The Usher Hall Organ - CD Booklet

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john kitchen plays the organ of the usher hall

DCD34022

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Also available on Delphian The Organ in the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling John Kitchen (DCD34064)

John Kitchen plays the organ of the Usher Hall Alfred

Hollins (1865-1942) March

1 Triumphal

[6.38]

Edward Elgar (1857-1934) 2

Larghetto from Serenade for Strings

[4.30]

(arr. C.H. Trevor) 3

‘Nimrod’ (from ‘Enigma’ Variations)

[3.24]

(arr. W.H. Harris) G.

F. Handel (1685-1759) from Deidamia 5 Minuet from Alcina 6 March from Rinaldo 7 ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Rinaldo 8 March from Scipio

[2.13] [1.33] [2.07] [3.51] [2.06]

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) 9 Praeludium pro Organo pleno BWV 552i 10 Fuga a 5 con pedale pro Organo pleno BWV 552ii

[8.40] [6.42]

4 March

Recorded 21 January 2004 at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh Producer & Engineer: Paul Baxter

Digitally remastered in 2009

Cover image: David Moir (courtesy Scotsman Publications Ltd) Booklet / traycard photography: © Delphian Records Ltd Photograph editing: Raymond Parks

Design: Drew Padrutt Booklet editor: John Fallas Delphian Records – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.co.uk

Edinburgh’s city organist John Kitchen visits Scotland’s Mither Kirk and the country’s largest organ. Never before heard on disc, the 1939 Rushworth & Dreaper represents the zenith of British organ building. Kitchen harnesses this king of instruments in a varied recital, revelling in its sheer magnificence.

‘On this stonking disc, wait till you hear Kitchen unleashed on Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1.’

– Michael Tumelty, The Herald, May 2008

Alfred Hollins: Organ Works Caird Hall Organ, Dundee; Timothy Byram-Wigfield (DCD34044) Designed by the blind organist Alfred Hollins, the Caird Hall instrument is one of the finest recital organs in the UK – as ideal a vehicle for Hollins’ own music as Byram-Wigfield is an exponent of it. Hollins effortlessly combines keyboard pyrotechnics with a quasi-orchestral approach to sonority. These works bristle with vigour, their swaggering confidence complemented by their ingenuity and wit.

‘It gleams, gives voice to some scrumptiously succulent sounds and inspires Timothy Byram-Wigfield to turn out performances of this wide cross-section of Hollins’s output which are utterly captivating… It’s glorious stuff and, coupled with such a splendid recording from Delphian, a disc as entertaining as anybody could wish for.’

– Gramophone, April 2007 ‘It is impossible to praise the choice of instrument or the performances on this CD too highly … It is made more valuable by being sonically one of the best recordings of an organ I have heard for some time.’

– International Record Review, March 2007

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John Kitchen John Kitchen is a Senior Lecturer in Music and University Organist in the University of Edinburgh. He also directs the Edinburgh University Singers, and is Director of Music at Old St Paul’s Episcopal Church.

In December 2002 he was appointed City Organist in Edinburgh, with curatorial and promotional duties centred on the newly refurbished 1914 Norman and Beard organ in the Usher Hall. He gives many solo recitals both in the UK and further afield, and is much in demand as a continuo player, accompanist, lecturer, writer and reviewer.

He is one of the country’s most prodigious recording artists, recording regularly for Delphian and other labels on a wide range of keyboard instruments. His most recently acclaimed releases include a disc of British, Dutch and French Romantic organ music played on the Rushworth organ in the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling (DCD34064), and the first complete recording of the organ music of William Russell (1777–1813), recorded on the 1829 Bishop organ at St James’s, Bermondsey in London (DCD34062, 3 discs). A disc of Handel overtures played on the harpsichord, also from Delphian Records, is forthcoming.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’

11 ‘Weinen,

[15.22]

Geoffrey Atkinson (b.1943)

A Little Liturgical Suite based on Scottish folk melodies 12 (i)

Prelude: Bonnie Lass amongst the heather Plea: I’ll bid my heart be still 14 (iii) Postlude: The Trumpeter of Fyvie 13 (ii)

Gustav

Holst (1874-1934) (arr. Eric Thiman) theme (from The Planets)

[2.21] [2.21] [1.57]

15 ‘Jupiter’

[3.39]

William Walton (1902-1983) (arr. Robert Gower) Song (from Façade) 17 Coronation March: Orb and Sceptre

[2.30] [8.12]

16 Popular

Total playing time

[78.08]

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Notes on the music This wide-ranging, eclectic programme presents music that can be brought to life particularly effectively on the Usher Hall’s monumental Norman and Beard concert organ.

The organ repertory is huge, and no organ can be expected to suit it all equally well. In my view, one should to an extent at least let particular instruments dictate what one plays on them, and indeed how one plays it. In the case of a Victorian or, as here, Edwardian concert organ, transcriptions also play their part, since that is what many of these instruments were designed to play.

Alfred Hollins (1865-1942) Triumphal March The swaggering confidence of Alfred Hollins’s Triumphal March (1905) is ideally served by the instrument. Not only does the tuba come into its own, but there is a brief opportunity to use the carillon, as prescribed by the composer.

Although widely travelled as a recitalist, Hollins spent most of his working life in Edinburgh, where from 1897 until his death in 1942 he held the post of organist at St George’s Church in the West End, not far from the Usher Hall.

Hollins gave one of the inaugural recitals on the new Usher Hall instrument; this concert was extravagantly praised in The Scotsman of 5 October 1914, in marked contrast to the rather

lukewarm reception given to Widor, who had played in May of the same year.

Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Larghetto from Serenade for Strings (arr. C.H. Trevor) ‘Nimrod’ (from ‘Enigma’ Variations) (arr. W.H. Harris) C.H. Trevor is remembered as the editor of many volumes of early organ music, to some extent offered as an antidote to the often inferior Victorian or Edwardian repertory previously current. But here he appears as an arranger of Elgar’s sublime slow movement from the Serenade for Strings, in which some of the organ’s remarkable string registers come into their own. Harris’s transcription of ‘Nimrod’ is probably the most frequently played Elgar transcription, and its solemn nobility is at one with the Usher Hall organ.

G.F. Handel (1685-1759) March from Deidamia Minuet from Alcina March from Rinaldo ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from Rinaldo March from Scipio Since Handel’s own day his music has been transcribed for the organ, and he himself is

SOLO 58 Harmonic Claribel Flute 59 Concert Flute 60 Cor Anglais 61 Orchestral Trumpet 62 Corno di Bassetto 63 Tuba

8 4 16 8 8 8

Full complement of couplers and accessories.

There is some extension and borrowing within the pedal organ.

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Specification PEDAL 1 Double Open Diapason 32 2 Open Diapason (wood) 16 3 Open Diapason (metal) 16 4 Violone 16 5 Bordun 16 6 Dulciana 16 7 Echo String Bass 16 8 Octave Diapason 8 9 Octave Bordun 8 10 Principal 8 11 Super Octave 4 12 Ophicleide 16 13 Contra Posaune 16 14 Tromba 8

GREAT 29 Double Open Diapason 30 Open Diapason (large) 31 Open Diapason (medium) 32 Open Diapason (small) 33 Claribel Flute 34 Stopped Diapason 35 Octave 36 Octave Flute 37 Octave Quint 38 Super Octave 39 Harmonics 17. 19. 21. 22 40 Contra Posaune 41 Tromba 42 Clarion

16 8 8 8 8 8 4 4 2 2/3 2 4 ranks 16 8 4

CHOIR 15 Geigen Diapason 8 SWELL 16 Dulciana 8 43 Lieblich Bordun 16 17 Hohl Flöte 8 44 Open Diapason 8 18 Cor de Nuit 8 45 Violoncello 8 19 Unda Maris 8 46 Lieblich Gedakt 8 20 Flauto Traverso 4 47 Salicional 8 21 Flageolet 2 48 Voix Celeste 8 49 Principal 4 ORCHESTRAL 50 Liebliche Flöte 4 22 Contra Viola 16 51 Lieblich Piccolo 2 23 Viole d’Orchestre 8 52 Mixture 12.15.17.19. 21. 22 6 ranks 24 Viole Octaviante 4 53 Double Trumpet 16 25 Cornet d’Violes 10.12.15 3 ranks 54 Cornopean 8 26 Orchestral Clarinet 8 55 Hautboy 8 27 Orchestral Oboe 8 56 Clarion 4 28 Carillon 57 Vox Humana 8

known to have interpolated operatic arias as solos in his organ concertos. The music has of course been subjected to changing performance styles over the years, although it is worth remembering that performances of Handel given with massive forces, primarily associated with the nineteenth century, were already taking place not so long after his death.

Many of the operas and oratorios contain stirring marches, some of which, such as that from the opera Scipio, have become well known and much loved. Others are virtually unknown, such as those from the operas Rinaldo and Deidamia (which was Handel’s last opera, written in 1741). These are unrepentantly offered here ‘in the grand manner’, perhaps not as Handel intended, but irresistible nonetheless. The celebrated aria ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ is a gem, and just the sort of movement Handel might have played on the organ, as is the minuet from Alcina.

inherent strength and integrity that it always emerges triumphant, however one serves it up.

The towering Prelude and Fugue in E flat (the fugue that is sometimes known as the ‘St Anne’) are the first and last movements in Bach’s Clavierübung III, and arguably should not be played as a pair; nevertheless, they work well as such (and were so played by Mendelssohn, who was instrumental in introducing much of Bach’s organ music to the British public). They are given here using registrations that reflect the nature of the instrument, but which (it is hoped) also help convey the architecture of these consummate masterpieces.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’

Liszt’s variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen were first written for piano in 1862, after the death of his daughter Blandine, and the work portrays that personal tragedy; in 1863 he J.S. Bach (1685-1750) made the organ version. Basing the piece on Praeludium pro Organo pleno BWV 552i the falling chromatic passacaglia theme from Fuga a 5 con pedale pro Organo pleno BWV 552ii Bach’s Cantata no. 12, Liszt develops the mood of weeping, lamenting, worrying and fearing in How should one approach the music of Bach on a characteristically unrestrained way, using the an orchestral Edwardian organ? Or should one full resources of the instrument. Formally, the simply not play it at all on an instrument so far work is a fantasia consisting of groups of removed in style from those known to Bach? variations; after all the turmoil, Liszt introduces Opinions differ here; but the music has such the chorale Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan

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The Usher Hall Organ: Norman & Beard, 1914 Restored by Harrison & Harrison, 2003 (‘Whatever the Lord does is well done’). The melody is introduced quietly (here on the orchestral string chorus), and gradually builds to a thrilling fortissimo climax.

Geoffrey Atkinson (b.1943) A Little Liturgical Suite based on Scottish folk melodies (i) Prelude: Bonnie Lass amongst the heather (ii) Plea: I’ll bid my heart be still (iii) Postlude: The Trumpeter of Fyvie Every third year a prize is offered by the Dr William Baird Ross Trust to help promote the work of Scottish church musicians. Baird Ross was the founder (in 1913, just as the Usher Hall organ was being built) of the Edinburgh Society of Organists, and its first President. The Trust is today administered by the ESO. The Aberdeen-based composer Geoffrey Atkinson’s short suite was awarded a prize in the 1999 competition, and uses three Scottish melodies as the basis for simple but effective movements which can be used either in church services or as a concert suite. They employ some of the many delicate softer registers of the Usher Hall organ.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) ‘Jupiter’ theme (from The Planets) (arr. Eric Thiman) The hymn ‘I vow to thee my country’ is indelibly associated with the ‘big tune’ from Holst’s The Planets; Eric Thiman has arranged it as an organ solo.

William Walton (1902-1983) Popular Song (from Façade) Coronation March: Orb and Sceptre (both arr. Robert Gower) Like Holst, Walton wrote virtually no ‘real’ organ music, but arrangements of some of his spectacular orchestral music, in particular the marches Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre, have often been played on the organ. Robert Gower’s transcription of Orb and Sceptre (originally written for the 1953 coronation) is clean and uncluttered, while retaining the essentials of Walton’s complex score.

The marvellously witty ‘Popular Song’ is also transformed by Gower into an effective organ piece. Both these works are well served by the colourful resources of the organ.

John Kitchen

This monumental organ was originally built

by Norman & Beard in 1914 at a cost of approximately £4000; it was designed in conjunction with Dr Thomas Collinson, organist at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral from 1878 to 1928. By the 1970s it was beginning to prove unreliable – largely as a result of poor humidity and temperature control in the hall, and despite the best efforts of those responsible for its care – and over the next 20 years or so it gradually fell into disuse. It was also considered by many at that time to be hopelessly unfashionable, but at least neglect spared it from ‘baroquisation’.

Strenuous efforts by many in the early 1990s to have this noble civic instrument brought back into use were eventually rewarded when it was resolved to entrust Harrison & Harrison with a comprehensive restoration of the instrument; the consultant was David Sanger.

The pipework remains entirely unaltered, and now sounds much as it must have done in 1914. It is characterised by a predictably Edwardian opulence, fullness and richness of sound, as well as offering a huge variety of exotic colours. Both the swell and great departments are bold, yet with plenty of fire and pungency. The two mixtures contain not only tierce ranks, but the flat twenty-first harmonic; such mixtures were generally

intended to be used with the reeds, not as chorus mixtures in the way we now expect.

The pedal complements this well, and contains a full-length metal contra violone 32’, some of which comprises the display pipes. The choir offers some beautiful delicate sounds, including a seductive unda maris, and the solo and orchestral departments tempt with all sorts of exotic delights, including a kinura-like orchestral oboe, a small-scale orchestral trumpet (not the big solo reed that one might expect from such a name), a noble and not devastating tuba, and – most extraordinary of all – a family of strings from 16’ up to a cornet d’violes mixture.

There is also a two-octave carillon, made of steel bars.

The actions have all been fully restored; within the organ these are electro-pneumatic, the couplers being purely pneumatic. At the console – a particularly handsome piece in Spanish mahogany – the drawstops are pneumatically actuated, but the original pistons are now controlled by a new setter system; an ample provision of general pistons, with a sequencer, has been discreetly added.