Oxlade (18 May), Malcolm
Pearce (22 Jun) 01865 252195
Portsmouth Cathedral at 1.10pm
Rhidian Jones (9 Jun), Oliver Hancock
& Jonathan Lilley (20 Jun), Daniel Cook
(23 Jun), David Price & Tristan Button
(tpt) (20 Jun) 023 9289 2965
Reading Town Hall at 1pm*
Benjamin Cunningham (4 May), Anne
Page (7.30pm, 19 May) 0118 960 6060
Richmond (Yorks), St Mary’s
at 12 noon
James Lancelot (7 Jun) 01638 745403
Romsey Abbey at 7.30pm
Jonathan Eyre (27 May), Colin Walsh
(17 Jun) 01794 513125
St Albans Cathedral at 12.30pm*
Tom Winpenny & Prime Brass (1pm, 2
May), Peter Holder (5.30pm, 14 May),
Tom Etheridge (18 May), Nicholas
Freestone (15 Jun) 01727 860780
St Edmundsbury Cathedral at 5pm
John Kitchen (18 Jun) 01284 748739
Salisbury Cathedral at 7.30pm
Andrew Nethsingha (25 May), Henry
Websdale (22 Jun) 01722 555198
Wells Cathedral at 1.05pm*
Matthew Owens (5 & 26 May; 4.30pm,
15 May; 7.30pm, 20 May), David
Simon (12 May), Bryan Anderson (9
Jun) 01749 674483
Windsor Castle, St George’s Chapel
at 1.10pm
Hugh Rowlands & Dewi Rees (3 May),
Asher Oliver (10 May), James Vivian (17
May), Richard Pinel (24 May), Daniel
Cook (7 Jun), David Newsholme (14
Jun), Marco Lo Muscio (21 Jun), Peter
Dyke (28 Jun) 01753 848888
Worcester Cathedral at 12.15pm
Paul Derrett (5 May), Alexander Pott (12
May), Ben Bloor (19 May), Justin Miller
(26 May), Philip Rushforth (16 Jun),
Richard Dunster-Sigtermans (23 Jun),
Richard Pinel (30 Jun) 01905 732900
For fuller listings, go to Events
at www.choirandorgan.com
* unless otherwise stated
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 79
30/03/2016 12:29:13
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May/June 2016 UK £4.95 www.choirandorgan.com see page 56

ORGAN CDS CROSSROADS
Mark Pacoe, The Actor’s Chapel, New York

MAPLE MAGIC
PARTHENIA NOVA
Simon Thomas Jacobs, Richards, Fowkes organ, St George’s,
Hanover Square, London
Fugue State FSRCD 009 [77:40]
★★★★
Bruce Fowkes and Ralph Richards’s 2012 organ
C.B. Fisk’s new instrument for Seattle at St George’s, Hanover Square is undoubtedly
the most significant new organ built in the
English capital since that at the Royal Festival
The organ of Westminster Abbey – Great European Organs no.7 Hall, now more than 60 years ago. Applying a
staggering degree of historic know-how to challenging acoustics
Acis APL21653 [67:35]
★★
I’m not sure what is at a ‘crossroads’ here, but
repertoire, organ and performer do not intercon-
nect comfortably. The arbitrary selection moves
from a transcription of Marias’s Symphonies
d’Alcione of 1706 to one of William Bolcom’s
Gospel Preludes. The much altered Skinner organ inevitably fares
best in an extract from Karg-Elert’s Cathedral Windows, and there
is an intelligent pairing of Buxtehude’s Praeludium in C major and
Eben’s Hommage à Dietrich Buxtehude. Unfortunately there is

Century innings
and the needs of a modern Anglican parish, the Tennessee firm
have succeeded in creating an organ which, thanks to the uncom-
monly cohesive relationship between each element of its concept
– touch, winding, voicing (especially of the reeds) etc. – is
astoundingly beautiful.
Simon Thomas Jacobs, winner of the 2013 St Albans
competition, presents it in English and northern European
‘early’ repertoire and in three recent compositions from the
English-speaking world. Considering the early repertoire first,
Weckmann’s Praeambulum primi toni is played with an appropri-
ately weighty sense of monumental Hamburg ‘prünk’. Sweelinck’s
Ricercar suffers from overly fussy registration changes – really
unnecessary when the organ is this good. Böhm’s Partita on ‘Freu
dich sehr’ is well programmed to show off many colours, but more
insufficient flair evident in many pieces, and Jongen’s Chant de May
lacks a lyrical sense of line and even contains a few wrong notes.
RUPERT GOUGH
OVERTURE TRANSCRIPTIONS VOL. 2
Timothy Byram-Wigfield, Binns organ (1913), Rochdale Town Hall
Delphian DCD 34143 [67:27]
★★★★★
An entire disc of overtures is a bit like enjoying a
7-course tasting menu, and here the results are
well worth savouring. Some lesser-known tran-
NEWS & PREVIEWS
scriptions are brought back to life and sound
EVENTS FINZI TRUST PUSHES THE
every bit as vibrant and extravagant as Rochdale
Town Hall itself, capturing all the atmosphere and ethos of the
Oxford & District Organists’
Association is marking its centenary
BOAT OUT…

After 30 years, Neil Collier of Priory Records is bringing down the curtain on his Great
variety of touch and rhythmic nuance would perhaps be welcome.
Of the contemporary pieces, special mention must go to Joel
Martinson’s as-yet unpublished Out of the Depth essays, a really
terrific work with a tremendous final fugue, brilliantly played.
with a recital by Thomas Trotter on the
Edwardian concert hall experience. Timothy Byram-Wigfield Dobson organ of Merton College Chapel
(4pm, 5 Mar). The event commemorates
manages these challenging transcriptions with ease and everything the first meeting of an ‘Association of
is well poised, making the Bach and Handel arrangements particu- Organists in Oxford’, which was held on
19 Mar 1916 by kind invitation of Dr
larly successful. The 1913 Binns organ produces fabulous
IN THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR of Gerald Finzi’s death, writes Graeme Kay, a new edition
of his Magnificat is set to be performed alongside a specially commissioned Gloria and Nunc
dimittis by David Bednall – and the unveiling of a commemorative window at Gloucester
Cathedral – as part of the 2016 Three Choirs Festival.
Gerald Finzi (1901-56) wrote his Magnificat in 1952 for Smith and Amherst Colleges,
Massachusetts. He generally composed in a reflective manner, tending to revisit and revise

European Organs series, with no.100. Graeme Kay finds out why. PHOTOS COURTESY PRIORY RECORDS
This is attractively presented and well worth having but, make no
mistake, the organ is the star of the show.
CHRIS BRAGG
BRUHNS & SCHEIDEMANN: ORGAN WORKS
Bine Bryndorf, Raphaelis organ, Roskilde Cathedral, Denmark
Hugh Allen. Allen had become organist
of New College in 1901 and was cred-
orchestral colours, particularly in Tchaikovsky’s Ouverture- ited with revitalising the musical life of
the whole university. Thomas Trotter’s
Fantaisie: Roméo et Juliette – a brilliant tour de force to conclude a recital will include music by Bach, Kagel,
splendid disc. Moszkowski, Mozart, Dove, Reger and
Prokofiev. Tickets on the door.
RUPERT GOUGH
St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street is the
venue for the opening concert of the
DAVID BASKEYFIELD 2016 season of JAM, the organisation
dedicated to nurturing, commissioning,
before submitting music for publication. His Magnificat, however, was composed to a
tight deadline, something agreed by Finzi because he was eager to complete a first over-
seas commission. The work finishes with a brief but beautiful ‘Amen’, rather than with a
traditional Gloria, since the music was not to be premiered liturgically. When the work has
subsequently been sung during Evensong, it has often been paired with an independent
setting of the Nunc dimittis, especially the version by Gustav Holst.
With a performance of the Magnificat scheduled for the 2016 Gloucester Three Choirs
Festival, the Finzi Trust felt that the 60th anniversary of the composer’s death marked not
only a public opportunity to continue the practice of artistic support for emerging talent
which Finzi and his wife Joy demonstrated throughout their lives, but also a chance to
enable greater liturgical usage of a striking choral work through provision of an added
Gloria, together with a Nunc dimittis specifically intended as a companion piece. The world

‘W
Dacapo 6.220636 [79:18] David Baskeyfield, Casavant organ, St Paul’s Bloor Street, promoting and performing new music premiere of the new setting takes place at Evensong in Gloucester Cathedral on 6 March
in the UK. The 17 Mar concert will open directed by Adrian Partington, with the Three Choirs joining together for a festival perfor-

ell, when I started Great
European Organs [GEO] in
1986, it was at the beginning
whole internet revolution, niggling logistic ★★★★
Music and organ are wonderfully matched here,
the Roskilde instrument being a perfect vehicle
issues such as the security paranoia which
for this repertoire. The music by Scheidemann is
superbly played, with colourful registrations that
has blighted international air transportation; bring this music vividly to life. Within just five
Toronto
ATMA Classique ACD22719 [79:25]
with JAM’s dramatic 2015 commission
by Thea Musgrave (below), The Voices
of our Ancestors, followed by four works
mance on 26 July.
The Finzi Trust has also taken the opportunity to commission a new commemorative
stained glass window. Painter and stained glass artist Tom Denny’s eight-panelled Finzi work
★★★★
submitted to JAM’s latest Call for Music: will occupy a new window in the North Chantry Chapel in Gloucester Cathedral, appropri-
Jonathan Woolgar’s Kiss the Sun, Today, ately positioned adjacent to the existing window commemorating Ivor Gurney, a composer
This fine debut on disc from young Englishman Tonight and Forever by Mike Stubbs, whom Finzi did so much to champion.
Dance by Huw Morgan and As de Canter Denny commented, ‘Gerald Finzi was extraordinary in the sensitivity and inventiveness of
David Baskeyfield comes courtesy of his victory
in the 2014 Canadian International Organ
by Danny Saleeb; the concert will also
revisit its award-winning 2006 commis-
his “collaborations” with other artists, music emerging from the words of Hardy, Traherne,
Wordsworth. This music, while full of veneration for the text, is a new thing, clear and beauti-

CHOIR & ORGAN OFFERS works Bryndorf gives a synopsis of his musical style, with a grand Competition. If the fare on offer errs on the side
sion from Judith Bingham, My Heart
Strangely Warm’d. Michael Bawtree
ful. It seems appropriate, therefore, that Finzi should be commemorated in another medium
– stained glass – which, like song, has its own mysterious balance of narrative and abstract

of the CD era and I had no idea how the
and organs (even some organists, sadly) have
Oxford Hymn Settings for organ majestic Praeambulum, variety and imagination in a chorale of familiarity, his choice of organ – the imposing
conducts the Chapel Choir of Selwyn
College (Cambridge), Onyx Brass, and
Simon Hogan (organ) with Stephanie
qualities.’

Tom Denny: stained glass designs for Gloucester Cathedral

see page 49 fantasia, a lovely intabulation of the motet Dic nobis Maria by IV/107 Opus 555 Casavant in Toronto’s Anglican St Paul’s – shows

COURTESY TON DENNY

Corley (s), Annie Gill (m-s), Andrew

series – or even the new medium – would
go.’ Neil Collier (pictured left) is in reflective
mood as he prepares to launch GEO no.100
come and gone. Bassano, a sparkling Fuga, and a Toccata with exquisitely judged Baskeyfield to be a player of some courage and considerable tech- Radley (c-t), Ashley Catling (t) and Omar
Ebrahim (b). Box office: www.jamconcert.
echoes from Rückpositiv to Brustwerk. The complete extant organ nique. The instrument’s signature work – Willan’s contrapuntally org/season or 0800 988 7984
FREE MUSIC DOWNLOAD
‘Paul Crichton and I started Priory at the
in our New Music section
works of Bruhns complete the programme – not so convincingly
as the Scheidemann, with the big Praeludia sometimes lacking the
virtuosic Introduction, Passacaglia (with its climactic tuba chorus)
and Fugue – makes tremendous use of its tonal resources. So, too,
end of the LP era in 1980,’ Collier explains.see page 45 A MOOT POINT rhetorical excitement I would have expected. Nevertheless, this is
a fine recording by a player who identifies so very strongly with
Whitlock’s Plymouth Suite and pieces by Vierne, Saint-Saëns and
others. Throughout, Baskeyfield delivers dexterous and detailed

– David Poulter performing Elgar, Bridge, ‘By 1986, we were established and looking Colchester’s Norman & Beard this repertoire. playing that promises much for the future.
DOUGLAS HOLLICK MICHAEL QUINN

Whitlock, Howells and Noel Rawsthorne on to think big. As an avid teenage collector KEY IMPORTANCE 80 CHOIR & ORGAN MARCH/APRIL 2016 www.choirandorgan.com
10 CHOIR & ORGAN MARCH/APRIL 2016 www.choirandorgan.com www.choirandorgan.com

the great Willis organ at Liverpool Cathedral. of organ discs I had memories of EMI’s Revisit Franck’s organ music COMA16_006-012_R_News T.indd 10 05/02/2016 12:06:01

It’s been a long haul: the prestigious GEO Great Cathedral Organ series (beginning COMA16_079-096_R_Reviews T.indd 80 05/02/2016 13:29:17

series not only spans the move from LP to coincidentally at Liverpool), which was of ROMANTIC IDYLLS
Exploring English partsong
CD to digital download, but takes in the variable quality and had stopped after 15

www.choirandorgan.com MARCH/APRIL 2016 CHOIR & ORGANT.indd53

COMJ16_001_R_Cover 2 30/03/2016 12:47:52

COMA16_053-056_F_Priory T.indd 53 05/02/2016 12:42:04

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COSUBS.indd 53 11/04/2016 10:50:09

 GRAND ORGAN GALA

MAURIC E DURUFLÉ
Toccata

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

SAMUEL WALE
L’Ascension

NICK RUTTER

C A M I L L E S A I N T- S A Ë N S
Symphony Nº· 3 ‘Organ’ NEXT ISSUE
JULY/AUGUST 2016
VAUXHALL PLEASURE GARDENS
How the organ entertained visitors to this popular venue.

SONGS OF SUNDRIE NATURES

Introducing ORA, the new professional a cappella group
hailing a second renaissance in choral composition.
City of London Sinfonia
Peter Holder organ GALLERY
Simon Johnson conductor A new Mander organ is serving a lively parish in Surrey.

Ascension Day PRAISE BE

Thursday 5 th May 2016 at 7.00 pm The Florentine confraternities of laudesi, praise bands in
renaissance Tuscany.

CHANGING TIMES
TI C K E T S  £30 · £20 · £15 · £10
Hungarian/German organist Zsolt Gárdonyi reflects on
(concessions  £24 · £16 · £12 · £8) *
available on the door or from developments in the organ world during his lifetime.
stpaulsorgangala.eventbrite.co.uk

Plus…
The latest international news and previews, specialist
* discount code: ‘concs’
reviews, supplement directory of pipe organ builders,
and a history of English organ building.

MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 81

COMJ16_081_R_Looking ahead T.indd 81 11/04/2016 11:12:43

 opus 118 iv — 90 ranks

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CO0316.indd 82 11/04/2016 11:19:01

 IN THE STUDIO
Phillip
Sommerich
looks ahead to
forthcoming
CD releases
D
avid Goode admits there are plenty of editions of Bach’s
organ works on record, but he has the excuse of being
asked to play the complete cycle. ‘I did a recital at Trinity
College, Cambridge, and Stephen Layton said, “We should do more
Bach on this instrument,” and asked me to do that.’ Two volumes
are available digitally on iTunes and Goode expects to finish by
September, with the set of 15 CDs to be issued later by Signum. ‘I
have felt over the years I do have my own way of doing Bach. I like
to think it’s historically informed, but not dogmatic.’ Any crea-
tive excesses are curbed by his Eton College colleague Matthew
O’Donovan, acting as producer. In the can also, awaiting final edits,
is the completion of his Reger cycle for Signum.
The Binchois Consort is following up its album Henry V and the
House of Lancaster, issued by Hyperion for the 600th anniversary
of Agincourt last year, with earlier music associated with the 100
Years War – and is finding distinct turn-of-century differences. ‘We
use quite a few motets from the 14th century which are much more
modal and rugged,’ says Andrew Kirkman, the ensemble’s conduc-
tor. ‘As the motet develops it grows out of quite a short piece of
Studio line-up: (clockwise, from main picture) David Goode records Bach, the Binchois Consort’s take on the 100 Years War, and Gothic Voices tackle Dufay
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_083_R_In The Studio T.indd 83
music, so you have very long notes for one pass through the tune,
then progressively shorter note values, so that by the time you get
to the end of the motet you start to see the sacred tune on which
the piece is based. It is a revelatory function.’
Gothic Voices, having made groundbreaking recordings of medi-
eval music for Hyperion in the 1980s and 90s and then for Avie,
are back with a new vocal line-up on the Linn label. Tenors Julian
Podger and Steven Harrold, mezzo Catherine King and baritone
Stephen Charlesworth have already recorded Mary, Star of the Sea,
combining music ancient and new, due out in August/September,
and are back in the studio for an album of Dufay’s sacred and secular
works. Instrumental support includes brass, organ and strings;
Podger says: ‘It should be a quite a spectacle. A lot of it is how you
juxtapose pieces to bring out the textures and performing clarity.’
The turbulent months from late 1554 to early 1555, when Queen
Mary’s pregnancy was announced and then found to be false,
has undergone several musical examinations. But Gallicantus is
able to offer a new perspective, thanks to musicologist Magnus
Williamson and others. ‘We now have a Latin Litany composed by
Thomas Tallis according to Sarum rites,’ says Gallicantus musical
director Gabriel Crouch. ‘It required quite a bit of reconstruc-
tion but it is absolutely clear that O Sacrum Convivium is a prayer
for the expected offspring of Queen Mary.’ That is in the can for
an album on Signum due out in the autumn, and the group is
working on a follow-up, focusing on the aftermath when, Crouch
says, ‘the music became grander and of larger scale, with more
voices, and we will be adding an organ.’
Phillip Sommerich writes for classical music publications and is
recording industry correspondent for Classical Music magazine.
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 83
30/03/2016 12:30:35
 MaSaaKi SUzUKi
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CO0316.indd 84 12/04/2016 16:01:10

 Rating: ★★★★★ Highly recommended ★★★★ Very good ★★★ Good ★★ Average ★ Poor

STAR REVIEW THIS ISSUE’S

REVIEWERS
Early Music Editor
‘A revelatory disc … a fine Rebecca Tavener

account of op.4 no.2’ Organ Music Editor

Stephen Farr
Choral Music Editor
most popular of the capital’s 60 or more private
Geoffrey Webber
outdoor entertainment arenas for nearly two centu-
ries. This revelatory disc mimics a typical evening’s Chris Bragg
music-making during Handel’s dominance of its Chris Chivers
greatest years. On a three-stop Collins chamber
Rupert Gough
organ, Daniel Moult provides a fine account of the
HANDEL AT VAUXHALL, VOL.1 bright, bristling Organ Concerto op.4 no.2, and Douglas Hollick
Daniel Moult (org), Sophie Bevan, Eleanor Dennis, a delightful – if brief – improvisation in the style Susan Landale
Kirsty Hopkins (s), Charles MacDougall, Greg Tassell of Handel and resident Vauxhall organist John Brian Morton
(t), Benjamin Bevan (bar), London Early Opera / Worgan. Orchestral works, the exquisite pastoral
David Ponsford
Bridget Cunningham (dir) Colin and Phoebe and pieces by contemporar-
Matthew Power
Signum Classics SIGCD 428 [48:18] ies Thomas Arne and John Hebden complete a
★★★★★ superbly performed, thoroughly enjoyable disc. Michael Quinn
With its own organ (possibly built by Richard Excellent notes by Bridget Cunningham and Shirley Ratcliffe
Bridge) housed in a dedicated three-storey build- David E. Coke. Philip Reed
ing, London’s Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens were the MICHAEL QUINN

Music for pleasure: Daniel Moult

STAR REVIEW 85
CONCERTS 86
ORGAN CDS 87
CHORAL CDS 91
EARLY MUSIC 93
ORGAN MUSIC 97
CHORAL MUSIC 99
BOOKS 100

www.choirandorgan.com MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 85

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 PARISPHILHARMONIE
REVIEWS CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS

‘A sound is born’: the new Rieger organ in the Philharmonie, Paris
CONCERTS
INAUGURAL RECITAL, RIEGER ORGAN, PHILHARMONIE, PARIS
Bernard Foccroulle, Philippe Lefebvre, Olivier Latry, Wayne
Marshall (org)
3pm, 6 February 2016
Excitement, a dream, an amazing recital, an unbelievably fine
organ; a miracle when one realises that without the obstinacy
of Olivier Latry and his team, the genius of Michel Garnier and
a combat of nearly ten years, this could never have happened.
For the two new Parisian concert halls – Radio France and the
Philharmonie – were originally planned to be without organs!
The ‘miracle’ has four manuals and pedal, 91 stops and over
6,000 pipes. In the superb new Philharmonie, seating some 2,400,
it is placed to the right in a chamber high above the platform,
concealed behind shutters when not in use. When these are open,
much of the pipework in the chambers is visible with beautiful
lighting and acoustics that seem to carry the sound towards the
listener. To quote Michel Garnier, the voicer whose art produced
this magnificent instrument: ‘On entering for the first time the vast
concert hall of such complex volume, empty and deserted during
the summer break, a stream of sound images for each stop filled
my ears in just a few seconds, and almost instantaneously told me
what would slip easily into place or what would demand nights of
effort to adapt each stop to the reactions of this unique space. Thus
began the work of some seven months, every night, until this enor-
mous machine gradually became an instrument of music.’
The inaugural recital on 6 February, played by four organists –
Bernard Foccroulle, Philippe Lefebvre, Olivier Latry and Wayne
Marshall – demonstrated every aspect of the organ which,
although symphonic by vocation, lends itself admirably to each
period of the repertoire. Foccroulle began with Buxtehude’s
Toccata in F major (BuxWV 156) and the great Fantasia & Fugue
in G minor by J.S. Bach. Here, the majestic pleno gave gravity and
86 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 86
pathos to the Fantasia, and the clarity of the beautifully balanced
mixtures produced a sparkling Fugue. In between these two works,
Bernard Foccroulle played Memory by Pascal Dusapin, which gave
us the chance to appreciate many of the softer solo stops, in which
the presence of the sound, despite the distance from the pipework,
was remarkable. Philippe Lefebvre, titulaire with Olivier Latry
of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, followed with Franck’s Pièce
héroïque, chosen in memory of the inauguration of the first secular
organ in France, that of the Palais du Trocadéro, inaugurated in
1878 by Franck himself. Lefebvre then played Cochereau’s Bolero
on a theme of Charles Racquet for organ and percussion – a great
chance to hear the tremendous power of crescendo of the organ.
(We may remember, in passing, that Charles Racquet, born in
1590, was also organist of Notre-Dame as early as 1618.) Lefebvre
ended with an improvisation, demonstrating remarkable contrasts
of sound that the organ can produce.
Olivier Latry’s programme of transcriptions was full of colour
and virtuosity, underlining the orchestral character of the instru-
ment and its affinity with the orchestra. The Danse du sabre
(Khatchaturian) and the Danse du feu (De Falla) were admirable;
particularly successful, too, was US composer James Mobberley’s
Critical Mass for organ and magnetic tape, mixing the organ with
a recorded electro-acoustic organ part that sometimes seemed to
come from outer space. He ended with a memorable performance
of Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre; after the implacable build-up of
the witches Sabbath, the crowing of the cock sent shivers down
the spine! Finally, Wayne Marshall offered us three movements of
Widor’s Sixth Symphony, then swept the audience off its feet with
an improvisation on the French cancan.
Let Michel Garnier have the last word: ‘A sound is born. On the
day of the inauguration, the umbilical cord is severed at last, the
instrument is born, its own life is beginning.’ Let us try to ensure
that this gorgeously symphonic organ will live a full life and not be
put in mothballs!
SUSAN LANDALE
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:32:04
 CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
ORGAN CDS
ORGAN SPECTACULAR!
Ashley Grote, Hill, Norman & Beard organ, Norwich Cathedral
Priory Records PRCD 1153 [77:53]
★★★★
Perhaps size does matter, after all – certainly when
a disc comes with a claim to be ‘spectacular!’ For
once, that additional exclamation mark seems
justified. Norwich Cathedral’s master of music
Ashley Grote puts his familiarity with its lavishly
resourced IV/105 instrument to formidable use in a crowd-pleasing
collection of familiar music. To the fore is the machine’s full-blooded
romantic voice – resplendent in Widor’s Fifth Symphony Toccata,
Walton’s Coronation March and Léon Boëllmann’s Suite gothique –
although Grote also makes good use of its ‘baroque-inspired’ stops
(notably so in that Bach Toccata & Fugue) and conjures becoming
poetry in Vierne’s Westminster Carillon.
MICHAEL QUINN
MICHAŁ DZITKO: BOKEH
Stephen Farr, St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, London
Available at apple.co/24UJhiU [32:29]
★★★★
The young Polish-born composer Michał Dzitko’s
debut is one of the most intriguing organ releases
to come my way in some time. Only available on
iTunes and Spotify, Bokeh takes its title from the
photographic term describing how a lens blurs
out-of-focus light. It’s an apt metaphor for the repetitive modal
minimalism that folds in on itself here in ever more elegant arcs
across six short pieces. No slave to form, Dzitko adopts a number
of techniques (strict adherence to a single mode, rapid harmonic
rhythms and others) notionally antithetical to the minimalist stric-
tures. The result, in Stephen Farr’s polished playing, is hypnotic.
MICHAEL QUINN
BACH: THE ORGELBÜCHLEIN
James Lancelot, Willis/Harrison & Harrison organ, Durham
Cathedral
Priory Records PRCD 1139 [77:14]
★★★★
The 45 miniature chorale preludes (only one, the
sublime O Mensch, bewein, is longer than five
minutes, many less than one) that comprise
Bach’s Orgelbüchlein have become, suggests James
Lancelot in his short booklet note, ‘the organist’s
Bible’. Certainly, there’s much here in endlessly varied, intricately
constructed and beautifully expressed music that has the ring of
ageless authority about it. Lancelot’s choice of Durham Cathedral’s
magnificently resourced 1876 Father Willis (rebuilt and revoiced
by Harrison & Harrison in 1905) may surprise some with its
distinctive romantic accent, but it lends itself eloquently to vivid
and insightful playing as nimble and nuanced as it is here.
MICHAEL QUINN
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 87
REVIEWS
REGER: CHORALE FANTASIES
Balázs Szabó, Walcker organ, Votivkirche, Vienna; Link organ,
Stadtkirche, Giengen; Kuhn organ, St Anton, Zurich
MDG Scene MDG 920 1945-6 (2 SACDs) [150:15]
★★★★★
With complete sets of Reger’s Chorale Fantasies
shamefully thin on the ground, Balázs Szabó’s
richly characterised readings, full of passion and
poetry, are more than welcome. If a touch
reverential in places (I’m not always persuaded by
the interpretative line he takes), his choice of contemporaneous
organs – an 1878 Walcker, 1906 Link and 1914 pneumatic Kuhn –
is aptly made, MDG’s multi-channel recording eloquently bringing
the latter’s echo unit into play. Heinrich Reimann’s cleverly
constructed and clearly influential Chorale Fantasy on ‘Wie schön
leuchtet der Morgenstern’ is a choice bonus.
MICHAEL QUINN
BACH: SONATAS
Kåre Nordstoga, Arp Schnitger organ (1693), St Jacobi, Hamburg
LAWO LWC1087 (2CDs) [63:00; 66:22]
★★★
Whatever the political motivations during the era
of the Berlin Wall, and despite our better
understanding today of the organs in his back
yard, the ‘marriage’ of the phenomenon Bach
with the phenomenon Arp Schnitger persists.
There are certain works in Bach’s repertoire which so obviously
look north that their effect on Schnitger organs remains telling; the
Toccata, Adagio & Fugue with its extended pedal solo, and heard
here to thrilling effect with tierces and 32ft reed throughout the
Toccata, is one example. The trio sonatas leave me uncomfortable,
however: the tuning of the Jacobi organ (1/5th comma meantone)
is pushed too far, too often (BWV 526/3 with the left hand played,
curiously, on a trumpet is particularly painful – all those A flats
and D flats…).
There is no such thing, of course, as an ‘ideal’ Bach organ,
and one should not forget that, but for a quirk of 18th-century
Hanseatic politics, he may well have presided over this very
instrument. However, after the 1720 debacle in which he was
turned down for the Hamburg post, Bach never again ventured
so far north; and the fact remains that there are organs,
most especially in Thuringia, where a wealth of 8ft flue stops
(including strings) suggests a more obvious path for chamber
music, reflecting, for example, the spirit of the trio registrations
prescribed by Georg Kauffmann in his Harmonische Seelenlust
of 1733. Kåre Nordstoga’s registrations tend towards the use of
upperwork, mutations and fractional length reeds with which the
Jacobi organ is, of course, especially blessed. The playing is deft,
although I miss some shape in the pedal lines (most especially in
passages of consequent quavers such as BWV 529/1, bars 12-17,
or BWV 530/3 in general, where the use of one foot repeatedly,
rather than alternate toes, tends to result in accents on the smaller
note values).
CHRIS BRAGG
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 87
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 REVIEWS CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
THE BACH PROJECT: ORGAN WORKS VOLS. 1 & 2
Todd Fickley, (vol.1) Schnitger organ, St Michaëlskerk, Zwolle;
(vol.2) Marcussen organ, Laurenskerk, Rotterdam
MSR Classics MS 1561 & 1562 [75:10; 73:21]
★★★
Whereas these performances
were recorded in 2014 and 2015
in Washington D.C., the sounds
of the Dutch organs were
recorded in 2007 and 2010, with
each note of each rank of pipes recorded into the Hauptwerk
programme, then fed into a suitable organ console for recording
purposes. The technology is amazing, ‘allowing the most intricate
counterpoint to be distinctly heard in ways that often surpass that
which is experienced through the traditional recording method’, so
the liner notes maintain. Todd Fickley’s modern gadget-ridden
console is photographed, so it is obvious that he is playing on
something very different and much less challenging than the origi-
nal Schnitger in Zwolle. We all want to hear a master playing Bach
on the real historical organ in the authentic building, and whereas
Fickley’s interpretations are well-schooled, if rather pedantic in
places, the sounds are ‘voiced specifically to the recording listener’s
perspective’. There is something synthetic and predictable about
the result. Presumably the keyboard touch on the Hauptwerk-fed
console bears little relation to the real organs. The next stage might
be to dispense with the player completely and create your own
‘ultimate’ performance straight from the computer …
DAVID PONSFORD
JOHANN GOTTFRIED WALTHER: COMPLETE ORGAN MUSIC
Simone Stella, 2006 Francesco Zanin organ, Sant’Antonio Abate,
Padua
Brilliant Classics 94730 (12 CDs) [12:3:31]
★★★★★
Johann Gottfried Walther, a near contemporary
and second cousin of J.S. Bach, was organist of SS
Peter & Paul in Weimar for most of his life, and
during Bach’s time in Weimar the two became
friends. The concerto transcriptions are probably
all most organists will know of Walther, so this complete recording
is most welcome, as it shows clearly what a fine composer he was.
There is one disc of free works, nine of chorale-based works, and
two of concerto transcriptions. The very first work, a Toccata &
Fugue in C, immediately shows Simone Stella’s understanding of
musical rhetoric, with gesture and movement perfectly balanced.
This work and the Preludes & Fugues in C, D minor and A minor
show a great variety of imagination, matched by Stella’s flawless
sense of style. More unusual is a Preludio con Fuga with two further
movements – a Grave and an Aria.
The chorale settings are mostly short, in line with Walther’s litur-
gical needs, and there are 61 multi-verse settings ranging from two
to thirteen verses. This is a wonderful collection of the Lutheran
organist’s everyday music, but here consistently music of great
88 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 88
ROGER FISHER PLAYS THE CAVAILLÉ-COLL ORGAN,
PARR HALL, WARRINGTON
Wealdon Studios PHWCD 1 [81:26]
★★★★
This is an obviously home-made release featuring
recordings of Roger Fisher, the distinguished
emeritus organist of Chester Cathedral, playing
the 1870 Cavaillé-Coll in Warrington. The
recordings are a mixture of a ‘studio’ session
captured in 1984 and a live concert, for an obviously enthusiastic
audience, in 2011. The repertoire is standard French romantic and
20th-century fare: Guilmant, Franck (Choral III, Pastorale), Saint-
Saëns E flat Fantaisie, Duruflé ‘sur le nom’ et al. Understandably, the
recorded sound is better in 2011, but the playing is more consistent
and the organ clearly in slightly better shape in 1984. None of this
matters a jot, however. The CD has been released by the friends of
this extraordinarily important organ to raise awareness of its near-
farcical and seemingly endless plight. While rumours continue to
circulate on internet forums as to its ultimate destination
(Warrington Borough Council having stated their intention to let
it go elsewhere already some eight years ago), the bald fact of this, a
very substantial concert organ by the 19th century’s greatest organ
builder, languishing in such poor condition for so long, shorn of its
original mechanism but tonally intact, is hardly indicative of a
national organ culture in good health. Buy this CD and support
the wonderful people (including Roger Fisher himself) fighting
against the odds for its future.
CHRIS BRAGG
quality and variety. The best known of the multi-verse settings is
that on Jesu, meine Freude, which was published in a collection by
Straube many years ago. Here in ten verses we find imaginative use
of this relatively small organ – 25 stops with Rückpositiv, Hauptwerk
and Pedal. Stella finds some ravishing sounds, and I must say this
is one of the most beautiful new organs I have ever heard, with
the voicing of individual stops superb, and providing such a range
of colour from the vocal principals and gravitas of the plenum, to
delicate or mellifluous flutes, fine manual reeds, silvery upperwork
and pompous pedal reeds. Illustrating the close background of
the two men we find the setting of Gott ist mein Heil reminiscent
of Bach’s early Neumeister chorales, and the second verse of Herr
Christ der einig Gottes Sohn remarkably similar to Bach’s setting in
the Orgelbüchlein. Of the 14 concerto transcriptions, two are by
Telemann and the rest are Italian works. That in B flat by Albinoni
is a good example of a typical three-movement work, while one
by Blamont, also three movements, is unusual with a Pastorella as
the final, quite substantial movement, in which Stella uses the RP
Dulcian to great effect.
This is a most important recording, with first-class recorded
sound, consistently fine playing from Simone Stella, and an organ
and acoustics as near perfect as one could hope for. Very highly
recommended.
DOUGLAS HOLLICK
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:32:40
 CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
PATRICK A. SCOTT – ORGANIST
Patrick Scott, Aeolian Skinner organ (1965-71)/Parkey (2013) organ,
Providence United Methodist Church, Charlotte, North Carolina
Raven OAR-969 [68:59]
★★★
The organ featured on this disc began life as a
post-G. Donald Harrison Aeolian-Skinner, built
for Kennedy Center in Washington DC and
rehoused and revised by Parkey Organs in 2012.
Clearly a fine organ in the American classic
vernacular, though obviously extremely noisy in the modest space,
it is demonstrated here by Patrick Scott, assistant organist at
St Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta, and a former AGO National
Improvisation Competition winner. Scott is a virtuosic player and
it’s a pity that some of his selected programme of music lacks
substance. His own trio of hymn improvisations follow well-
trodden paths (albeit very well done): celestes – crescendo to
tub-thumping Toccata with lots of modulations – ‘napalm’
trumpet (the organ has two and they feature in half of the CD’s
tracks) – grand harmonisation of the melody – diminuendo.
Of the more mainstream repertoire, a Buxtehude Praeludium is
earnest and self-conscious, the Reger Toccata from op.59 showy
but not especially memorable. This is a real shame; the organ is
good, the player brilliant and the recording and booklet, as usual
from Raven, excellent.
CHRIS BRAGG
GREAT EUROPEAN ORGANS NO.98
Anthony Hammond, L’Église Saint-Vincent, Roquevaire
Priory Records PRCD 1156 [76:09]
★★★★
Here’s a welcome addition to Priory’s Great
European Organs series as it moves towards its
centenary milestone. Housed in Roquevaire’s
St Vincent Church, Pierre Cochereau’s home
organ (albeit substantially augmented by Daniel
Birouste in 1997) reveals itself to be an instrument of considerable
power, its V/72 resources tonally sumptuous, vividly colouristic
and altogether graceful in its elegantly muscular manner. It’s a
perfect machine for this largely French programme from
Cochereau biographer Anthony Hammond. Music by both
features alongside contributions from Daniel Roth, Jean Bouvard,
Naji Hakim and Marius Monnikendam in a puissantly played
recital with much to recommend it.
MICHAEL QUINN
THE COMPLETE ORGAN SONATAS OF AUGUST RITTER
Michael Harris, Kirche Altleisnig, Polditz, Germany
Priory PRCD 1162 [62:31]
★★★
Mendelssohn dominates this period of mid-
19th-century organ composition but, on the basis
of recordings such as this, perhaps we should pay
more attention to the sonatas of Ritter. The
writing is every bit as inventive, especially in the
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 89
REVIEWS
fugues, and more in line with the romanticism of Ritter’s contem-
poraries Liszt and Wagner. The organ chosen for this recording is
historically interesting but the rather unrefined tutti struggles with
more complex textures and is emphasised by the close recording
and dry acoustics. At least Harris’s spirited playing makes up for the
otherwise quite dark qualities of this 1868 Ladegast instrument.
RUPERT GOUGH
DUOS FOR PIANO & ORGAN II
Scott Brothers Duo, Victoria Hall, Hanley
SBDRCD 009 [66:38]
★★★★
For this, their second recording of piano and
organ repertoire, Tom and Jonathan Scott have
uncovered some hidden gems such as Richard
Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto and part of Pietro
Yon’s Concerto Gregoriano. Tom Scott’s own
minimalist-style composition Time Piece makes a welcome
contrast to the generally romantic nature of the music here.
Despite the immediacy of sound from both instruments, the
ensemble is extremely tight and the balance always well judged.
The only thing that lets down this recording is the lack of any
sleeve notes, making it feel rather more like a promotional product
than commercial recording.
RUPERT GOUGH
FRENCH ORGAN MUSIC
Jason Alden, Christ the King Catholic Church, Dallas, Texas
Raven OAR-972 [77:55]
★★★★
It is often the case that attempts to build a large
French-romantic-style organ that is tame enough
to accompany a choir produce disappointing
results. However, this new organ from the
Montreal firm Juget-Sinclair asserts itself with
integrity and great authority in the hands of Jason Alden. Alden
steers away from the predictable French classics: the two Fantaisies
by Jehan Alain are particular highlights, as is a neglected piece by
Alain’s father, Albert. Franck’s Prière is notoriously hard to pull off,
but here all the lines sing beautifully. Widor’s Second Symphony may
not be the most interesting to choose but it concludes a fine recital.
RUPERT GOUGH
GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL: ORGAN CONCERTOS OP. 4
(ARR. S. DE LANGE)
Rudolf Innig, Furtwängler & Hammer organ (1899), St Nicolai,
Lüneburg
Dabringhaus und Grimm MDG 317 1929-2 (2CDs) [47:07; 43:15]
★★★
Samuel de Lange Jnr (to differentiate him from
his organist/composer father) was a celebrated
organist, composer and pianist in both the
Netherlands and Germany. Like several others
(Best, Dupré etc), he produced a set of arrange-
ments of Handel’s Organ Concertos for organ solo, in this instance
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 89
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 00800 Choir & Organ 08-04-2016 10:28 Pagina 1

Releases
J. S. Bach
Organ Toccatas

New releases on
Christoph Schoener on all four
Organs of St. Michaelis, Hamburg
MDG 949 1893-6
Brilliant Classics!
New
Max Reger
Organ Works
Fantasia on the Chorale
“Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott“
op. 27, Introduction, Passacaglia
500 Years
of
Organ Music
and Fugue E minor op. 127
Selection from “Thirty Little Chorale
Preludes” op. 135a

95310BR
Christoph Schoener on three organs (50CD)
of St. Michaelis Church Hamburg
MDG 949 1919-6

Johannes Brahms
Secular Vocal Quartets
with Piano Vol. 2
Norddeutscher Figuralchor

95284BR
Jörg Straube, cond.
Haruhi Sato &

95240BR

94901BR
Markus Bellheim, piano
MDG 947 1920-6

Vol. 1
MDG 947 1867-6 Erich, Saxer &
The Organ at Tunder Druckenmüller
European Courts Complete Organ Music Complete Organ Music
Francesco Cera Emanuele Cardi Manuel Tomadin
A Festival of English Organ (1CD) (1CD) (1CD)
Music Vol. 2
Works by Elgar, Smart,
M A R K E T E D A N D D I S T R I B U T E D I N T H E U K B Y R S K E N T E R TA I N M E N T.
Hollins, Parry, Wesley, Ireland,
Bridge, Howells
Ben van Oosten,
Henry Willis Organ,
Salisbury Cathedral (England)
MDG 316 1907-2

Vol. 1 London Symphony Orchestra

Works by Hollins, Whitlock, LSO Live
Stanford, Best and Elgar
MDG 316 1836-2

Festival of
Ecstatic Choral Power
French Organ Music Gergiev’s Revelatory Scriabin Cycle
Works by Widor, Pierné,
Guilmant, Saint-Saëns, Bonnet,
2SACD LSO0770

Dubois, Boëllmann Valery Gergiev

Ben van Oosten, Simon Halsey, London Symphony Chorus
Ekaterina Sergeeva, Alexander Timchenko
Stahlhuth/Jann Organ St. Martin
Dudelange (Luxemburg) ‘Gergiev was in his element.’
www.mdg.de

MDG 316 1705-2 BBC Music Magazine

‘Wonderfully well-played by a full-strength LSO.

The sound – orchestral and choral – was terrific.’
The Arts Desk

Proper Music
Distribution
AVAILABLE MAY
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Kangley Bridge Road
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Scriabin
Symphonies Nos 3 & 4
Valery Gergiev

Rachmaninov
All-Night Vigil (Vespers)

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London Symphony Orchestra London Symphony Chorus
The Times Coming June 2016

To view the complete LSO Live catalogue or order online visit lso.co.uk
Alternatively please visit iTunes for high-quality Mastered for iTunes downloads.

Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm LSO Live – the energy and emotion you only experience live

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 CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
published in the 1870s. De Lange’s approach was more interven-
tionist than that of others, adding voices and extended virtuosic
cadenzas at the points marked ‘ad libitum’. A recording of these
entertaining arrangements is more than welcome but, given that
the player Rudolf Innig acknowledges the relationship between
them and the Witte organ type over which De Lange had presided
in Rotterdam, the present 1899 pneumatic-action organ by
Furtwängler & Hammer, however fine, seems a slightly odd choice,
emanating from a much later, more industrial and considerably
less classical environment than the monumental, strongly craft-
orientated instruments of Witte, which stand firmly in the Dutch
tradition. Delft, Naarden or Gorinchem would perhaps have
presented more obvious recording locations. Rudolf Innig clearly
understand the performance practice issues involved, observing a
basically legato touch with broad rolling pedal lines. It is some-
times hard to tell whether his occasional rhythmic flexibility in the
quick movements in particular is an imitation of a facet of period
performance practice or something less intentional.
CHRIS BRAGG
LIGHT AND DARK AND IN BETWEEN
Diane Luchese, various organs, Baltimore
Raven OAR-964 [73:16]
★★★★★
This is not a disc for the faint-hearted; however,
those interested in how composers have really
pushed the boundaries of tonal possibilities from
pipe organs will find a very intelligently put
together recording. Pieces like Ligeti’s Harmonies
require an assistant to manipulate the wind reservoirs and Robert
Cogan’s No attack of organic metals includes pre-recorded electro-
mechanical sounds. Using four different instruments, Diane
Luchese aims to represent organ design aesthetics across 75 years
in this ‘Progressive Recital’. Her copious sleeve notes really help the
listener to gain a proper insight into the music and, naturally, the
performances are delivered with persuasive conviction.
RUPERT GOUGH
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: ORGAN MUSIC
Barbara Harbach, Downtown Presbyterian Church, Rochester, NY,
and First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lyons, NY
MSR Classics MS 1444 [74:40]
★★
This remastering of recordings from the 1980s
features two organs, a 1970 Schlicker and 1987
Fisk, which seem largely to illustrate how views
on tonal design for baroque-style instruments
have changed. The organs lack gravitas in noble
works such as the E flat Prelude & Fugue, and the constant lack of
fundamental tone in every registration doesn’t allow the counter-
point to sing. Barbara Harbach’s playing is intelligently executed,
but the relentless use of overly bright mixtures really tires the ear.
Even in the Fantasia in G minor the opportunity to provide some
more mellow contrasting sounds is not taken.
RUPERT GOUGH
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 91
REVIEWS
CHORAL CDS
HANDEL/MENDELSSOHN: ISRAEL IN ÄGYPTEN
Lydia Teuscher (s), Julia Doyle (s), Hilary Summers (a), Benjamin
Hulett (t), Roderick Williams (bar), Choir of The King’s Consort,
The King’s Consort / Robert King (dir)
Vivat 111 (2CDs) [82:03]
★★★★★
Mendelssohn, the affectionate, respectful, unself-
ish genius, honoured both Handel and himself
with his terrific 1833 reworking of Handel’s most
choral oratorio. Robert King has had to employ
considerable forensic musicology to rediscover
and recreate Mendelssohn’s elegant solutions to scoring and
personnel issues, and the results are revelatory and utterly stun-
ning. Instruments, solo and choral voices, and historically
informed interpretations are impeccable. A brilliant achievement:
from the moment Mendelssohn’s own marvellous overture erupts
into life one is held rapt in a state of high-alert to the very last echo
of what feels like ‘breaking news from the desert’.
REBECCA TAVENER
THE DEER’S CRY – ARVO PÄRT & WILLIAM BYRD
The Sixteen / Harry Christophers (dir)
Coro COR 16140 [66:52]
★★★★
This curiously proportioned programme (only
three of 13 tracks are by the great Estonian)
invites us to consider the contemporary maestro
alongside Byrd as a supreme craftsman, similarly
oppressed by political tensions. It’s very nicely
done with the structural details all evident in finely graded inter-
pretations, and listeners not engaged by the fascinating range of
compositional tricks and techniques can just let it all wash over
them, helped by the indulgent bloom on the recorded sound. Some
will say ‘more Pärt, please’, perhaps, while others may be perplexed
to find him used to cut their Byrd fix.
REBECCA TAVENER
SACRED REFLECTIONS OF CANADA: A CANADIAN MASS
Canadian Chamber Choir/Chœur de Chambre de Canada
CCCCD 002 [66:10]
★★★★
A triumph of creative programming, this weaves
together 19 sacred themes by a range of younger
figures, including composer-in-residence Jeff
Enns, to create a work that genuinely seems
bigger than the sum of its parts. There’s no
obvious liturgical logic to the whole, and it certainly isn’t a conven-
tional Mass, but it has a thoughtful unity and dramatic logic that
overcomes any such quibble, and the choir is so beautifully
balanced and together that each piece flows logically into the next.
Invidious to pick out any single item, but Kathleen Allan’s closing
‘In Paradisum’ is gorgeous and heart-lifting.
BRIAN MORTON
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 91
30/03/2016 12:33:31

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 CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
EARLY MUSIC
REBECCA TAVENER ROUNDS
UP THE LATEST RELEASES
Fascinating unknown composers keep
being drawn out from under the shadows
of the ‘greats’ by enterprising early music
ensembles – here’s a brace from the time
of Dufay: Arnold & Hugo de Lantins (Ricercar TIC 365) from Le
Miroir de Musique. Were they related? No one knows. Their secular
polyphony in three parts, mostly rondeaux, generously presented
here with entertaining scorings – some a cappella, some played with
crunchy bagpipe, shawm, and hurdy-gurdy colours, some combining
voices with vielles, lute, recorder, and gittern – is elegant stuff, beauti-
fully recorded, and revelatory. Boston-based vocal group Blue Heron
have now released their back catalogue of own-label recordings in
the UK and they chose Guillaume Du Fay (Blue Heron BHGD 1001)
for their 2007 debut. In a sacred and secular mix (plus a snippet of
Lantins) director Scott Metcalfe takes the ‘less is more’ approach in
shapely interpretations with sparing use of instruments. If the full
choir is not as clean, blended, or precise as one might wish, the indi-
vidual singers shine in the spotlight of a very clear recording.
The musical biography of Roland de Lassus from Vox Luminis has
reached volume 5 (Musique en Wallonie MEW 1579), celebrating
‘Lassus the European’ in 20 brief sacred and secular works – motets,
chansons, and madrigals – from the 1550-60s. There’s no want of
energy and interest, quality voices and character. Enthusiasm occa-
sionally overmasters precision, but there’s much to delight. Precision
isn’t everything: we are so used to near-perfection in the singing of
polyphony nowadays that it’s good to be reminded of the learning
process. Aryan O Arji encourages fine things from the youngsters of
the Hereford-based Academia Music Choir and in volume 2 of the
collected vernacular works of John Sheppard (Priory PRCD 1108)
CARL NIELSEN – SUNG BY THE DANISH NATIONAL CHOIRS
Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Danish National Concert Choir,
Danish National Girls Choir, Danish National Junior and Children’s
Choirs / Michael Schønwandt, Phillip Faber, Susanne Wendt (dirs)
DaCapo 8.226112 [63:29]
★★★★
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of
Nielsen’s birth and this bouquet of familiar, lesser
known and downright rare items from the
composer’s substantial body of vocal work
manages to catch his complex essence, homely
but troubled, from the very beginning. His attempt at a new setting
for the Danish national anthem is a curiosity, but a welcome inclu-
sion, as are versions of such very familiar songs as Solen er så rød,
which must be among his best-loved conceptions. The choirs sing
with a great sense of ownership and pride, the Danish male voice
tradition very much to the fore.
BRIAN MORTON
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 93
REVIEWS
the probity of their training can be heard in every phrase. Some
inevitable loss of detail in overly generous acoustics combines with
the massy sound appropriate for these developing singers.
Returning to the shadows, nine very obscure composers feature
in Cœur (Alpha-Classics ALPHA213) from vocal quartet Le Poème
Harmonique. This delightful masterclass in how to perform the
French airs de cœur of the late 16th century with nuance, refinement
and character, impresses both vocally and with vivid instrumentals,
all recorded with impeccable immediacy. Meanwhile in Germany
Johann Schein was producing his tribute to an ‘Italian-Villanellian
style’ in the charming anthology Musica Boscareccia (Pan Classics
PC10326), joyfully, playfully, magically realised by the three voices
and seven instrumentalists of the United Continuo Ensemble. This
life-enhancing music is glowingly expressed and recorded with
breadth – changing perceptions, perhaps, of a composer best-known
for his sacred music. The Vale of Tears (Analekta AN 2 9144) finds
his contemporaries Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz in
mourning mode for assorted obsequies. Canadian group Theatre
of Early Music (with excellent soloists stiffening the student voices
of Schola Cantorum) offers rather detached, occasionally bloodless
singing. A distant recording and cool, lachrymose atmosphere seeps
into the listener through this elegantly conceived programme, culmi-
nating in a sensitive reading of J.S. Bach’s cantata BWV165 O heilges
Geist- und Wasserbad. In the year of Bach’s birth Juan Hidalgo, royal
harpist and Master of the Royal Chamber to Spanish monarchs, died.
Music for the Planet King (Lauda Musica LAU 015) presents sacred
and secular songs in the vernacular, and the five singers and eight
instrumentalists of La Grand Chapelle bring a fun and fervent persua-
sion to this world premiere recording – yet another unknown voice
well worth being drawn into the light.
Rebecca Tavener is a singer and director specialising in early and
contemporary music. She is founder-director of Canty, Scotland's only
professional medieval music group.
SUN, MOON AND STARS – BOB CHILCOTT: SONGS AND
ARRANGEMENTS
Tenebrae Consort / Nigel Short (dir)
Signum SIGCD 903 [63:44]
★★★
This is an easy-listening CD. Chilcott’s music
always has instant appeal and the same can be
said of his arrangements. Of the 22 tracks here,
only five are original pieces, written in the same
easy-going, sometimes jazz-influenced idiom –
think of the early days of the King’s Singers. In many ways this is a
retrospective of Chilcott’s secular work covering several decades,
and there is nothing here to rock the harmonic boat. For me there
is a lack of variety in this particular programme, but where there is
humour these excellent singers bring it off. An offshoot of the choir
Tenebrae, Tenebrae Consort perform with impeccable profession-
alism under director Nigel Short.
SHIRLEY RATCLIFFE
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 93
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 REVIEWS CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
AMUSE-BOUCHE: MODERN FRENCH CHORAL DELICACIES
I Fagiolini, Anna Markland (pf) / Robert Hollingsworth (dir)
Decca 4789394 [82:00]
★★★★
The award-winning vocal ensemble I Fagiolini is
best known for its work in music from much
earlier periods than that appearing on this
generously filled disc. To celebrate I Fagiolini’s 30th
anniversary Robert Hollingsworth has compiled a
programme of familiar and unfamiliar 20th-century French music
which, in addition to including many of the usual suspects,
incorporates two premieres: an amusing ‘hommage’ to French
gastronomy by Jean Françaix, and Roderick Williams’s arrangement
of the Adagio from Ravel’s Piano Concerto in which he incorporates
words by Baudelaire and Rimbaud. Characteristic Gallic colour and
ambience are on display throughout this well-chosen programme of
short pieces – Amuse-bouche is an apt title – in which I Fagiolini are
joined by pianist Anna Markland who contributes three of Satie’s
celebrated Gnossiennes. The recorded sound will be a little too close
for some tastes, but the sensuous delights of this music in such
idiomatic readings are surely for everyone.
PHILIP REED
KÜHNUV DETSKY SBOR
Czech Philharmonic Children’s Choir, Jan Kalfus (org), Daniel
Wiesner (pf) /Jiří Chvála (dir)
Supraphon KDSCD 01 (2CDs) [105:42]
★★★★
TRANSIENT GLORY III
Kronos Quartet, Payton MacDonald (perc), Young People’s
Chorus of New York City / Francisco J. Núñez (dir)
Cantaloupe Music CA 2113 [49:25]
★★★★
ONLY A SINGING BIRD
Karen Cargill (m-s), Philip Moore (pf), NYCoS National Girls Choir
/ Christopher Bell (dir)
Signum Classics SIGCD 440 [55:20]
★★★★
Evidence of the vitality of young people’s choirs around the
world comes in the shape of three beautifully sung recitals,
the challenging programming of which might tax even more
experienced ensembles. The oldest group here, the Czech
Philharmonic Children’s Choir, dates from 1932, and during
choirmaster Jiří Chvála’s long tenure (he celebrates 50 years at
its helm in 2017) its international profile has gone from strength
94 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 94
GALINA GRIGORJEVA: NATURE MORTE – WORKS FOR
CHAMBER CHOIR
Theatre of Voices, YXUS Quartet, Conrad Steinmann (rec), Estonian
Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Paul Hillier (dir)
Ondine ODE 1245-2 [66:29]
★★★★★
Estonian music opens up a different dimension
into the sacred, and the music of Galina
Grigorjeva is no exception. Its roots stretch back
to the Orthodox tradition, but with a unique,
contemporary twist. Dramatic yet serene,
complex yet transparent, serene yet impassioned, Grigorjeva’s
music is packed with subtle contradictions rooted in a Russian
folklore tradition, such as in Svjatki, setting six folk texts linked to
Christmas and featuring excellent unidentified soloists and the
virtuosic Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. In Salve Regina,
the interplay of voices and string quartet produces an individual
resonance, which is masterly. Conrad Steinmann’s performance of
Lament is dazzling as he extracts extraordinary effects from the
recorder that are diverse and haunting. This is a disc to return to
again and again, as there is so much to explore.
SHIRLEY RATCLIFFE
to strength. Forty-eight of its 600-plus voices are heard to
fine effect on an eponymously titled two-CD set of time- and
genre-spanning pieces, with the lion’s share given over to Czech
composers. The luminous quality of seamlessly blended voices
shines out in Holst’s Ave Maria, Arvo Pärt’s Zwei Beter and Fauré’s
brittle Tantum ergo. But it’s the Czech pieces that catch the ear
here, with familiar works by Dvořák, Smetana and Martinů lent
lustrous authenticity.
Formed in 1998, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City
is clearly an adventurous outfit on the strength of Transient Glory
III. It’s also an avid commissioner of new music, and all six works
here were composed for the sizeable group – the booklet credits
198 singers. Supported by the Kronos Quartet, the choir is richly
evocative in Terry Riley’s Another Secret eQuation, clearly relishing
its nonsense syllables, and sounds idiomatically alive in Paquito
D’Rivera’s Puerto Rican-influenced Tembandumba. Demanding
pieces by Michael Gordon, Bora Yoon, John Corigliano and
Meredith Monk (the mysterious and increasingly animated Things
Heaven and Hell) show off an enthusiastic and able ensemble
with winning results.
The NYCoS (National Youth Choir of Scotland) National Girls
Choir celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with co-founder
Christopher Bell leading from the front. Only a Singing Bird
features 19 songs, 13 of them by Michael Head, including the
charming Snowbirds, together with colourful, nuanced pieces by
Gary Carpenter, Ken Johnston and Stephen Deazley (the gleefully
playful The Circus). The CD reveals a meticulously integrated choir
of mature abilities characterised by tonal delicacy and textual
expressiveness. It bodes well for the next 20 years.
MICHAEL QUINN
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:34:19
 CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
BENT SØRENSEN: SNOWBELLS AND OTHER WORKS FOR CHOIR
Danish National Vocal Ensemble / Paul Hillier (dir)
Da Capo 6.220629 [61:14]
★★★★★
The choral music of Danish composer Bent
Sørensen (b.1958), sacred and secular, is full of
atmosphere and colour. This CD offers an attrac-
tive programme of his work centred on Snowbells
(2009-10), a 25-minute piece that was originally
conceived as the audio accompaniment to an art installation in
which an area of summer-green forest was partly transformed into
a snow-white winter forest. Composed for five voices and the
recorded sound of eight different sets of church bells, it is music of
and for the landscape, utilising a poem by the 19th-century Danish
writer Steensen Blicher. (The disc includes Sørensen’s folk-like
treatment of the same text for solo voice – The Snowbell.) Hillier
and the members of the Danish National Vocal Ensemble are
completely inside this mesmerising piece, as they are in the
remainder of this fine disc. Sørensen must count himself fortunate
to have these musicians as his interpreters. An outstanding disc.
PHILIP REED
UPHELD BY STILLNESS – RENAISSANCE GEMS AND THEIR
REFLECTIONS, VOL.1: BYRD
ORA / Suzi Digby (dir)
Harmonia mundi HMW PR102 [78:19]
★★★★★
Founded in 2014, ORA has taken as the starting
point for its first album the glorious perfection of
William Byrd’s polyphony, sung here with equal
perfection. Alongside this are reflections on Byrd’s
Mass for Five Voices by five commissioned compos-
ers. Roxanna Panufnik adds chromatic touches to her setting of the
Kyrie and an extra bass line gives extra harmonic depth. Francis
Pott’s very original setting of Laudate Dominum, dedicated to the
late David Trendell, has an impressive expression of complexity and
joy, and gives what he calls ‘a nod towards the Gloria of the Mass’.
Alexander L’Estrange’s Show me, Deare Christ, inspired by what the
Credo might have meant to Byrd at this precarious time in history,
includes texts by Byrd’s contemporaries and John Donne’s Holy
Sonnet XVIII. This is the longest reflection, parts of which have
sublime beauty, though I find some of the harmonic progressions a
little jarring in this context. Moving away from the text of the Mass,
Owain Park has set Kathleen Raine’s The World, which corresponds
with his idea of Byrd’s Sanctus. Using lines from the original music
against a harmonic background, it is atmospheric and sensitively
written. Charlotte Bray’s reflection on the tranquillity of the Agnus
Dei is constructed on tone clusters and influenced by Byrd’s use of
voices. In addition to the Mass reflections, Roderick Williams
responded to Byrd’s Ave verum corpus, incorporating his favourite
moments from the piece, using transcendent harmony to comple-
ment the entries of the solo voices. This CD is superb and together
with these exemplary performances should receive many accolades. I
look forward to the next instalment of this 21st-century renaissance.
SHIRLEY RATCLIFFE
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 95
REVIEWS
HOWELLS: COLLEGIUM REGALE
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Eleanor Kornas & Owain Park
(org) / Stephen Layton (dir)
Hyperion CDA 68105 [61:14]
★★★★★
This splendid disc brings together all of Howells’s
‘Collegium Regale’ music for the Morning and
Evening Prayer and the Office of Holy Communion,
composed for King’s College, Cambridge, during
the second world war and then a decade later. In
addition, Stephen Layton offers us two early examples of Howells’s
Anglican chants (Psalms 121 and 122), the organ Rhapsody in D flat
(sensitively played by Owain Park), the Coronation introit Behold, O
God our defender, and the late anthem I love all beauteous things.
Layton, who this year celebrates a decade at Trinity College,
Cambridge, has honed his mixed voice choir into an impressive body
of singers: the entire programme is richly satisfying, perfectly judged
and one that anyone interested in the development of the Anglican
choral tradition in the last century will want to hear. Recorded in
Coventry Cathedral rather than in Trinity’s own chapel (a decision
prompted by the organ and the acoustic properties of Coventry, a
building roughly contemporary with Howells’s settings), this CD is a
fitting tribute to Howells’s significant position within that tradition.
PHILIP REED
EASTER DAY AT HEREFORD
Hereford Cathedral Choir, Peter Dyke (org) / Geraint Bowen (dir)
Regent REGCD 478 [77:20]
★★★★★
HAEC DIES – MUSIC FOR EASTER
Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Matthew Jorysz (org) /
Graham Ross (dir)
Harmonia mundi HMU 907655 [72:55]
★★★★
The men and boys of Hereford
Cathedral take us on a journey
through the services for Easter
Sunday, starting with This joyful
Eastertide for Matins. It includes
a chant by Edwin Monk, and Stanford’s Te Deum, Jubilate in C and
Ye choirs of new Jerusalem. A slightly more abrasive note is intro-
duced for the Eucharist with Langlais’s Messe solennelle, with Peter
Dyke’s excellent playing a perfect foil to the soaring trebles in a
very powerful performance. The building’s acoustics serve Byrd’s
In resurrectione tua and Taverner’s Dum transisset Sabbatum I very
well indeed. The day comes to a fitting end with the St Paul’s
Service by Herbert Howells. Geraint Bowen’s very impressive choir
performs with great energy and clear attention to detail. Under his
direction the music comes to life, and the trebles, comfortable in
what they do, appear completely fearless.
The choice of repertoire for Clare College comes primarily from
the Roman Catholic Church. Lassus’s music includes his spectacular
Magnificat octavi toni super ‘Aurora lucis rutilat’ for Vespers, skilfully
sung by these talented young singers. There are three settings of the
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 95
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 REVIEWS CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
Gradual Haec dies: plainchant, Byrd and the premiere recording
of Matthew Martin’s commissioned setting with organ that brings
a joyful dissonance to the text. Tracks to watch out for are Samuel
Scheidt’s lilting Surrexit Christus hodie, Giovanni Bassano’s delicate
Dic nobis Maria, Palestrina’s five-part Terra tremuit, and a haunting
Surrexit pastor bonus by Jean L’Héritier. Cambridge’s Clare College
has a very high reputation for the standard of its singing, and under
director Graham Ross this tradition remains in safe hands. There are
some very promising singers here, which augurs well for the future.
SHIRLEY RATCLIFFE
JAMES DUNLOP: ASCENSION
Portsmouth Cathedral Choir, Alice Burn (Northumbrian small
pipes) / David Price (dir)
Riverwood Air Music RAWCD 01 [45:00]
★★★
Recorded in Portsmouth Cathedral, this disc
presents a dozen tracks by the young British
composer James Dunlop, who, when he’s not being
a composer, is a musician in the Band of HM Royal
Marines Portsmouth. This collection of choral
pieces gives a good idea of his style, tonal harmonic vocabulary and
approach to word setting. One of the most unusual ideas among the
pieces on this disc is his incorporation of Northumbrian small pipes,
authoritatively and expressively played by Alice Burn, in two move-
ments from Hunting Hall Suite: ‘Awakening’ is especially telling in its
expressive folk-style, while ‘Ceilidh in the Piggery’ is full of high
spirits, though the balance favours the pipes over the voices. David
Price and his forces give a good account of themselves in what is a
pleasing enough sequence of short pieces. Their vocal balance and
blend is impressive; however, the recorded sound and resonant acous-
tics of the cathedral undermine their efforts as regards diction.
PHILIP REED
REVELATION
Quire/Colchester World Music Community Choir, Octavia,
Towering Angels, Daniel Law (pf), Beth Spendlove (vn) /
Bill Tamblyn (dir)
Quire CD [54:00]
★★★
Quire has been active in southern East Anglia for
more than a decade and works in a variety of
genres, hiving off two small ad hoc groups for
more intimate repertoire. The programme here is
divided into sections – ‘Voice of the People’,
‘British Tradition’, ‘Visitors to Quire’ and ‘Rock and Soul’ – of
which only the last doesn’t quite work. Rocking out pop themes or
the atmospheric jazz of Billie Holiday’s signature Strange Fruit is a
risky strategy for an amateur choir, and the programme would
have ended more successfully with the Bosnian/Croatian/English
material in ‘Visitors’. Tamblyn gets a lovely balance of voices,
though, and the boldness of selection mostly works. The small
groups shine, which is good news, since a separate CD, to be called
Angel Band, is imminent or may already be out.
BRIAN MORTON
96 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 96
PSALLITE
Cor Cantiamo / Eric A. Johnson (dir)
Divine Art/SDG Music Foundation dda 25133 [60:54]
★★★★
Cor Cantiamo is an American chamber choir intent
on promoting contemporary choral music and
nurturing composers to write for the genre. To
judge by this disc, they are doing a fine job. Founder
Eric A. Johnson leads a varied selection of unac-
companied pieces in which the contemporary (Maniano, Bryars,
Ešenvalds, Grigorjeva, Kellogg) are juxtaposed with the ancient
(Sweelinck, Palestrina) and the traditional (arrangements of spiritu-
als). The 26 singers make a wonderful sound throughout this
wide-ranging programme. A personal favourite track is Bryars’s Psalm
141, one of several works the choir commissioned: it is a marvellous
evocation of the text, beginning ‘Lord, I cry unto thee’, and it’s good to
be reminded of this maverick British composer’s work, too little heard
in the UK. My one disappointment: the CD ended too soon!
PHILIP REED
MICHAEL G. CUNNINGHAM: WISDOM, LOVE, ETERNITY
Kühn Choir / Marek Vorlí č ek (dir)
Navona Records NV 6027 [72:20]
★★★★
[Rapper] Eminem went to school in Michael G.
Cunningham’s hometown of Warren, Michigan,
but the older man seems to have drunk from a
more lyrical well, shaping a large and varied body
of vocal work that seems – unusually – more
widely appreciated in Europe than at home. These lovely recordings
of work from 1961 (a setting of Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind) to
2014’s Memorial Concert Mass were all made in Prague.
Cunningham stretches conventional tonality to the limit, often
suggesting inexpressible mystery within quite orthodox forms. It’s a
beguiling mix, singable but not unchallenging, and always satisfying.
BRIAN MORTON
4 IN A BAR: HIDE AND SEEK
Eoin Conway (c-t), Shane Barriscale (t), Paul McGough (bar),
Tristan Caldwell (b)
Bar 151 [44:20]
★★★
Everyone does Radiohead covers these days, so it’s
no great surprise to come across a barbershop
interpretation of the gloomsters’ No Surprises,
complete with orthodox ringing chords and a
lovely consonance through the voices. There are
also songs by Imogen Heap and Randy Newman and a version of
Eric Bogle’s heartbreaking All the Fine Young Men. Eoin Conway’s
counter-tenor fulfils the role of a classical tenor, and he’s a star front
man on several of these, but with terrific support from the other
Irishmen. Barbershop isn’t easy to record – studios often lose some
of the richer overtones you’d expect in a good back room – but this
second album from the group is a technical as well as creative success.
BRIAN MORTON
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:35:21
 CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
ORGAN MUSIC
LIVERPOOL LOLLIPOPS
Church Organ World publications £20.00
JEWISH PRAYER (ARRANGEMENTS FOR VIOLA/CELLO &
ORGAN)
Bella Kalinowska & Semjon Kalinowsky (eds.)
Bärenreiter BA 11216 £16.50
This collection of Liverpool
Lollipops, seven short and easy
pieces for organ, is published by
Church Organ World (suppliers
of Makin, Copeman Hart and
Johannus digital organs). It is
aimed at ‘the average parish
organist’ and contains pieces with a maximum of three sharps or
flats in the key signature. The contributions here are by organists at
Liverpool Cathedral, their students and organ scholars there. All of
MIXTURE
STEPHEN FARR ROUNDS UP NEW
ORGAN MUSIC BY LAURIN, KING, WEIR,
MAXWELL DAVIES AND MAW
In terms of both idiom and sonority, Justin
Vickery’s Variations on Veni Creator
Spiritus (Cantando Musikforlag C3418, NOK
168.65 /c.£14 ) manages to escape the gravitational pull of Duruflé,
and offers a useful alternative option to players reluctant to tackle the
Everest of the more famous work. The theme and six short variations
on the famous Whitsun plainsong explore a range of quintessential
French sonorities, including Voix humaine and Plein Jeu, and techni-
cal difficulties are modest (a few short passages of double pedalling
and an occasional passage of two-against-three apart). Individual
versets may well find a home in the liturgy, and the complete piece,
which is no more than about six minutes long, would make an
appealing recital interlude.
Frederik Sixten’s Canticle of the Sun (Cantando Musikforlag
C3662, NOK 270 / c.£22.35), a setting of words by St Francis of Assisi,
is altogether more substantial. While there’s a fairly large corpus of
works for one soprano and organ, the use of two singers is more of
a rarity, and Sixten makes imaginative use of the textural possibilities
offered by his chosen scoring. The work explores a wide spectrum
of texture and moods, and is not easy: the organ part is particularly
testing, and the vocal parts will need singers with a sure sense of
pitch and very agile technique (and, ideally, fairly closely matched
voices, if the occasional passage of unison vocal writing is not to
sound profoundly unpleasant). A ringing top D is required at the final
climax, which may limit the pool of potential performers somewhat.
Altogether more comfortable is Carl August Kern’s oddly charming
collection of miniatures (this is the first of six volumes, something of
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 97
REVIEWS
the pieces are conventionally tonal, easily learnt and of two to three
minutes’ duration. Ian Tracey’s Aria echoes Bach’s Air; there is
pleasant folk influence in pieces from Ian Wells and Noel
Rawsthorne, and a fun Toccata from Shean Bowers. Organists local
to Liverpool will likely find this simple collection attractive.
Editions from Bärenreiter always beckon with their high
production values of layout, engraving and editing, and Jewish
Prayer is no exception. The five pieces arranged for organ and viola
or cello (separate instrumental parts are included) derive from
the Haskalah or Jewish enlightenment of the 19th century, where
a reform of worship led to the growing use of organ and other
instruments. Max Bruch’s Kol Nidre is the most widely known
here and the other works by composers of a similar period are just
as beautiful. Also in this collection is the set of five Festpräludien
op.37 by Louis Lewandowski, who became one of the most impor-
tant synagogue composers of the 19th century. Mendelssohn’s
influence is clear in these lyrical movements. This is a collection
not just for the synagogue, but for innovative recital programmes
and any opportunity to work alongside viola or cello.
MATTHEW POWER
an embarras de richesses). Orgelmagazin Heft 1 (Edition Dohr 15221,
€24.95) is avowedly unpretentious music. Some of the movements
are only about 20 bars long, and all are as simple as can be imagined.
It’s easy to turn one’s nose up at this sort of thing, but the reality is that
unassuming collections like this, now as then, have a part to play in
the grand scheme of things. Some will find useful liturgical material
here, others will use the pieces as practice for keyboard skills, or as
models for basic compositional work. It’s not great or memorable
music, but it is competently and sincerely written and comes from a
gentler age – the musical equivalent of a warm milky drink.
Volumes from the Oxford Hymn Settings for Organists collec-
tion have featured in these pages previously, but the latest addition
to the series – Pentecost and Trinity (edited by Rebecca Groom te
Velde and David Blackwell, OUP £19.50) – deserves mention as it
is the last to which Christopher Tambling contributed before his
recent untimely death. It’s particularly fitting that the last piece in
the volume should be a tribute to him, and also that one of his own
pieces is included – a rousing prelude on Nicaea which makes a nod
to the C.S. Lang Tuba Tune, and is none the worse for that. The virtues
of these volumes are well known by now; the current volume main-
tains the level set by its predecessors, with some rather charming
Finzian treatments (by David Thorne and David Blackwell) alongside
altogether more vigorous items. Some of the tunes will be familiar to
a UK congregation, some will not; but all the pieces have something
worthwhile to offer.
Stephen Farr is director of music at St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge.
He previously held posts at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Christ
Church and Worcester Colleges, Oxford, and Winchester and Guildford
cathedrals. His performing career encompasses work as a solo recitalist,
continuo player and accompanist with many leading choirs and
ensembles.
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 97
30/03/2016 12:35:42
 BRITAIN’S PREMIER PRIORY’S NEW RELEASES
CHURCH MUSIC LABEL

NEW DVD (includes DVD, Blu-ray and CD)

The Grand Organ of Gloucester Cathedral eO
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Henry Purcell arr. Hope - Two Trumpet Tunes and Airs • J.S.Bach - Toccata
and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 • Ralph Vaughan Williams - Rhosymedre
• Paul Dukas arr. Hope - The Sorcerer’s Apprentice • George Frederick
Handel - Organ Concerto No. 13 in F • Pierre Cochereau arr. Fisell - Final
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NEW CD RELEASES
PRCD 1139 - J.S.BACH : THE ORGELBÜCHLEIN £13.50
JAMES LANCELOT PLAYS THE ORGAN OF DURHAM CATHEDRAL
For Advent: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland • Gottes Sohn ist kommen • Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottessohn • Lob sei dem allmächtigen Gott •
For Christmas: Puer natus in Bethlehem • Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ • Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich • Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her •
Vom Himmel kam der Engel schar • In dulci jubilo • Lobt Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich • Jesu, meine Freude • Christum wir sollen loben schon • Wir
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ASHLEY GROTE PLAYS THE ORGAN OF NORWICH CATHEDRALL
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THE CHOIR OF BUCKFAST ABBEY. DIRECTED BY PHILIP ARKWRIGHT
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MICHAEL HARRIS PLAYS THE LADEGAST ORGAN, KIRCHE ALTLEISNIG IN POLDITZ, GERMANY
Sonata No 3 in A minor Op 23: Rasch•Nicht schleppend • Rasch • Fugue • Sonata No 1 in D minor Op 11: Allegro • Andante •
Allegro • Andante con moto • Allegro • Sonata No 2 in E minor Op 19 : Rasch und entschlossen • Ruhige bewegung • Rasch und
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£13.50
PRCD 1156 - GREAT EUROPEAN ORGANS NO. 98 £13.50
ANTHONY HAMMOND PLAYS THE ORGAN OF L’EGLISE ST-VINCENT, ROQUEVAIRE, FRANCE
Naji Hakim Ave Maria: Fantasy on a Lied by Franz Schubert • Pierre Cochereau tr. Hammond/Joulain Suite Française Improvisée - Le Grand Block-
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CO0316.indd 98 11/04/2016 11:19:08

 CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
CHORAL MUSIC
WITH SAINTLY SHOUT AND SOLEMN JUBILEE
Compiled by Peter Moger, Andrew Reid and Tim Ruffer
Royal School of Church Music RSCM SO170, ISBN 978 0 85402 252 6,
136 pp, £6.50
One of the much-appreciated series of RSCM
Festival books, this volume has a focus on ‘those in
whom the church has recognised God convinc-
ingly at work’. with saintly shout and solemn jubilee
(the recent fashion for lower case titles irritatingly
present) the book is a triumph musically, but
disappointingly unoriginal in liturgical shape.
CHORAL SELECTION
PÄRT SONGS FOR CHILDREN, A NEW
EDITION OF A DERING ANTHEM, TODD’S
JAZZ MISSA BREVIS, AND WORKS WITH
ADDITIONAL INSTRUMENTS BY RUTTER,
JACKSON AND WEIR
Arvo Pärt’s Songs from Childhood (children’s choir and piano,
Universal Edition 36 693, £15.99) date from the period 1956-70,
when the composer worked as a sound director at Estonian Radio
and as accompanist for its children’s ensemble. Written originally
with texts in Estonian, they have been published here in German
and English versions (the latter mostly by Paul Hillier), though in
the accompanying CD one can hear them sung in their original
language. Nothing of Pärt’s familiar style is here, but instead we
discover his skill in composing for children in a traditional tonal
idiom with good tunes, short phrases and the occasional use of
simple two-part and three-part textures, setting appropriate texts
for young children to enjoy. The songs are presented with piano
accompaniment, though the versions with instrumental ensemble
heard on the CD, prepared by Tauno Aints in collaboration with the
composer, are also available from the publisher.
A feature of sacred choral repertoire that has developed in recent
years is the use of instruments other than the organ in conjunction
with voices, sometimes combining with the organ as well. John
Rutter’s The Quest (SATB, oboe and organ or small ensemble,
Collegium Music Publications, OUP X600, vocal score £2.60) is a
setting of a poem by George MacDonald mourning the loss of a
friend, followed by the ‘In paradisum’ text from the Requiem. The
oboe has a prominent role to play throughout as the music moves
from elegiac B minor to serene B major. Gabriel Jackson’s Vox clara
ecce intonat (SATB and soprano saxophone, Oxford University
Press NH162, £2.20) picks up on the combination of saxophone and
choir made famous by the Hilliard Ensemble. The saxophone part
is mainly heard independently from the voices in a free style that
contrasts with Jackson’s familiar homophonic choral writing, though
www.choirandorgan.com
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 99
REVIEWS
Introit alternatives by MacMillan, Victoria and Beamish set the
tone for a sparkling musical palette, which includes plainsong
hymns, 16th-century material and classic Victorian and Edwardian
music (Wood, Stanford and Harwood) as expected. But this is
somewhat undone liturgically by common worship formulae – a
‘blessed be God for ever’ prayer, a penitential rite, a dismissal
gospel, a sending out acclamation – whose ubiquitous use is in
danger of eclipsing originality and making every liturgical act of
worship sound the same.
The use of one non-biblical reading, in relation to the saint of
Auschwitz, Maximilian Kolbe, shows a potential that could evange-
listically have been exploited. The possibility to combine stunning
music (the book is full of it) with narratives from the lives of
contemporary saints is endless. Wisdom 5, Ephesians 1 and Luke 6
there are occasional motivic overlaps between the two sonorities.
The text is for Advent, though unfortunately no translation is
given in the score. In Judith Weir’s new anthem Praise him with
trumpets (SATB, 2 trumpets and organ, Chester Music 84381, £3.95)
we have more than one extra instrument, though it is possible to
perform the work with just organ, incorporating within the organ
part some extra notes given in small type. The trumpets are heard
both in antiphonal writing and together, and the work has all the
hallmarks of this composer’s cliché-free, yet immediately appealing
style. (It’s also fun to see the Master of the Queen’s Music setting
the text ‘Put not your trust in princes’…) The only new edition of
early vocal music to reach me recently is the Ave Maria by Richard
Dering (SATTB and continuo, Church Music Society Reprints no.137,
OUP, £1.85), whose works stand outside the mainstream of English
choral music since he experienced the musical life of Venice before
settling in Brussels, having converted to Catholicism. The motet’s
musical style owes much to the madrigals of Monteverdi (perhaps
via their popular contrafacta prepared for sacred use), being
essentially homophonic in style with predominantly syllabic text
setting and rhythmic figures thrown between the parts. The edition
converts the Mixolydian mode into G major and halves the note
values, and interpreters are left to infuse the music with whatever
level of fervent expression they may choose.
Back to the present we find that Will Todd has composed a
successor to his popular Mass in Blue, the Jazz Missa Brevis (SATB
and piano, with optional jazz ensemble, Boosey & Hawkes 13111,
vocal score £7.99). It can be performed with piano only, by a jazz
trio of piano, bass and drums, or with an ensemble comprising
alto saxophone, 2 trumpets, drums and bass. It’s conceived on a
much smaller scale than Mass in Blue, and so will appeal to those
who want a more straightforward jazz-inspired option for liturgical
or concert use. The familiar Todd-preferred jazz idioms are again
evident, complete with more than a nod towards soft rock (both
the Sanctus and Agnus being with piano added 2nd/9ths).
Geoffrey Webber is precentor and director of studies in music at
Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and course principal of the
MMus in Choral Studies at Cambridge University.
MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOIR & ORGAN 99
30/03/2016 12:36:03
 REVIEWS CONCERTS • ORGAN CDS • CHORAL CDS • DVDS • ORGAN MUSIC • CHORAL MUSIC • BOOKS
will always have a place when
the communion of the saints
is being celebrated, but why
not utilise a series of extracts
from Richard Carter’s contem-
porary classic In search of the
lost, which tells the story of the
James MacMillan’s Introit helps Anglican Melanesian martyrs
set the tone of a ‘sparking musical
palette’ of our own time? The inclu-
sion of one section from Philip
Moore’s stunning Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a master stroke,
as is the presence of Harris’s luminous Holy is the true light.
The hymns are solid choices and varied enough. But the bland-
ness of the intercessory material – where prayers of the saints
themselves could easily and with more literary and prayerful merit
have found a place – along with the shaping of material as if every-
thing now must be made to resonate with the common worship
Eucharist in shape and style (whereas a run-through narrative
sequence would have given the music a much more resonant
context) frankly represents a missed opportunity. It’s the musi-
cians – to those mentioned already we ought to add Philip Wilby,
Richard Shephard and Grayston Ives, the latter two with new works
– who emerge with most credit: it is ironically the holiness and
sanctity of music and musicians that is most obvious here.
CHRIS CHIVERS
BOOKS
FELIX APRAHAMIAN: DIARIES AND SELECTED WRITINGS ON
MUSIC
Lewis and Susan Foreman (eds.)
The Boydell Press ISBN 978 1783270132, h/b, 422+xviii pp, £45.00
This timely publication, coming ten years after
the death of Felix Aprahamian, is likely to be the
closest thing to the autobiography that he never
wrote, despite many attempts by friends to
persuade him. Felix – as he was ever known – was
deputy music critic at The Sunday Times (1948-
89), as well as a war-time concert manager for the
London Philharmonic Orchestra; yet he was also so much more.
The book is divided into four sections: an Introduction by
Lewis Foreman, providing an essential and knowing biog-
raphy; the Musical Diaries (1933-35 and later); Articles and
Reminiscences about Friends and Contemporaries; and
Remembering the Great Organists. There are 44 plates, 29 illustra-
tions and some musical examples.
There is much material specific to choral and organ music, Felix
being a life-long organ enthusiast, as well as a competent player
in his youth. He took lessons, at Park Chapel in Crouch End, with
the organist and composer Eric Thiman, ‘Dr T’, for whom his
respect is clear. In April 1933, he hears Virgil Fox at Kingsway Hall,
technique and musicianship ‘in very high order’. Also recounted
is practice for a recital at St Mary Abbots, Kensington; finding
100 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016
COMJ16_085-100_R_Reviews T.indd 100
no Nazard available, Fox and a friend shift a rank of pipes up the
soundboard to produce the required pitch – causing consterna-
tion to the incumbent organist and a bill for £120 to rectify things.
With his friend Ernest Chapman (assistant to publisher Ralph
Hawkes), a ‘great adventure’ was undertaken in 1933. A tour of
Parisian churches (unfortunately made in August when many a
titulaire was en vacance) still fascinates – he got to stand at Widor’s
elbow as he played. Following is a vivid account of seeing his
life-long idol Frederick Delius, now an invalid, in his home at
Grez-sur-Loing. The composer died the following summer.
Notes from the 1934 recital by Alcock, Thalben-Ball and
Cunningham on the newly rebuilt Royal Albert Hall organ allude to
a 15-minute cipher, widely reported. ‘Sheer bad luck on Harrison!
It was painful to see [Willis] giggling in a box, and “Batty” Verne,
Aubrey Allen and Bonavia-Hunt splitting their sides in the arena.
Distinctly bad taste to vent such professional jealousy in public!’
The articles and reminiscences encompass writings for jour-
nals (including C&O), newspapers, broadcast and lecture scripts,
plus unpublished writing. Concise, personal and wide-ranging,
perhaps the most valuable insights concern the French composers
he promoted at United Music Publishers.
Remembering the Great Organists collates content from audio-
cassettes of a USA lecture tour in the spring of 1988. Marchal
(whose chamber organ Felix inherited), Bonnet, Tournemire,
Dupré, Thalben-Ball, Nadia Boulanger, Lynwood Farnham and
Jeanne Demessieux form a roll-call of acquaintances and firm
friends who enriched Felix’s life and fill these pages.
I was fortunate to know Felix in the late 1990s and to visit
him often in Muswell Hill. Sitting in his library (with sherry and
biscuits) I heard first-hand stories told here, and many others. One
such featured Francis Poulenc, who attended a post-war perfor-
mance of Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis. ‘Halfway through … a folded
scrap of paper was passed to me down a row of stalls. It read in a
familiar hand: “Dieu sauvez-nous des fugues. Amen! Fr. Poulenc.”’
Imagine my surprise when Felix reached into a desk drawer and
handed me the envelope with Poulenc’s writing on it! Like all the
music and friends that he collected, although its contents were
lucidly remembered, this is a book he would have loved to own.
MATTHEW POWER
(from left) Johns Hopkins director Peter Smith, Felix Aprahamian, Olivier
Messiaen, and the librarian of Dartmouth College; published in Choir &
Organ May/June 1999 to accompany Aprahamian’s Fin de siècle column
www.choirandorgan.com
30/03/2016 12:36:24
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CO0316.indd 101
Out Now on CORO
Helper and Protector:
Italian Maestri in Poland
The Sixteen | Eamonn Dougan
This album explores the music of
three Italian composers working
in the Polish court during the
reign of Sigismund III Vasa.
COR16141
Forthcoming Release
June
Beethoven: Sonatas for
Release Fortepiano & Violin Vol. 2
Ian Watson | Susanna Ogata
Featuring Beethoven’s tenth
Sonata,Op. 96 in G major, as well
as the exquisite ‘Spring’ Sonata,
his fifth, Op. 24 in F major.
COR16143
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Facebook “f ” Logo CMYK / .eps Facebook “f ” Logo CMYK / .eps
International Summer School
An inspirational week of study, worship,
and music-making for all!
Events highlights Liverpool
• Keynote speech by Andrew Reid Mon 8 - Sun 14
• Visit to David Wells Organ Builders August 2016
• Organ demonstration
• Evensong with the Millennium Youth Choir (MYC)
• Worship in a variety of styles, including Scottish
Presbyterian, Anglican and RC
• Mass at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral with Plainsong
• MYC concert
• A live BBC Radio 3 broadcast with Choral Vespers
• Themed concert with special guests “In voice and verse”
• Lutheran Vespers
• Devotional Service of the Passion
• Elective programmes of study; many workshop choices
Presenters include
* Martin Ashley * Andrew Reid * Revd Helen Bent * Dr Chris McElroy *
* Dr Hugh Benham * Harrison & Harrison * Teresa Brown *
* Rosemary Field * Graham Kendrick * Adrian Lucas * Miles Quick *
A wide range of ticket options are available including day passes and
accommodation packages. Visit the website for more information
and to book online.
Please note, this is just a provisional list, some
events and activities may be subject to change.
iss@rscm.com | 01722 424843 | www.rscm.com/iss
11/04/2016 17:30:35
 PRIME TIMES
EDITOR’S PICK OF WHAT’S ON

JOE VITACCO
MICHAEL BAILIE

(from left) CAOS run a study day at Thaxted; John Scott is remembered in recitals by former colleagues; Zita Nauratyill shines in the John Hill Memorial Series

E
ntering the festival season, there vibrant event. Incredibly, tickets start from scholar in the autumn, plays works by Bach
is no shortage of good and stimu- as little as £5. Box office: 020 7377 1362 (BWV 532), Vierne (Pièces de fantaisie),
lating music throughout Britain. (Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm), or online at www. Bridge (Adagio in E), Hindemith (Sonata
Spitalfields Festival has brought a mix spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk; tickets also avail- no.1), Hollins (Andante in D, and A Song of
of early and contemporary music to this able on the door 30 mins before the start of Sunshine) and Duruflé (Prélude et fugue sur
once run-down area of London since 1976. each event (subject to availability). le nom d’Alain) – tickets £9 from bit.ly/
Its 40th anniversary sees plenty of inter- For lovers of organ music, there is a 1UkYOWm or on the door.
est for C&O readers: Byrd’s Great Service plethora of recitals around the UK (see p.79, Or would you like to be more involved
(Odyssean Ensemble, 2 June, Tower of or fuller listings at choirandorgan.com), so yourself? Gain insight into Oxford colleges
London); Luigi Rossi’s Oratorio and excepts choose one near you. Memorial recitals to with a tour organised by the RSCM on
from Monteverdi’s Book of Madrigals (Early those who died last year include Douglas 2 May (see p.10 – bit.ly/1UlvSpr). Take
Opera Company, 8 June, Christ Church Hollick’s tribute to organ builder Peter part in a study day organised by the
Spitalfields); Spem in alium and Giles Collins (4pm, 15 May, Oakham School Cambridge Academy of Organ Studies
Swayne’s The Silent Land for 40 voices and Chapel); and international organist John in Thaxted Parish Church (28 May), where
cello (Choir of Clare College Cambridge, Scott, former director of music at St Paul’s Gillian Ward Russell shares her expertise
Raphael Wallfisch (vc), 10 June, Christ Cathedral, is remembered in that venue by on organ music and instruments in the
Church Spitalfields); works by Lennox and recitals after Sunday Evensongs throughout Georgian era, making use of the church’s
Michael Berkeley, Judith Weir, Matthew May played by former colleagues of his recently restored 1821 H.C. Lincoln
Martin and Hilary Campbell (The Marian (details, p.79). Celebrating rising stars are organ (see p.13). Open to participants
Consort, 7 June, Shoreditch Church); and St Lawrence Jewry’s John Hill Memorial and observers: cambridgeorganacademy.
the world premiere of Iain Bell’s London’s Series (1pm, Tuesdays in May; see p.41 for org. Or if you are (or aspire to be) a choral
Fatal Fire (see feature, p.56, and Readers’ the line-up) and the Jenkinson Recital director, sign up to improve your skills
offers, p.49), commemorating the 1666 at Salisbury Cathedral (7.30pm, 22 June), with an abcd course (details on p.8) or a
Great Fire of London, alongside Berio’s in which Henry Websdale, who moves up Sing for Pleasure training event in Walsall
Cries of London and other contemporary to King’s College, Cambridge, as organ (4 & 5 June) – singforpleasure.org.uk.
works (New London Chamber Choir, 11
June, Shoreditch Church). Stellar perform- (from left) The Marian Consort come to Spitalfields; Salisbury’s Willis organ, star of the Jenkinson Recital
ers also include the BBC Symphony Chorus
ASH MILLS
COURTESY THE MARIAN CONSORT

(3 June – works by Jonathan Harvey and

Jonathan Dove), Ex Cathedra (9 June –
madrigals from Morley to MacMillan), and
The Sixteen (11 June – Misereres by Allegri
and MacMillan). Music for young people
and the community, traditional music from
Scotland, music theatre and multi-arts
performances, electronics, and so much
more combine to make the 40th festival a

102 CHOIR & ORGAN MAY/JUNE 2016 www.choirandorgan.com

COMJ16_102_R_Back Page T.indd 102 30/03/2016 12:37:21

 Karen McFarlane Artists
Representing the world’s great concert organists and choirs since 1921

John McElliott,
president

email
john@
GEORGE BAKER
concertorganists.com
MARTIN BAKER

DAVID BASKEYFIELD
website
DIANE MEREDITH BELCHER
concertorganists.com
MICHEL BOUVARD

CHELSEA CHEN toll-free

866-721-9095
DOUGLAS CLEVELAND tel 440-542-1882
KEN COWAN fax 440-542-1890
SCOTT DETTRA

VINCENT DUBOIS 33563 Seneca Drive

STEFAN ENGELS Cleveland, OH 44139
THIERRY ESCAICH USA

LÁSZLÓ FASSANG

JANETTE FISHELL

DAVID GOODE

JUDITH HANCOCK
CHOIRS
THOMAS HEYWOOD Choir of
DAVID HIGGS New College,
Oxford, UK
MARILYN KEISER March–April 2017
JENS KORNDÖRFER

CHRISTIAN LANE Choir of

OLIVIER LATRY Saint Thomas
NATHAN LAUBE Church, NYC
ALAN MORRISON April 2016

THOMAS MURRAY Choir of

JAMES O’DONNELL Westminster
JANE PARKER-SMITH Cathedral, UK
PETER PLANYAVSKY

DARYL ROBINSON Choir of

DANIEL ROTH Winchester
Cathedral, UK
JONATHAN RUDY*

JONATHAN RYAN Choir of

ANN ELISE SMOOT Westminster
TOM TRENNEY Abbey, UK
THOMAS TROTTER

TODD WILSON Choir of

*COMPETITION WINNERS Trinity College,
*David Baskeyfield — Canadian International Organ Competition winner
CHRISTOPHER YOUNG *Jonathan Rudy — AGO National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance Cambridge, UK

ChoirOrgan2016.indd 1 11/30/15 12:37 PM

CO0316.indd 103 11/04/2016 11:19:11
 Q UALITY

Assured.
Whichever organ you buy from us, you can be assured of top sound and
build quality, our technical expertise, great attention to detail and the best in
customer service. We invest in our instruments so you can invest in your future.
These are serious instruments for serious people, people like you.
Explore our websites and then fall in love with the organ of your dreams in our showrooms.

Contact us for tickets for our ‘Sounds of the Summer’ concert

at Mixbury on Saturday 7th May 2016
Makin | Copeman Hart | Johannus

For more details and brochures please telephone 01706 888100

CO0316.indd 104 11/04/2016 11:19:13