Mark Batten

I am the organist at St James the Greater in Leicester who engaged Dame Gillian Weir for her recital on 11th June. Would like to assure all readers of this board, writing as a professional organist, that Dame Gillian had no difficulties whatsoever in handling complex registration schemes on the large Taylor/Walker/Nicholson organ at St James the Greater. Her recital at St James did indeed feature a small number works from the recent RAH CD namely Parry's Toccata and Fugue, Cook's Fanfare and the Lanquetuit Toccata. However I personally can not see the problem of an artist using their live performances to promote their recordings. Her recital was so well received that numerous copies of the RAH CD were sold after the recital. Speaking personally, from the quality of her recent performances I’m very much looking forward to hearing one of the world’s finest organists perform on one of the world's finest organs. Mark Batten.