Rowland Wateridge

A reminder that Olivier Latry’s inaugural recital following restoration of the Cathedral organ takes place tomorrow, Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm. These are the programme details: Eugène GIGOUT (1844 – 1925) : Grand Chœur dialogué Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921) : Extracts from The Carnival of the Animals (Tr. Shin-Young LEE) – Aquarium – Aviary – The Swan Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 – 1750) : Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV 548 Louis VIERNE (1870 – 1937) : Troisième Symphonie : Adagio Jehan ALAIN (1911 – 1940) : Aria Marcel DUPRÉ (1886 – 1971) : Prelude and Fugue in G minor op. 7/3 Olivier LATRY (1962 – ) : Improvisation

Update on Olivier Latry’s recital: Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm Eugène GIGOUT (1844 – 1925) : Grand Chœur dialogué Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921) : Extracts from The Carnival of the Animals (Tr. Shin-Young LEE) – Aquarium – Aviary – The Swan Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 – 1750) : Prelude and Fugue in E minor BWV 548 Louis VIERNE (1870 – 1937) : Troisième Symphonie : Adagio Jehan ALAIN (1911 – 1940) : Aria Marcel DUPRÉ (1886 – 1971) : Prélude et fugue en Sol mineur op. 7/3 Olivier LATRY (1962 – ) : Improvisation

Saint-Saëns can be heard played live by Olivier Latry at Winchester Cathedral this week. I don’t know which work by S-S. The programme includes music by Bach, Gigout, Vierne and Alain so, understandably, French works predominate. Additionally Olivier Latry will improvise - an opportunity to hear him not to be missed by those who can come: Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm.

I think your assumption is correct. The latest information I have found on the Church website (incidentally a very impressive one) indicated as recently as last month “In 2025 we will be installing a four-manual pipe organ, currently in use in St John’s College Chapel, Cambridge, and are amid a major fundraising campaign to pay for the organ’s renovation and installation.”

As I said, this is something of a mystery as the up to date specification was on the H&H website where I read it a few weeks ago. For future readers who are interested, the link I provided to NPOR N00289 is reliable and instant. Just add the new Vox Humana 8’ to the Swell reeds to complete the picture. Everything else is correct and up to date. There are photographs, including the famous (or infamous?) 32’ Bombarde!

Well, this is something of a mystery as I saw it on H&H’s website, fully updated, but today that page is not available. The 1988 specification is here, the only tonal alteration being the addition of a Vox Humana 8’ on the Swell. All else unchanged, so now an organ of 80 speaking stops. https://npor.org.uk/survey/N00289 Perhaps I should add that the NPOR link is a little misleading in appearing to refer to Hele as a principal builder. That was never the case and only two of their 1905 ranks survived in the 1988 rebuild, the Swell Violin Diapason and the famous Pedal Bombarde unit.

A series of recitals to mark the restoration of Winchester Cathedral’s Father Willis/ H&H organ 1854-2024. The inaugural recital is by Olivier Latry, (Notre Dame, Paris) on Saturday 27th April at 6.30 pm. Subsequent recitals, all on Sundays at 3.00 pm: 19th May Claudia Grinnell 16th June Andrew Lumsden 7th July Sarah Baldock 15th September Joshua Stephens 6th October Katherine Dienes-Williams 17th November Ben Cunningham https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/organ-festival/

Doubtless he will correct me if I am mistaken, but I thought A G Preston was referring to the Mander from St John’s, Cambridge being rebuilt at Kennington. However, these are the brief details of the ‘new organ’ for St John’s, Cambridge on the H&H website: New organ; 4 manuals, 67 stops. The organ will incorporate 43 stops from the organ built by Henry Willis in 1889 for Hampstead Conservatoire and moved to St Peter’s Church Brighton in 1910. This valuable pipework survived subsequent alterations and will be restored to authentic musical speech; the pitch, changed in 1956, will be meticulously stabilised at A=440.

All the media announcements I have seen refer to the organ ‘in course of installation’ so it’s unlikely that any UK Board members will have any direct experience of the instrument. However, there is to be a recital series commencing in July. James O’Donnell is to give the inaugural recital on Friday 26th July at 7 pm: https://events.humanitix.com/st-james-international-organ-festival-james-o-donnell See also this event in the current month and a splendid view of the organ in situ: https://events.humanitix.com/meet-the-organ-maker-an-interview-with-john-panning

This organ was discussed on a previous thread “Henry Willis Junior Development Organ” in 2019 - scroll down to the two final comments: https://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/topic/4460-henry-willis-junior-development-organ/ At that time NPOR R01764 listed the organ with a photograph of the closed console and no specification. Those details have since been helpfully provided: ‘DMM’ 2021. Sadly, there is no information about the fate of the former Father Willis organ (NPOR D02221) which, on paper at least, looks to have been rather fine. I may be wrong, but I think the Junior Development organs were the brainchild of Henry Willis 4, rather than his father.

Doubtless you intended to say Christ Church, Oxford. Here’s a link to the job advertisement: https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/organist-and-official-student

As announced on the Peterhouse thread, these recitals celebrating the restoration of the College organ. Note that the first is tomorrow: Saturday 03 February – Katelyn Emerson (Gonville and Caius) Saturday 10 February – Anthony Gritten (Royal Academy of Music) Saturday 17 February – William Whitehead (Lincoln’s Inn) Saturday 24 February – Sietze de Vries (Groningen) Saturday 02 March – Anne Page (Cambridge) Saturday 09 March – Anna Steppler (Peterhouse) All of the above recitals will take place in the Peterhouse Chapel and will begin at 6 p.m, lasting around an hour. The events are free to attend and are open to the public. Tickets can be booked either through Ticket Tailor at the above links, or by emailing Harriet Clark on harriet.clark@pet.cam.ac.uk. We ask that attendees enter the College via the Porter’s Lodge and be seated by 5.50 p.m. please.“ One must add how sad that Catherine Ennis did not live to see the project come to fruition.

Inauguration of the restored College organ - 13 January 2024 Statement from Peterhouse, Cambridge: “Earlier this month we were delighted to celebrate the end of our organ restoration project with a guest recital by Thomas Trotter. This was preceded by a discussion of the restoration process. It is wonderful to have the organ back in action and we hope you will agree that it is sounding marvellous. “The organ, originally a Snetzler from 1765, has been restored in a collaborative endeavour between Flentrop Orgelbouw and Orgelbau Klais. The College is enormously grateful for the inspiration of the late Catherine Ennis, as well as the dedicated support of our organ advisors, Simon Jackson and David Graham, and the input of our Historical Advisor, Nicholas Thistlethwaite, and for the support of our generous benefactors. “Following the inaugural concert we are hosting a recital series of guest organists throughout Lent Term. Still to come: Saturday 03 February – Katelyn Emerson (Gonville and Caius) Saturday 10 February – Anthony Gritten (Royal Academy of Music) Saturday 17 February – William Whitehead (Lincoln’s Inn) Saturday 24 February – Sietze de Vries (Groningen) Saturday 02 March – Anne Page (Cambridge) Saturday 09 March – Anna Steppler (Peterhouse) “All of the above recitals will take place in the Peterhouse Chapel and will begin at 6 p.m, lasting around an hour. The events are free to attend and are open to the public. Tickets can be booked either [through Ticket Tailor …], or by emailing Harriet Clark on harriet.clark@pet.cam.ac.uk. We ask that attendees enter the College via the Porter’s Lodge and be seated by 5.50 p.m. please.“ One must add how sad that Catherine Ennis did not live to see the project come to fruition.

Interestingly, whoever wrote up the inaugural recital at St Patrick’s, Dundalk for Wikipedia said this “The organ was "opened" on 1 July 1900 at 1.00pm. Mr H.L. Balfour, organist at the Royal Albert Hall, gave a recital of classical music.” Reverting to the ‘pedal movements’ (incidentally I have no recollection of the somewhat acerbic comment which Hebridean attributes to me! - and equally I don’t ‘know’ this organ), the linked Kenneth Coulter website contains photographs (scroll down to the one of the pedal board), showing what we would call ‘composition pedals’ and a balanced swell pedal. Like Hebridean, I assume ‘pedal movements’ refers to the composition pedals, and the photograph shows a reversible ‘horse-shoe’ pedal at each end. There is a comment that the swell pedal is unusually placed. That is doubtless due to its replacing the previous FW trigger swell pedal in its original position. Without knowing, that was possibly the work of N P Mander.

Possibly not definitive, but my 1921 edition of the ‘Dictionary of Organs and Organists’ states, under Royal Albert Hall, London “Organist : H. L. Balfour MUS.B., F.R.C.O.”