Clarabella

I am glad to hear that things are moving. I have pleasant memories from a visit a few years ago when I briefly played the fine chancel organ, and went up to the west gallery where the monster is housed. We got there by a very circuitous route which involved a cat-walk above the vaulting of the south aisle. The west organ is probably good therapy if you want to let off some steam (see photo of the console in the brochure linked above) but seems rather dated now, and this historic church deserves something more....well, historic, or historically informed. It was a freezing February and far as I remember the main body of the church has no heating. The best (and most historic) instrument in the building is probably the single-manual chamber organ in the Briefkapelle. I look forward to hearing of further developments.

That depends who you think will want to go to organ recitals! I agree that the obvious core audience will find noon on a Sunday inconvenient, and it might be argued that it is more important to retain the existing audience than to find new ones. But I am a little uncomfortable with the assumption that organ recitals will be attended only by other organists and churchgoers. Besides the RAM Bach cantata series has, I understand, a well-established regular audience of music-lovers. The recitals you refer to seem to be part of that series, so it is to be hoped that the regular audience will go to those as well as the cantatas, attracted by the implied guarantee of high quality. I may even get to some myself.

All Saints, Church Road, Warlingham, Surrey CR6 9NU (Small) William Hill organ Sunday 18 August at 6pm (one hour followed by refreshments) Michael Strange FRCO Stanley: Voluntary in A minor JS Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A, BWV 536 Czerny: Prelude in A SS Wesley: Choral Song and Fugue Elgar: Vesper Voluntaries Franck: Prelude, Fugue and Variation Mathias: Processional FREE (retiring collection) www.allsaintswarlingham.org.uk