Dee Surtees

In this alternative I think I would choose the Sint-Laurenskerk in Alkmaar without too much hesitation. Assuming both organs in the building count, that is. The van Covelens organ is one of the finest playable renaissance organs in the world, and while there are other organs that might compete for the title of best Bach organ, the van Hagerbeer/Schnitger main organ is certainly one of the contenders.

Although the plans appear to have been abandoned, the suggested alternatives are interesting. Only one of the four suggestions actually drops Minster from the title, but all four have in common the addition of Nottingham. I wonder how many people are aware that it is the cathedral for Nottingham even with the recent change of name of the diocese?

I haven’t yet got to reading mine, but agree this issue looks very good. Well worth the (Covid-induced) wait.

Just as a bit of fun, I though I would suggest a game. You can only choose one church/concert hall, and you get to keep all the organists/choirmasters who had a post there. Would it be the Thomaskirche? A bit obvious perhaps. Or perhaps St Suplice (I think we might have to allow acting organists to count for this game)? St Clothilde? La Sainte-Trinité? An English church? Or maybe Dutch? The Oude Kerk? I look forward to hearing everyone’s suggestions, and shall come back with mine, once I’ve had a bit of time to consider the options.

Such sad news. I was fortunate to be an observer at a masterclass she gave on Bach’s Leipzig chorales a few years ago, and learnt so much from everything she had to say to the students.

That would explain why the RCM page makes no mention of his death. I assume that David CH Wright is still very much alive. He is the co-author of the Proms book I mentioned.

I didn’t think I’d heard of him either, but having read the link on the RCM website, I realise I have the book he co-wrote about the history of the Proms.

I only watched it once, and thought it was a poor comparison to the actual service as broadcast on radio. Some excellent individual items, as would be expected, but the overall experience felt lacking. No longer have a TV license so can’t watch it anyway, but won’t particularly miss it.

Discovered this performance (from memory) of Franck’s Final by Vincent Dubois at Soissons cathedral, where he was titulaire at the time. This from a series of the complete Franck works. Some of the others are also on the same channel. I haven’t checked to see if they all are.

The BBC Comptons were mentioned by Petroc Trelawny on Radio 3’s breakfast programme just now as an introduction to Richard Egarr playing a Handel concerto (Op. 4, No. 2). But no mention of their current condition or imminent demise.

What a stunning young talent. Thanks for sharing this recital.

I’ve also realised (thanks to your post) that there are two different versions of the site, in French and English. There appears to be no way to switch between the two. My browser is set to French, and will only display the French version, but I just borrowed my mum’s iPad which is in English and was able to access the English version that way. As you have pointed out the English version refers to the correct beat in the bar.

I don’t know if it’s relevant, but I realised after posting that I have a french edition of the catechism of the Catholic Church. Upon checking that, I see that it refers to “action de grâces”.

I have another query concerning the order of the Trois Paraphrases Grégoriennes. My copy has the three pieces in the order ‘Mors et resurrectio’, ‘Ave Maria. Ave Maris Stella’, and ‘Hymne d’Actions de grâces’, which seems to be the most common. But the site linked above has the first two pieces reversed (and page references given altered accordingly) And is the correct title of the Te Deum, ‘Hymne d’Action de grâce’, (as given on the front cover of my copy) or ‘Hymne d’Actions de grâces’, (as printed on the first page of music). Does Langlais’ manuscript still exist?

That’s interesting to hear. In many ways it’s not that technically challenging, so I can see why it might be set for Grade V. However it requires a very good spatial awareness of the pedalboard, something that I definitely didn’t have when I sat my grade V. (My list A piece was “Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag” from the Orgelbüchlein.)

I know many places do not have organ scholars this year, because of the pandemic. But I’d be astonished if Kings was among them. I hadn’t realised that Matthew Martin was now at Gonville & Caius.

That is a very interesting observation. I haven’t had cause to look up BWV 531 in Williams, so hadn’t noticed that. On it’s own it means very little, apart from proof that some organists in Bach’s time didn’t observe strict tempo relationships. It would be interesting to know how common such markings were. Often one is tempted to ignore non-autograph tempo indications, but they can contain valuable information.

You make a very good point. At the moment I am just playing the P&F as is customary, but I have considered learning the trio movement as well, as I quite like it when it is played with the other two movements. The argument that Bach would have removed the trio from BWV 545 when he added it to the C major sonata, seems to me to be unlikely, as if one movement could not live in two different places at the same time, so to speak.

I don’t have access to the NBA Kritischer Bericht, but the NBA does seem to follow Clauss, as far as I can tell, though there are other extant manuscripts that also contain similar readings. It would be nice if the KB were available online somewhere. I used to have a reference card to a university library which had a set, but since Covid, access is restricted to their students only – and my uni library only has the music volumes of the NBA.

(Forgive me for resurrecting an extremely old thread, but as it’s about the same piece I thought I would append my questions here.) What are your opinions on the tempo relationship between the prelude and fugue? Regardless of how fast you play it, I feel that crotchet in the prelude should approximately equal minim in the fugue. Does this seems sensible or does anyone have any other suggestions? Also, does anyone actually play the pedal ornaments in bars 24-31 of the prelude? They are not in the new Breitkopf & Härtel edition as they are not found in manuscript (Vogler) used as principal source for that edition.

I don’t know when that clip was recorded. The organ is definitely back in action however, and Acting Assistant Master of the Music Adam Wilson has been posting some fine videos of it over the past couple of months. Most recently the Reger Toccata in D minor from Op. 59: The rest of his videos are well worth checking out as well.

Yes. Haven’t heard it in person, but am very fond of the many recordings I have of it, usually accompanying the college choir.

Yes, you are right - There is a missing G♯ in the 3rd chord of the bar. I hadn’t noticed as I had been playing it with a G♯ all along. As for Jehan Alain, I haven’t got to Litanies yet, but I’ve been using the newish Bärenreiter edition edited by Helga Schauerte-Maubouet. It is largely based on different manuscripts to those used by Marie-Claire, and therefore contains different readings in places.

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Thanks. I did wonder if that was the case. I’m recording the accompaniment for a virtual performance, and was discussing the Willcocks introduction with the person organizing - hence my query. Probably too late to learn it for this anyway, so shall use my original plan which is the June Nixon intro. Not as grand as the Willcocks, but very effective all the same.