Lunchtime Organ Music - November 2017

LEEDS MINSTER LUNCHTIME ORGAN MUSIC - NOVEMBER 2017

FRIDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2017 12.30 pm Lunchtime Recital by David Houlder

David N Johnson [1922-1987] was Professor at the Arizona State University and organist of Trinity Cathedral, Phoenix and rather cornered the market in American trumpet tunes or voluntaries this century, writing at least seven in the 1960s and 70s of which the opening work in this afternoon’s programme is one of the most extrovert. His other organ music is in a similarly felicitous style, and organists have good cause to be grateful for it. The Trumpet Tune in C makes a splendid curtain- raiser to the series as a whole, and to the first recital in particular.

The Suite of pieces from the pen of Bohemian composer František Ignác Tuma [1704-1774] was devised by London organist and teach Caleb Henry Trevor [1895- 1976] for long a professor of organ at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Tuma’s music has found much favour since its publication by Oxford University Press some decades ago. Tuma was a violinist in the court orchestra of his native land from the 1720s onwards. He had studied with the famous J J Fuks. The component movements are Menuett, Scherzo and Gavotta and it is likely that C H Trevor transcribed these from different originals for other musical resources. Tuma was a significant and important late Baroque composer who was renowned as a performer on the gamba and theorbo as well as the violin and organ. An extensive output of choral music to sacred texts, including no less than five different settings of the famous Stabat Mater sequence for Passiontide was known to Haydn and Mozart and authorities suggested that Tuma’s style was influential in the development of these later composer who contributed so much the “classical” style in music that followed between the Baroque and Romantic epochs in the early/mid 18th and early 19th centuries respectively. Following the death of his wife, the composer entered Geras Abbey, taking monastic vows, and passed away just six years later.

Flor Peeters [1903-1986] Partita: All depends on our possessing, Op 68 No 10 The progress of the movements is: Andante [Chorale], Con moto [I], Allegro [II], Andante cantabile – Trio [III] and Andante maestoso [IV] – Plein Jeu

Created a Baron by the King of the Belgians for his services to music, Flor Peeters was distinguished in equal measure as composer, executant and teacher for on and of the organ. Nor was his output confined to music for the King of Instruments. There are several fine Masses, including the widely-used Missa Festiva (sung regularly at York Minster and St John’s College Cambridge), and numerous motets for liturgical usage - together with fine solo songs and a small group of secular vocal pieces - including stylishly set Flemish folk tunes. At the very early age of twenty-two Peeters was named Titular Organist of St Rombout’s Cathedral, Mechelen by Cardinal Mercier (of Malines Conversations fame). He served at the Cathedral for over sixty years and was also Director of the Antwerp Royal Conservatoire. Peeters was a much-travelled recitalist and many of his finest works were composed for performance on his numerous American tours. Flor Peeters led a hugely active creative life with concerts, composition and teaching at its heart. His musical style is catholic. Although encompassing a wide range of influences, his artistic expression remains instantly recognisable. Plainchant, music of the French schools, Bach, even jazz – all were important to him. Peeters’ creative output includes a substantial amount for the organ. His career was hugely influential both in his native Belgium and further afield. As a student, he had been a pupil of both Dupré and Tournemire, and dedicated works to each.

This appealing and concise work – a miniature Partita or set of variations – comprises the final work in the first book of Thirty Chorale Preludes that are its composer’s Ops 68, 69 and 70 published in New York City in 1950. The hymn melody Alles ist an Gottes Segen by Johann Koenig is headed up by a stanza from this greatly-loved Lutheran staple; the English translation is by Catherine Winkworth: All depends on our possessing God’s abundant grace and blessing, Tho’ all earthly wealth depart. He who trusts with faith unshaken in his God is not forsaken And e’er keeps a dauntless heart. The first two of the four variants are scored for manuals only, with the third consisting of an elegant Trio with the melody in the soprano line. The work concludes with a massive harmonisation on full organ.

William Mathias [1934-1992] Partita, Op 19 Maestoso/Allegro non troppo – Lento alla Marcia – Allegro ma non troppo/Maestoso

This work, one highly significant in its composer’s output as being only his second major piece for the King of Instruments, was commissioned by that remarkable champion of contemporary British organ music during the post-war years, Harden- born Dr Allan Wicks, CBE who was, in turn, Sub Organist of York Minster and Organist and Master of the Choristers at Manchester and Canterbury Cathedrals. Dr Wicks himself gave the first performance of Partita at a Macnaghten Concert in the Royal Air Force Church of St Clement Danes in London’s Strand on 26 October 1962. Professor Mathias’s output for the organ stands sentinel throughout the last four decades of the century; the music’s refreshing vigour perhaps owes something to the composer’s lack of involvement with the Anglican choral tradition at the start of his creative life, though he came to write extensively for it later on. His non- conformist background and early experience in other musical genres seems to have been a real asset to Mathias and the almost kinetic energy marks his music out from his contemporaries. The late Dr John Scott wrote of this piece that he both performed regularly and recorded and broadcast more than once: This three movement work is characterized by majestic moods. A pixified romp marks the first movement, followed by a solemn second, before concluding with a hungry, snarling restless final movement. Each of the three finely etched movements abound in Mathias’s highly characteristic compositional hallmarks – lively, often syncopated, rhythms, decorated, ornamented melodic lines and a vivid sense, even in the slower portions of the work, of dance- like vitality pervading throughout. A special unity is given to the piece by means of the reappearance of the opening material from the first movement towards the close of the finale. The effect of this, the third portion of the work, is greatly enhanced by the understated nature of the material with which it opens.

William Mathias [1934-1992] Invocations [1967] This work was commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of Liverpool for first performance in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool, where it was played by the legendary Dr Noel Rawsthorne fifty years ago this year at an inaugural recital on 6 June 1967. Dr Rawsthorne served as Assistant Organist at Liverpool Cathedral from 1949 to 1955 and as Cathedral Organist from 1955 to 1980, when he became City Organist at St George’s Hall. At the foot of the first page of the musical score of Invocations, Professor Mathias inserts a definition of the title: Invocation: “summons” and “prayer”. Continuous shifts of tempo and texture contribute much to a work underpinned by almost kinetic energy, verve and élan. Toccata figuration and chordal momentum vie with each other for the textural honours throughout.

Paul Creston [known to be Giuseppe Guttoveggio] [1906-1985] Prayer [Suite, Op 70] A native of New York City, Giuseppe Guttovegio – or, as he is far better known, Paul Creston – was of Sicilian descent. The considerable output of this largely self- taught composer is remembered today by those who perform his concertos, notably those for marimba and saxophone – he wrote extensively for the latter instrument – and for his Suite for organ, Op 70. The late Sir George Thalben-Ball popularised this significant work by giving many performances of it complete, or of extracts from it. Two organists with extensive Leeds Minster connections, Carleton Etherington and David Houlder, have regularly programmed movements from this acclaimed work. Prayer is placed second in the sequence of the movements of the Suite and is, truly, the emotional and spiritual heart of the piece. The scoring is compelling and the expression memorable.

Jehan Alain [1911-1940] Litanies [1937] The family Alain contained at least five organists of the first rank. One, Marie-Odile, died at the age of only 23 in a climbing accident and the family name is today kept alive by the charismatic virtuoso organist Marie-Claire (born in 1926). Her indisputable leadership of many aspects of the profession of organist was properly marked by the presentation of Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Organists to universal acclaim and approbation. The founder of this remarkable artistic dynasty was Albert, organist of the Parisian church of Saint Germaine. His four children were each of them extraordinarily gifted, but arguably none more so than the oldest, Jehan. The three volumes that comprise his complete published organ works contain within their pages many repertoire staples – from the infectious, imploring and compelling Litanies of 1937 to the inimitable and intensely personal Le Jardin suspendu. If those two examples are quoted first, it has to be because they represent the more accessible side of Jehan Alain’s muse. Other works are rather less straightforward for both player and listener! Litanies is headed by a quotation by the composer himself: When, in its distress, the Christian soul can find no more words to invoke God’s mercy, it repeats endlessly the same litany....for reason has reached its limit; only faith can take one further...

William Mathias [1934-1992] Carillon Carillon was first performed by Todd Wilson at the Montreat Conference on Music and Worship in Montreat, North Carolina, in June 1990. The piece was commissioned by the Allen Organ Company as ‘an extension of their commitment and responsibility to the organ community and the cause of organ and sacred music’. The composer was asked to provide a piece ‘appropriate for both church and recital... within the grasp of a normal player and a normal audience’. As its title suggests, Carillon is inspired by the sonority of bells - more particularly, the overtone harmonies generated by bells, and the type of music associated with the carillons of Belgium and Holland: simple, bright, and generally repetitive tunes played over relatively slow-moving, sonorously constant pedal harmonies. The piece, luminous and festive in nature, builds to a climax in which the various bell pedals are juxtaposed in bracing harmonies while the tunes peal out jubilantly above.

©This copyright note from the Mathias estate is here reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press

Zoltán Kodály [1882-1967] Ite, missa est The stupendous closing item in this afternoon’s programme forms the conclusion of two of its composer’s works – the Missa Brevis and Organoedia, subtitled Ad missam lectam [the prototype solo organ version of the same composition]. This noble Maestoso unfolds with bristling rhetoric in unison lines. Though being based within the appropriately festive, and bright, tonality of D major, the piece begins modally and encounters a vast amount of chromatic melody and harmony en route. The Latin title is that of the final versicle and response at the close of Mass after the Blessing has been given by the celebrant: Go, the Mass is ended: Thanks be to God.

Francis Alan Jackson [born 2 October 1917] Impromptu Francis Jackson’s Impromptu was written during 1944 in honour of its dedicatee’s seventieth birthday. Chorister, pupil, assistant, successor and, ultimately, biographer of and to the great Sir Edward Bairstow, Jackson’s affinity with his mentor’s music is remarkable – as those who are fortunate enough to possess Francis’s complete recording of the Bairstow organ oeuvre will testify only too readily. This afternoon’s magnificent solo unfolds in D major and 5/4 time with an expansively soaring soprano melody. Livelier textures and differing tonalities pervade the central section which includes fanfare and toccata figures before a massive statement of the opening material is achieved. Ultimately, the tension is released and the beauty of the opening returns – with a quotation this time in the pedal part of the magical opening of the Sanctus of Sir Edward’s mighty Communion Service in D composed for his Leeds Choir in 1913 as a parting gift prior to departure from this city for his new post at York Minster – a position held until his death on 1 May 1946.

Matthew Camidge [1758-1844] Concerto IV in G, Op 13 No 4 Larghetto – Allegro – Larghetto – Allegretto [March] The second of the three Camidges intimately associated with the music at York Minster for over a century, Matthew held the post of organist there from 1799 to 1842. One of six concertos for solo organ, No 4 follows its creator’s normal four movement pattern - closing with a final March. The second of the piece’s two Larghettos is in E minor alternates the Diapasons with a quieter Swell registration. The March is for full organ at the outset with the middle portion directed to be played on the Swell. Given the inherently attractive nature of the music, it is not hard to see why Dr Jackson’s editions of his famous precursor’s music – including two of the “solo” concertos have achieved widespread circulation and added greatly to the repertoire of a period in English organ repertory sadly devoid of music of such charm, grace and elegance. Thomas Tertius Noble, Bairstow’s immediate predecessor at the Minster, also edited at least one of the Camidge concertos, but in an expanded collation of the original score. Dr Jackson’s endeavours deal in a thoroughly scholarly manner only with the notes in the manuscript along with the original registrations for the choice of stops and sonorities.

Edward Cuthbert Bairstow [1874-1946] Evening Song [1899] Bairstow’s output for the organ was regrettably small. Maybe his hectic professional schedule prevented him writing more for the king of instruments. Most of his organ pieces belong to his early career and were composed during his terms of office as organist in turn of the great parish churches of Wigan and Leeds. The Three Pieces of 1911 were obviously designed for the Leeds instrument with its massive bass registers and multitude of expressive solo stops. These, and other works, were followed by the glorious Sonata of 1937, of which the two earliest performances were given by Willis Grant and Francis Jackson. Evening Song dates from the closing year of the 19th century and was, in its original manifestation, a solo for cello with piano accompaniment; a version for organ solo followed almost immediately and has never gone out of print. Its languorous tenor melody, beneath a shimmering accompaniment into the right hand, forms the basis of the work, though there are delightful, almost scherzo-like episodes of quicker momentum and both are combined succinctly in a final, memorable and very brief, coda. The work had been composed for one of many Sunday musical evenings held in Paddington by Bairstow’s Vicar, William Boyd, when the Yorkshire-born composer served as Organist of All Saints’ Norfolk Square prior to moving as Organist of Wigan and Leeds Parish Churches in 1902 and 1906 respectively. Evening Song was invariably played by Sir Edward at York as the Evensong voluntary on Lady Bairstow’s birthday each year – it being her favourite piece of his.

Philip John Moore [born 1943] Soliloquy Composed in York during February of 1983, Philip Moore’s affectionate and very expressive Soliloquy is inscribed to Francis and Priscilla Jackson with the main theme being derived from their surname by musical pitches and codes. A lovely Andante espressivo comprises the opening and closing sections of the work, with more arresting and urgent sonorities deployed at the heart of the piece. The pluse beat sustains a degree of flexibility, with bars of different lengths being carefully juxtaposed each to the other as underpinning the undulating melodic lines that pervade the quieter music. For the final section, the melody comes on the pedals at four-foot pitch to great effect. On the evidence of output of this calibre, we must regret that Dr Moore has written a modest numerical tally of works for the king of instruments, though there are notable sets of variations of recent date, one being included within the pages of the Fanfare for Francis volume produced in honour of Dr Jackson’s 90th birthday ten years ago and the other, more recently, for a fest- schrift in honour of the late Dr Alan Spedding.

Francis Alan Jackson [born 2 October 1917] Fantasia argenti Written just over thirty years ago and dating from 1981 – being completed on 19 September of that year – Dr Jackson’s hugely eloquent and expressive Fantasia argenti was commissioned by the late Dr Harold Smart as a gift for his wife Margaret on their Silver Wedding – hence the Latin descriptive of the precious metal comprising the second word of its title. The work is modestly directed moderato and consists of an ingenious bi-polar use of six quavers to the bar, alternating in emphasis betwixt time signatures of 6/8 and 3/4 respectively. The melodic lines are expressive and the work contains an optional internal repeat of the opening section. Dr Harold Smart is particularly remembered in Church Music circles as the generous founder of a composition competition for new anthems on a regular basis, administered under the auspices of the Royal School of Church Music. THE ORGANIST David Houlder was born in Liverpool but is also a proud Prestonian. Educated at Preston Grammar School, he studied organ there with John Robinson, gaining his FRCO at the age of 17. He read music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge [he is a Master of Arts of that University] continuing his organ studies with Arnold Richardson in London. David embarked upon a teaching career as Music Master at Wirral Grammar School for Boys. From 1981 to 1999 he was Director of Music at Liverpool’s historic Blue Coat School. In 1987 David was appointed Sub-Organist of Liverpool Cathedral, latterly combining that position with a freelance career, both as recitalist and accompanist. He has played all of the cathedral organs in England and in 2001 he enjoyed a stint as Acting-Assistant Organist of York Minster. He appeared in concert regularly with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and has recorded with them on several occasions. More recently, he has appeared with the renowned Black Dyke Band and played with them in a spectacular concert at Birmingham Symphony Hall recorded and released on DVD.

In November 2003, after nearly thirty years music-making on Merseyside, David accepted the position of Sub-Organist at Leeds Minster (then Leeds Parish Church). In addition to accompanying the daily choral services, he directs two choirs and is organist to St Peter’s Singers with whom he toured Romania in 2007 and Mallorca in 2009 and 2013, Brittany in 2011, North Germany and Holland in October 2015 and East Anglia only last month. David specialises in organ and piano transcriptions of orchestral scores and is in great demand as accompanist to choral societies on both sides of the Pennines. He is Organist and Associate Conductor of Doncaster Choral Society and, as chief accompanist to Halifax Choral Society, sustains a tradition between Leeds Minster and that Choir extending back well over a century. Earlier this year, he played the prominent organ part in HCS’s CD of their Bicentenary commission from Yorkshire composer Professor Philip Wilby – The Holy Face – recording in the sumptuous surroundings of Huddersfield Town Hall. Recent performances have included Bizet: Te Deum, Cherubini: Mass in C minor, Duruflé: Requiem, Kodaly: Missa Brevis, Puccini: Messa di Gloria, Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle (Piano and Harmonium parts – though not simultaneously!), Verdi: Requiem (a work very rarely performed on the organ) plus Organ Masses by Langlais, Vierne and Widor. His non-musical interests include shipping, railways and photography.

FRIDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2017 12.30 pm Lunchtime Recital by Matthew Blaiden

Johann Sebastian Bach Pièce d’Orgue [Fantasia in G], S572 Vitement - Grave - Très lentement The Fantasia in G - known properly as Pièce d’Orgue - is one of very few of Bach’s organ works for which the composer provides performance directions. Normally, the composer limited himself to the pitch of stops to be used, or whether the piece is to be played on more than one manual. In the case of S572, the instructions to the player are with regard to speed and ambience of each of the three panels of this marvellous musical tripytch. The piece unfolds with a brilliant toccata for single melodic line. This is followed by a massive peroration with two broad beats to the bar. Listen particularly for the relentless ascent of the pedal part, one note per bar, over which Bach weaves a wonderfully wrought contrapuntal web. After a massive discord, a further toccata follows, with an urgent pulsating pedal part in descending semitones beneath it. (There is nothing in Bach’s output quite like this section; only the G minor Fantasia contains music as taut and tense). The piece dates from Bach’s tenure as Court Organist at Weimar and its vitality and exuberance bespeak the optimism of the young man exulting in his compositional skill and flair. The glorious central portion of the work contains an affinity with the stupendous chorus in part two of the Christmas Oratorio - Glory to God in the highest - which may well account for its frequent use during the Nativity season, especially in Germany. Scholars have suggested that Bach’s use of French speed directions may be connected with his enthusiam for the organ music of de Grigny. It is known that he made for himself a fair copy of de Grigny’s Livre d’Orgue.

Camille Saint-Saëns [1835-1921] Fantaisie in C, Op 157 Très modére – Allegro – Andantino – mouvement modere, comme au commencement – Allegro non troppo – Tres modere Hailed by Franz Liszt, no less, as “the greatest organist in the world”, the achievements of Camille Saint-Saëns as keyboard virtuoso have, perhaps inevitably, been overshadowed by those of Saint-Saëns the composer. Organists and pianists are, of course, fully aware of the idiomatic brilliance of his keyboard writing and audiences acknowledge the piano concertos and the famous ‘organ’ symphony as high points of the romantic keyboard repertory. The comparatively small amount of music for organ within his vast work-list (Saint-Saëns was one of the longest lived of all French composers) is to be regretted on account of its inherent quality and stylistic integrity. As a young man, Saint-Saëns was Organist of Saint Merry and succeeded the flamboyant Lefébure-Wely at La Madeleine. His style was, clearly, in vivid contrast to his precursor there; as he put it to a colleague: Monsieur l’Abbé, [the day] I hear the dialogue of the Opéra-Comique spoken in the pulpit, I will play music appropriate to it….

Saint-Saëns’ three Fantaisies were composed over a period of half a century. The first of the three, written in 1857, is perhaps the most frequently performed. Dedicated to HM Manuel II, King of Portugal, the second Fantaisie dates from 1919 and is divided into several highly characteristic episodes. The piece is cast in “arch” form, opening and closing quietly.

William Mathias Variations on a Hymn Tune [Braint], Op 20 William Mathias emerged as the leading contemporary composer of the Welsh principality. Despite a background within the non-conformist “Chapel” tradition, rather than an Anglican one, Mathias provided an immense amount of Choral Music for the Church of England in its many manifestations and wrote extensively for the organ. It is likely that his early musical experience was that of an auto-didact, though his mother taught the piano and played the organ. His main studies at London’s Royal Academy of Music were with Sir Lennox Berkeley. This afternoon’s finale is a set of treatments on the traditional Welsh hymn melody, Braint, written in 1962 and first performed by Llandaff Cathedral Organist Robert Joyce in his home Cathedral. The work was a commission from BBC Wales and comprises one of its creator’s most substantial works for the King of Instruments.

A fanfare-like opening unfolds to yield a subdued canonic statement of the melody on flute stops. This is followed by six highly contrasted variant treatments of immense and variety and diversity of dances, marches and other musical styles. There is plenty for the Tuba stop to do! – and memorable moments of quiet repose, too. The modal character of the fine tune is a major factor and the piece as a whole has much within it to catch and sustain the wrapt attention of the listener as well as the keen and nimble commitment of a player of virtuoso calibre.

THE ORGANIST Matthew Blaiden Matthew Blaiden is an increasingly busy organ recitalist across the UK, drawing on a varied repertoire spanning almost 700 years of music from the earliest known keyboard writing to contemporary music, having premiered new pieces written for him by Will Barry and Ian de Massini. He has performed at King’s College London and in College chapels in Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham; at Portsmouth, Chester, Blackburn, and Hereford Cathedrals and both cathedrals in Southwark; at Leeds and Doncaster Minsters; as well as in many parish churches and in the Reid Concert Hall in Edinburgh. Highlights of Matthew’s schedule in 2016 included a return to Southwark Cathedral and a recital as part of the Bloomsbury RegerFest in Central London marking 100 years since Max Reger’s death. Until the end of September 2016 Matthew was the Director of Music at the church of St Mary Magdalene, Richmond, having previously been the Assistant Organist at Little St Mary’s Church, Cambridge, and held the Organ Scholarship at St Peter’s Church, Petersham. He now pursues freelance playing and conducting and sings with the Choir here at Leeds Minster. Matthew was educated at King’s College School, Wimbledon, gained a 1st Class Honours BA in English Language & Literature from King’s College London, and then took an M.Phil. in Renaissance Literature from the University of Cambridge, based at Gonville and Caius College. In October 2016, Matthew began doctoral research at the University of Leeds on the literature and culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. At school, Matthew sang in the school Chamber Choir under Daniel Phillips, taking him to many prestigious venues across the UK including Westminster Abbey, Southwark Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral, St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and Canterbury Cathedral. He also sang with them on tour across Ireland and Italy, and recorded a CD of Christmas music, on which he was a soloist. During his school years, Matthew studied the piano with Muriel Levin and organ and improvisation with Ronny Krippner. He has since participated in masterclasses given by, amongst others, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Ashley Grote, William Whitehead, Tom Bell, and Graham Barber, and engaged in private study with Dame Gillian Weir and Nicolas Kynaston.