Brizzle

Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin and Karol Mossakowski have been appointed Co-Titulaires of Saint Sulpice; Daniel Roth will continue to play regularly as Titulaire Emeritus.

It depends on one’s definition of practise. For me, much practise time is taken up repeating the same few bars over and over at increasing tempo until they’re perfect, before moving onto the next chunk. I don’t imagine this would be particularly edifying to listen to, and probably wouldn’t be successful in a busy building. Of course, listening to someone play already well-practised pieces would be a joy, but that’s essentially a concert/recital, which would need preparation time with little or no audience… No easy solution, I suspect.

I’ve always thought that Nigel is vastly underrated as a performer, improviser and teacher. As an attendee on some of his International Summer Organ Conservatoire courses I was on the receiving end of some inspirational teaching, and I genuinely don’t think I’ve heard a better improviser - his mastery of so many diverse styles is staggering. It’s good to see this enterprising association taking an interest in his work.

Given the publisher and period in which it would have been published, this ought to be fairly straightforward to track down, but, as you say, it is entirely invisible. In addition, at least one obituary of GC Martin mentions that he composed nothing for the organ, which does seem to be the case. I wonder if you wouldn’t mind sharing your source for the existence of the piece? That might offer a clue...

I played a number of Wells-Kennedy organs whilst visiting a fellow organist who is based in Northern Ireland, and I thought they were exceptional instruments. The organ in St. Michael’s Church in Enniskillen is a masterpiece, and deserves to be more widely known. The voicing is superb. I only met David McElderry once, but the comments about him in the obituary align exactly with my recollection of him. His passing is a real loss to organ-building, both in Northern Ireland and in general.

My goodness, those hymns are high! Although, to be fair, it doesn’t seem like the congregation are expected to join in. I must confess that I’m not a fan of the sound of the choir. Not a value judgement - just a personal preference. Bairstow’s choir, recorded two years later, sounded similar.

I never knew quite what to make of the ‘reviews’ posted on that site; all of them were poorly-argued and poorly-written, and some of them were completely deranged. It’ll be interesting to see if his music is similar!

I agree that there’s absolutely no harm in having major Bach works in ‘popular’ recitals. The onus should be on those organising any series to ensure that there is a decent balance of repertoire across the whole series. I suspect that the majority of promoters are just so grateful that organists will perform for little or no money that they don’t want to rock the boat by asking for repertoire changes, but on a personal level, I’ve never been offended by a request to change part of a programme for the sake of a cohesive series. My personal opinion (and I’m more than willing to debate this, of course) is that there are far too many ‘mixed bag’ recitals and not enough careful programming. The classical world in general is far more imaginative in its programming than many organ recital programmes would suggest. What about a programme that explores both popular and little-known rep from a particular area of the organ repertoire? Franck and D’Indy? J.S. and C.P.E Bach? Or new ways of programming familiar works? I have occasionally put a complementary, but stylistically different work in between a Bach P and F, which was generally well-received. Too often I’ve been to recitals (programme unadvertised - another major issue) which fall into the cliche of a Bach work to start, ending with a contemporary work followed by something ‘popular’, with some ‘stuff’ in the middle. We need to become better advocates for the best of our repertoire.

I’ve tried out a couple of ways of storing scores digitally, and I’m not convinced they make life any easier. My main dislike is that, since the devices usually only display one page at a time (for the sake of visibility), the number of page turns is actually increased, and has to be thought about more often. In addition, the methods of turning the pages never seem particularly reliable; the face gestures don’t always work (especially if your device is being a little slow), the Bluetooth buttons sometimes drop their connection, and swiping at the screen is a recipe for disaster. That’s why I’ve been keen on the editions my friend has made - they fit as many bars on a large page as possible, and fit the page turns into places where they cause the least issue - for example, he’s made an edition of a Bach sonata where each movement fits comfortably on a double page spread, requiring no page turns whilst playing, and there’s an edition of Saint-Saens preludes and fugues where page turns only occur when one or both hands aren’t playing. For me, this is eminently more practical than the electronic versions - especially since you can write on them, quickly, with whatever scribing implement you have to hand, and you don’t have to worry about draining batteries... B

That’s a great suggestion - thanks. I’ll encourage the creator to upload them there! B

Having intended to post three more editions, the forum seems not to want to let me - file size too big. Anyone know how to avoid this issue? Thanks, B

Dear all, A friend of mine has a morbid fear of page turners peering over his shoulder during performances, and has created a number of editions of works with minimal page turns, easily managed by the player; he's given me permission to share some of them here. They're designed to be printed on A3 landscape sheets - if, like me, you don't have an A3 printer, any decent print shop will print them for you. He punches holes in them and puts them in an A3 ringbinder (easily available online), but I've just put the ones I've used into the comb binder. No particular editorial ability is claimed, and if you spot any misprints there's an email address for reporting. If these seem useful, I'll ask if if I can pass on his other editions. All the best, B Dubois, P. - Prelude et Fugue (Douze Pieces Nouvelles).pdf

Unless organists, musicians, clergy et al. in Kent and Sussex don’t have access to the internet or recordings of the instruments that Mander built/restored, it seems a little disingenuous to suggest that Mander is an unknown firm in those areas. As I understand it, a significant proportion of the FHB workforce is Mander-trained; they will know the expectations placed upon them by taking on the Mander name. As with any business, the quality of their work will be the measure of their success. Should the work of the ‘new firm’ be of the same high quality of the ‘old firm’, albeit possibly on a smaller scale, then the business will hopefully thrive, and I’m not sure the name will (or should) make much difference.

There’s a very pleasant ‘Variations and Fugue’ by Guilmant: http://ks4.imslp.net/files/imglnks/usimg/e/ea/IMSLP03926-GuilmantL'OrganisteLiturgisteLivre3Op65.pdf B

From a couple of posts on Facebook: "Mander Organs Ltd profoundly regrets to announce that, owing to cashflow difficulties and the inability to secure sufficient work, the company has ceased trading as of Monday 27.vii.2020. The management and staff would like to express their gratitude to our clients and friends for the loyalty and support they have given over the years, and particularly in the last few difficult months. Our affairs have been placed in the hands of an independent insolvency practitioner, Insolve Plus Ltd, to whom all enquiries should be addressed." I dearly hope that this isn’t true, but if it is, I offer my condolences to all of the Mander staff. What terrible news.