Mark Taylor

A snippet on Francis Jackson from the local paper in York (with apologies if this has already been posted). https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/18758591.celebration-minster-music-master/

Anyone within striking distance of Foyles (London, Charing Cross Road branch) might like to know that they are currently selling a lot of L'Orgue Mystique at half price. Of course, it is worth bearing in mind that the whole thing is now available on IMSLP.

I have just found this site on which James Kibbie has provided Bach’s complete organ works for download; either as single pieces (MP3 or AAC), or in groups as compressed files. There is an interesting selection of organs: Dresden, Kathedrale - Gottfried Silbermann, Zacharias Hildebrandt and others, 1755 Rötha, Georgenkirche - Gottfried Silbermann, 1721 Rötha, Marienkirche - Gottfried Silbermann, 1722 Großengottern, St. Walpurgis - Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost, 1717 Stade, Ss. Cosmae et Damiani - Behrendt Huß and Arp Schnitger, 1675 Stade, St. Wilhadi - Erasmus Bielfeldt, 1736 Waltershausen, Stadtkirche - Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost, 1724-1730

Also MDT

I've just noted that EMI are about to re-issue the Great Cathedral Organ Series as a CD boxed set. To be released on 17th October, according to Amazon.

Thanks, Douglas, I've grabbed the PDF from your second link.

When I was there (a couple of years ago), there was a CD of the organ being played by Francis Jackson available from the shop (Amphion PHI CD 130). MT

And I believe this is another NT organ that they are quite amenable to visiting organists having a go on. MT

One of the (many) gaps in my musical knowledge concerns ornaments. They simply didn’t crop up much when I was learning as a child. I currently use as a reference William Lovelock’s Ornaments and Abbreviations, first published in the 1930s. However, I recently found this comment on the internet. “It is unfortunate that the majority of pianists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been "educated" to believe that the symbol [that Bach used for a trill] represents an "inverted mordent"… . Actually, the term "inverted mordent" was never used during Bach's lifetime, and Bach makes it very clear that the symbol indicates a trill, beginning on the auxiliary note.” Quote from here. It seems that I have been playing inverted mordents when I should have been playing trills in Bach's music! Presumably, this also applies to Boehm. I have recently being looking at Boehm’s Vater unser im Himmelreich in Anne Marsden Thomas’ Oxford Service Music for Organ and playing mordants and inverted mordants as (I thought) notated. However, is this issue as black and white as the above quote suggests? And when did the inverted mordent make its first appearance?

I have just discovered that the original reviews for the HMV Great Cathedral Organs series are available on the Gramophone web site. They make for fascinating reading. So far, I have only looked at the reviews for Coventry, Durham, Exeter, Norwich and Worcester, but I assume they are all there. They make for fascinating reading. Does any one recognise the reviewer of the Worcester recording, identified as SF?

Yesterday I paid my first visit ever to Gloucester Cathedral. Looking in the bookshop for something about the organ, I came across The organ of Gloucester Cathedral by John Balsdon. An excellent, well produced booklet which comes with a fascinating CD. Thirteen tracks providing a history of the organ and including five tracks by Herbert Sumsion from 1949 to 1967. Wonderful stuff, here is the full listing. Herbert Sumsion recorded in 1949 S S Wesley, Larghetto in f sharp J S Bach, CP: Komm, suesser Tod, komm, sel'ge Ruh!, BWV 478 Herbert Sumsion recorded in 1965 Whitlock, Five Short Pieces: Folk Tune and Scherzo Herbert Sumsion recorded in 1967 J S Bach, Prelude and Fugue in b, BWV 544 John Sanders recorded in 1980 C H Lloyd, Allegretto Guilmant, Marche funèbre et Chant séraphique Op. 17 David Briggs recorded in 1997 Improvised Variations on Baa Baa Black sheep David Briggs recorded in 2001 Saint-Saens, transcr. Briggs, Symphony No.3: Final Andrew Nethsingha recorded in 2006 Vierne, Organ Symphony No.2: allegro Adrian Partington recorded in 2010 Tomkins, A Fancy Saint-Saens, Prelude and Fugue, Op. 99, No.3 in E flat A Carter, Trumpet Tune

I tried vari-focals about a year ago. Like Malcolm, I had no difficulty using them for playing the organ. They were also good for working at a computer, but I could couldn’t get on with them in the rest of my life! I now use separate reading glasses and distance glasses. I tend to use the distance glasses for organ playing because that’s what I’ve always done, but it is becoming clear that I will have to switch over to using the reading glasses. I have an increasing tendency to mistake sharps for naturals and to confuse mordents and inverted mordents.

There is also a new Hyperion CD of Peeter’s organ music due out in January - D'Arcy Trinkwon playing the organ of Tonbridge School Chapel. While ordering it I also came across the organ concerto and Missa Festiva with Peter Pieters (organ) and the Flemish Radio Orchestra and Choir on the Klara label. I ended up ordering both. I need a New Year’s resolution to buy fewer CDs!

Thanks for your post JOR, but (and I’m really sorry if I wasn’t clear in my original post) it is recordings of Peter’s compositions rather than performances that we are looking for. That said, yes I do have the LP of Greene’s choral music and very enjoyable it is! I am also grateful to another member of this board who has sent me details of recordings on Herald, Lammas and Hyperion. In addition have traced a couple of recordings from Radio 3’s Choral Evensong: the introit: Through Christ Jesus ... from Liverpool in May 2005, and a setting of psalm 93 from Ely in February 2007. It could be that there is not much else around(?)

I am currently helping Peter’s son-in-law to compile a list of commercial recordings of Peter’s compositions. It would be very useful if anyone who knows of any recordings could let me know and I can pass the information on. We are particularly interested in currently available recordings of compositions for choir, but information on any recordings, including any now deleted would be of interest (we have details of the recordings on Priory).