Morwenna Brett

I'm glad you said that Colin, because I was thinking the same thing - listening to some old cassette tapes (!) of music I loved in the 70s, I was struck by the excellence of the backing musicians. They were the best London (or Los Angeles) could offer and they are masters of their instruments, whatever you might think of the actual music. I ordered remastered CDs from Amazon and appreciated them even more. Morwenna

Apologies if you've already seen this, but I know there are very mixed opinions on this forum as to the point or relevance of popular music, so I thought you might find this article by Paul Morley in the Observer a couple of weeks ago as interesting as I did. Paul Morley has been a pop and rock critic all his life, but now is getting tired of it. He says " For me, pop music is now a form of skilfully engineered product design, the performers little but entertainment goods, and that is how they should be reviewed and categorised. The current pop singers are geniuses of self-promotion, but not, as such, musicians expressing glamorous ideas." He goes on to say that " when it comes to thinking about music as a metaphor for life itself, what tends to be described as classical music seems more relevant to the future." Here's the full article: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/sep/21/pop-belongs-last-century-classical-music-relevant-future-paul-morley Best wishes to all Morwenna

You may well be aware of the BBC's recent initiative for UK primary schools, to inspire them to enjoy and understand classical music. For the project "Ten Pieces" have been chosen to represent western classical music. If you haven't seen it, here's the list: John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (1st movement) Britten: "Storm" Interlude from Peter Grimes Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King (from Peer Gynt) Handel: Zadok the Priest Holst: Mars (from The Planets) Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 4 (3rd movement) Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain Stravinsky: The Firebird ­ suite (1911) (Finale) Anna Meredith: Connect It More on the project here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/16/bbc-ten-pieces-classical-music-primary-school-children If we were going to create a similar list just for the organ, what would it be? I'm going to make the blindingly obvious first choice of the Widor Toccata, but after that....? Seriously, this could be a project in itself. Morwenna

It is indeed horribly sad when people reject classical (for want of a better word) music because they think it's not for them - witness my hairdresser last week who threatened to down tools if they didn't change the classical (ish) muzak for something pop based. However, can we take encouragement from the fact that the BBC Proms sold 109,000 tickets in the first 12 hours of booking, this year? And the Wigmore Hall sold 30,000 tickets in the first day of booking for their Autumn series, when it opened last week? Choirs and choral singing are now trendy - anyone like to volunteer as the Gareth Malone of organ playing? Morwenna

Organrecitals.com has of course been listed on my own website since I began it! - it's an iconic site as far as organists are concerned. Stephen Smith does an amazing job week after week, and it all works so well! - only when you have spent time developing your own site do you really understand the commitment that takes. I do hope we complement each other. In marketing circles it's often said that people need to hear about something from several different sources before they actually decide to buy/visit/take part etc. So I see the new Organ Mailings, along with London Organ Concerts Guide, organrecitals.com, and other organ listings and websites, as reinforcing each other in building better audiences for organ concerts and recitals. Ultimately what worries me is that we are still preaching to the converted. How many terrific recitals, given by excellent organists, have you been to, with only 3 people and a dog in the audience? I am still scratching my head about how the general public can be encouraged to see an organ concert as an exciting (or even just interesting) option. Would love your comments Morwenna

Hello everyone - it's actually Morwenna BRETT - Steve got my name wrong on the original email, much to his chagrin! -well it's not the first time I've been confused with Morwenna Banks the actress. Please let me know about your own recitals to include in the weekly mailings - which will start the week of 23rd June. There's going to be an appropriate form to download from the website by the end of this week, but feel free just to email the details to me, if form filling is not your bag. theladyorganist@gmail.com Best wishes Morwenna

Thanks SlovOrg, for putting that link to my blog. And I agree, firstrees, it LOOKS absolutely fabulous. I'm going to get to play it next April, on a RCO Diploma study course. Can't wait! And hello all, I'm a newbie here and this is my first post. Looking forward to meeting you Morwenna