Christopher Allsop
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Posts posted by Christopher Allsop
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There's a very nice job indeed available at Worcester Cathedral from September...
Application pack attached below.Worcester Cathedral Assistant Director of Music recruitment pack.pdf
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I don't know if Carleton Etherington is on this Forum to give a more fullsome update, but I did have a quick play on the Grove during the Summer. Although the instrument still sounds astonishing, it doesn't take long to discover quite a few notes off and wind escapes. Wonderful and unique to play and hear, but I wouldn't want to try and give a recital on it at the moment...
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Worcester Cathedral
Saturday October 3, 2015, 6.45pm
Wayne Marshall
plays on the Tickell Quire Organ's 7th AnniversaryTickets £14 (under-18s free - no ticket required) from Worcester Cathedral Shop or from www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/181056
Programme:
Widor: Marche Pontificale
Ducasse: Pastorale
Schmidt: Variations and Fugue on a theme from Fredigundis
Interval
Widor: Symphonie no.6 in G minor
Improvisation -
Is there any possiblity of the hardwire re-connection of the superb 32ft. ranks in the South (North - if they have already moved) Transept, in the forseeable future?
Yes is the short answer...
With any luck we'll be able to report further details later this year or next.
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Worcester Cathedral
Tuesday April 21, 1.10pm
Free admission, with a retiring collection.
Tom Winpenny
(Assistant Master of the Music, St. Albans Cathedral)March: A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Sir William Walton (1902-1983) arr. Tom Winpenny
Concerto in A minor BWV 593 J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
after the Violin Concerto op. 3 no. 8 (RV522) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
i [Allegro]
ii Adagio
iii Allegro
Vol de nuit (arranged from The Secret Garden, 2004) Judith Bingham (b.1952)
Pastorale (1909) Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873-1954)
Toccata (1993) Jiří Ropek (1922-2005)
Tom Winpenny is Assistant Master of the Music at St Albans Cathedral where his duties include accompanying the daily choral services and directing the acclaimed Abbey Girls Choir. Previously, he was Sub-Organist at St Paul's Cathedral, and during this time he performed with the Cathedral Choir at the American Guild of Organists National Convention, performed in Mahler's Symphony no. 8 with Valery Gergiev and the LSO, and played for many great state occasions. He has also broadcast regularly on BBC Radio and been featured on American Public Media's Pipedreams
He began organ lessons under John Scott Whiteley while a chorister at York Minster, and continued as a Music Scholar at Eton College under Alastair Sampson. After holding the post of Organ Scholar at Worcester Cathedral and then St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, he was for three years Organ Scholar at King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in music. With the Choir of King's College, he gave concerts in the USA, Hong Kong and throughout Europe, in addition to appearing as their accompanist on CD releases on EMI Classics.
He has taken part in the first performance of works by Cecilia McDowall, Judith Bingham, Jonathan Dove, Paul Mealor, Francis Grier and Francis Pott. He has studied with Thomas Trotter and Johannes Geffert, and won First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2008 Miami International Organ Competition. He is an organ tutor for the annual Eton Choral Courses
Recent and forthcoming engagements include recitals in Birmingham Town Hall, Norwich Cathedral and St Paul’s, K Street, Washington DC. In December 2013 he appeared as organ soloist in John Rutter’s Christmas Celebration concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. His solo organ recordings include a recital on the organ of St Albans Cathedral (JAV Recordings), organ works by Judith Bingham (Naxos), music by Malcolm Williamson (Toccata Classics) and works by Charles Villiers Stanford, John McCabe and Lennox & Michael Berkeley (Resonus Classics – download only). A recording of Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur has recently been released on the Naxos label. He also directs St Albans Abbey Girls Choir in a recording of Mendelssohn Choral Works (Naxos). -
This one's lovely too: http://www.bhamorgan.org.uk/organs/042.htm
1915 II/17 in the Friends Meeting House, Bournville, Birmingham.
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It's this little one isn't it https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154377451995324&l=309b622e95
I think it might be a Casson Positive organ.
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We're not quite as technologically advanced as that, Sotto Voce! The transmission goes up a computer CAT cable to each organ chamber. We do have a wireless MIDI sender/receiver, but don't use it, as the cathedral's pillars block the signal...
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Sorry not to get the chance to say hello to all of you on the board who came yesterday to Ken's memorial service and Olivier Latry's concert - thank you for coming. The Quire was full to capacity for both, and they made a hugely moving tribute to the work of Ken and his wonderful team. Olivier's playing will go down as a musical benchmark for me, and I imagine everyone else there too - impeccable technique linked to insightful musicianship. Remarkable and privileged to have been there and experienced him live at Worcester.
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And the organ music before and after, in case anyone's interested:
Beforehand: Clerambault - Suite de deuxieme ton (all of it)
After: Bach - Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C
Both particular favourites of Ken's - it will be lovely to see lots of you there.
The programme for Olivier Latry's recital is:
Marcel DUPRÉ (1886 – 1971) :
Cortège et litanie
César FRANCK (1822 – 1890) :
Prélude, fugue et variation
Louis VIERNE (1870 – 1937) :
Scherzetto
Légende
(extraits des « Pièces en style libre »)
Franz LISZT (1811 – 1885) :
Saint-François de Paul marchant sur les flots
(transcription pour orgue de Max Reger)Interval
Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844 – 1937) :
5ème Symphonie :
Allegro vivace
Allegro cantabile
Andantino quasi allegretto
Adagio
ToccataPlus an improvisation as an encore if we all applaud enough....
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I'm pretty sure it was in a room in the Cambridge Music Faculty in the mid 1990s, although I must admit I never played it.
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Indeed - if you can, come on Sunday too, where both the ordinary in the morning and canticles in the afternoon are by Francis.
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Full job details for Worcester Organist and D of M available at:
www.worcestercathedral.co.uk
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I played it a year or so ago - I've a vague memory that it might be a Casson Positive.
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Google Translate's version of the German-English translation is as colourful as always... I particularly like the information that:
"The three interconnected body organ will be borne solely by the south wall of static"
... now that's really very clever indeed
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Worcester Cathedral, Saturday 7th May, 6.30pm
£10 admission (free for under 16s)
Organ Recital by Christopher Allsop (Assistant Organist, Worcester Cathedral)
1. Gloria movements from Messe pour les couvents de religieux et religieuses - François Couperin 1668 – 1733
with plainsong sung by the Gentlemen of the Cathedral Choir
Plein Jeu ~ Petite fugue sur le cromorne ~ Duo sur les tierces ~ Basse de trompette ~ Cromorne en taille ~ Dialogue sur la voix humaine ~ Dialogue sur les tierces et la basse sur la trompette ~ Récit de tierce ~ Dialogue sur les grands jeux
2. Voluntary in D (Op. 6, No. 6) - John Stanley 1712 – 1786
Adagio ~ Andante ~ Adagio ~ Allegro
3. Prelude and Fugue on BACH - Franz Liszt 1811 – 1886
4. Concerto in A minor (BWV 593) - Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741 arr. J.S. Bach 1685 – 1750
Allegro ~ Adagio ~ Allegro
5. Lotus -Billy Strayhorn 1915 – 1967 arr. Alec Wyton 1921 – 2007
6. Choral No. 3 in A minor - César Franck 1822 –1890
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I'm assuming you mean the Kenneth Jones at the East End. But it's also worth mentioning the rather wonderful West Gallery Hill/Mander. A very slightly bigger brother of the Kidderminster Town Hall organ, it's colourful, has beautiful individual stops and choruses, and sounds superb playing all sorts of stuff. French romantic works well, as well as English. Action is, I think, all mechanical, and a bit heavy when coupled, but not unbearably so (at least it wasn't when I knew it, just after its restoration in the mid-1990s). A very under-known/under-used organ!
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I'll put in my vote for the Smith/Metzler at Trinity Cambridge. Such exquisite craftmanship everywhere, ravishingly beautiful flutes and diapasons and comfy action. Able to give an utterly convincing account of lots of repertoire so you could completely forgive the stuff it didn't really play so well. I remember getting away with quite a bit of Howells (nice swell strings that go pretty soft), and Liszt/Reubke/Reger worked rather excellently. French fonds noises were also good (wonderful Great 16' Diapason). Only real tonal irritation I found was the lack of a really robust 16' bottom octave on anything. Because the case pipes aren't 16' long both the Great and Pedal 16' diapasons have got stopped bottom octaves inside the case. Have to say, even the temperament of it didn't normally cause too much of a problem in non-early repertoire (although Howells' Gloucester Service didn't ever sound quite as you'd expect...).
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I'm off (with a school music tour) to Nice in a couple of weeks. Anyone know if there are any particularly good or interesting organs in town or nearby to play? And if so, would you have contact details?
With many thanks!
Christopher
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Since Worcester has been mentioned a few times in this thread, I thought it might be useful to put down how MIDI has been implemented here. The Tickell console has a Musicom software-based transmission system with two separate MIDI output sockets and one MIDI input. One of the outputs transmits information relating to everything at the console, keys, pedals, stops and swell pedals all the time. The other only transmits key/pedal information, and only then when one of the "MIDI ON ..." stops is drawn. The input will take whatever you put into it and can control every aspect of the instrument - keys, pedals, stops and swell pedals. How you choose to use all of this (or any of it!) is only limited by your inclination, external software and hardware, musical needs etc!
At the moment we use it in the following ways:
1) Using an external MIDI sequencer or laptop to 'record' what is being played for immediate replaying (to check balance or whatever) or for audio recording at a later date. This uses the full MIDI out and input sockets.
2) Linking the Tickell to the Rodgers nave organ for services when both need to be used simultaneously, such as Christmas services when the cathedral is full. This works in either direction. At the moment I have a laptop set up to mediate between the organs so that stops on the Tickell can be controlled while using the Rodgers console. When used in the other direction (playing on the Tickell console) the Rodgers at present needs a second person to control stops and boxes. We don't really need to use it like that often enough to spend the hour or so setting up the laptop! This also uses the full MIDI out and input sockets.
3) Using the secondary MIDI coupler output socket to borrow sounds from the Rodgers (although conceivably you could use any external MIDI sound generator you wish) such as the soft 32' flue. The relevant sound then only operates when the MIDI ON ... stop is drawn on that manual/pedal. These can be set on pistons, and operate as any other speaking stop.
You can plug a laptop running sibelius into the Tickell and 'record' improvisations, but you run into quantising and metre problems, so without a huge degree of 'tidying-up' the score is pretty-much unreadable.
It's worth mentioning that we've not noticed any delay when using the MIDI in whatever configuration. Indeed, both the MIDI and organ's action seem capable of responding rather quicker than any of us can play or repeat notes...
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Just wondering if any of you out there might be able to help with a music search?
I'm after a pdf of the Vierne Marche Triomphale (brass, organ and percussion). Also keen to see a copy (sadly not pdf I suppose, as it's still in copyright) of the Dupre Poeme Heroique (also brass, organ and perc).
With many thanks!
Christopher
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Sadly The Mythes is out of action at the moment - not sure the NHS runs to email by the bed (or even TV come to that...). I'll have a think about anyone else who might know about it.
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Exciting news indeed.
Appointments 2
in General discussion
Posted
All change at Worcester Cathedral - yesterday I finished as Assistant Director of Music to move to the new post of Assistant Director of Music across College Green at the King's School, Worcester, and Peter Nardone announced that he has stood down as Director of Music, also with effect from yesterday (see the cathedral website, www.worcestercathedral.org.uk) to pursue freelance singing, conducting and composing.
Nicholas Freestone takes over the Assistant post next week (as previously mentioned on this thread I think), and I believe the cathedral will be making an announcement in due course about interim arrangements before the process begins to appoint a new Organist and Director of Music.