Francis Jackson Recital Liverpool

[Adnosad]

Very good performance given by Dr. Jackson yesterday at the Metropolitan.

[Shropshire Lad]

I went to his rectial last month at Worcester Cathedral which was first class. A lesson in dynamics, phrasing and use of colours. Made me realise just how good the new(ish) organ is. The Bairstow sonata sounded amazing.

[Adnosad]

I went to his rectial last month at Worcester Cathedral which was first class. A lesson in dynamics, phrasing and use of colours. Made me realise just how good the new(ish) organ is. The Bairstow sonata sounded amazing.

 

 

This man has nothing less than a first class performance. His incredible registration made the Metropolitan instrument sound like an organ; for once!

 

Dr. Jacksons style certainly shows up the glaring inadequacies forever present in the current tube of many organists . Maybe being over 90 is something to do with it!

[David Drinkell]

This man has nothing less than a first class performance. His incredible registration made the Metropolitan instrument sound like an organ; for once!

 

Dr. Jacksons style certainly shows up the glaring inadequacies forever present in the current tube of many organists . Maybe being over 90 is something to do with it!

 

 

I remember a seminar at Bristol University, c.1974, when Allan Wicks remarked, 'When I hear Francis Jackson play, it makes me feel like a peasant!' I was a great admirer of Allan, both as a person and as a musician (I have never heard a more wonderful 'L'Ascension'), and I thought this was a very modest thing for him to have said. But the thing about Francis's playing is that it always sounds so right. Other people may be technically correct, but Francis always manages to get the atmosphere spot on.

 

Why on earth hasn't he been given a knighthood yet??

[AJJ]

His incredible registration made the Metropolitan instrument sound like an organ; for once!

 

Richard Lea also.

 

A

[John Robinson]

Why on earth hasn't he been given a knighthood yet??

 

Don't you have to be a footballer or a pop singer these days?

[Nick Bennett]

Don't you have to be a footballer or a pop singer these days?

 

Not necessarily, you could just donate a lot of money to a political party. Or is that peerages? I forget.

[Vox Humana]

Of course Dr Jackson should be knighted. I can only assume that the oversight is due to some philistine honours committee in Whitehall either not having the foggiest idea what an organ is, or labouring under the impression that the only piece organists ever play is the Wedding March. After all, they're perfectly happy to nominate their own for being incalculably less use to society.

 

Queen Victoria seemed to like knighting organists:

George Elvey (1871)

Robert Stewart (1872)

John Goss (1872)

John Stainer (1888)

Joseph Barnby (1892)

Walter Parratt (1892)

George C Martin (1897)

Frederick Bridge (1897)

Hubert Parry (1898) - though he wasn't really knighted for being an organist, any more than Elgar was

 

[Frederick Ouseley inherited his knighthood.]

 

That 36-year cluster, dating from the time the church was held in some repute, compares rather well with the record in the 110 years since Victoria's death:

Ivor Atkins (1921)

Walford Davies (1922)

Richard Terry (1922)

Herbert Brewer (1926)

Edward Bairstow (1932)

Walter Alcock (1933)

Sydney Nicholson (1938)

Stanley Marchant (1943)

Ernest Bullock (1951)

William McKie (1953)

William Harris (1954)

David Willcocks (1977)

George Thalben-Ball (1982)

 

Who have I missed?

[MusingMuso]

Of course Dr Jackson should be knighted. I can only assume that the oversight is due to some philistine honours committee in Whitehall either not having the foggiest idea what an organ is, or labouring under the impression that the only piece organists ever play is the Wedding March. After all, they're perfectly happy to nominate their own for being incalculably less use to society.

 

Queen Victoria seemed to like knighting organists:

George Elvey (1871)

Robert Stewart (1872)

John Goss (1872)

John Stainer (1888)

Joseph Barnby (1892)

Walter Parratt (1892)

George C Martin (1897)

Frederick Bridge (1897)

Hubert Parry (1898) - though he wasn't really knighted for being an organist, any more than Elgar was

 

[Frederick Ouseley inherited his knighthood.]

 

That 36-year cluster, dating from the time the church was held in some repute, compares rather well with the record in the 110 years since Victoria's death:

Ivor Atkins (1921)

Walford Davies (1922)

Richard Terry (1922)

Herbert Brewer (1926)

Edward Bairstow (1932)

Walter Alcock (1933)

Sydney Nicholson (1938)

Stanley Marchant (1943)

Ernest Bullock (1951)

William McKie (1953)

William Harris (1954)

David Willcocks (1977)

George Thalben-Ball (1982)

 

Who have I missed?

 

==================

 

 

John Dykes-Bower

 

Thomas Armstrong

 

Edward Heath (not for being an organist, I suspect)

 

Wasn't Stanford a Kinght of the Realm?

 

Malcolm Sargent (pretty good conductor, and a good organist apparently)

 

Sir Bernard Lovell (Not for being an organist)

 

MM

[James Goldrick]

Gillian Weir (1996)

 

Philip Ledger (1999)

[handsoff]

I have not met Dr Jackson but understand from those who have that he is a modest gentleman. Might a knighthood have been offered and politely declined? I think that I am correct in saying that Aldous Huxley, Albert Finney, David Bowie and George Bernard Shaw refused.

 

Mind you, anecdotal evidence suggests that The Queen doesn't much like organ music....

[DQB123]

.

[Henry Willis]

I have not met Dr Jackson but understand from those who have that he is a modest gentleman. Might a knighthood have been offered and politely declined?

 

 

It has not been offered.

 

This has all been gone into in an earlier thread (which I'm sure that we could resurrect): after the last round of writing letters and having been told that there is no certainty in these matters, the CBE was forthcoming. Perhaps a more determined 'attack' would bear fruit?

 

It IS a disgrace of course.

 

DW

[Richard McVeigh]

Of course Dr Jackson should be knighted. I can only assume that the oversight is due to some philistine honours committee in Whitehall either not having the foggiest idea what an organ is, or labouring under the impression that the only piece organists ever play is the Wedding March. After all, they're perfectly happy to nominate their own for being incalculably less use to society.

 

Queen Victoria seemed to like knighting organists:

George Elvey (1871)

Robert Stewart (1872)

John Goss (1872)

John Stainer (1888)

Joseph Barnby (1892)

Walter Parratt (1892)

George C Martin (1897)

Frederick Bridge (1897)

Hubert Parry (1898) - though he wasn't really knighted for being an organist, any more than Elgar was

 

[Frederick Ouseley inherited his knighthood.]

 

That 36-year cluster, dating from the time the church was held in some repute, compares rather well with the record in the 110 years since Victoria's death:

Ivor Atkins (1921)

Walford Davies (1922)

Richard Terry (1922)

Herbert Brewer (1926)

Edward Bairstow (1932)

Walter Alcock (1933)

Sydney Nicholson (1938)

Stanley Marchant (1943)

Ernest Bullock (1951)

William McKie (1953)

William Harris (1954)

David Willcocks (1977)

George Thalben-Ball (1982)

 

Who have I missed?

 

Sir David Lumsden (1985)

[Adnosad]

==================

 

 

John Dykes-Bower

 

Thomas Armstrong

 

Edward Heath (not for being an organist, I suspect)

 

Wasn't Stanford a Kinght of the Realm?

 

Malcolm Sargent (pretty good conductor, and a good organist apparently)

 

Sir Bernard Lovell (Not for being an organist)

 

MM

 

 

Whilst interesting to read the comments which the original thread appears to have spawned I somehow feel that the subject of the issuing, or non-issuing, more to the point, of gongs and other associated trivia by The Establishment, is not what the thread is really about.

 

I think however in reply to the above post it could be said that whilst Bernard Lovell is first and foremost a scientist, and an astronomer ( I have not checked but along with the likes of Patrick Moore I presume that he is stilll extant ) he can be included within the ranks as being considered to be a competent organist. I can still clearly remember seeing him being interviewed on a local news tv programme which showed a decent clip of film in which he performed a more than competent fragment of Choral No. 3

[S_L]

Mind you, anecdotal evidence suggests that The Queen doesn't much like organ music....

 

There is a lovely story, which I have on good authority is true, of a certain young Naval Officer being married in a fairly large church in London (where I was, many years ago, a chorister!) to a bright-eyed ginger haired lass!

 

They wanted to discuss the music and it was suggested that they might find their way to church one evening to discuss the possible music with the Master of the Choristers. The evening arrived and a rather large black car drew up outside the said church to be greeted, unusually, by several senior clergy.

 

The party consisted of the Bride, the Bridegroom and, surprisingly, the Bridegroom's mother!! After much shaking of hands the party were escorted to the organ loft where the Master of the Choristers was waiting to play some possible pieces to the young couple.

 

I am reliably informed that the Bridegroom's mother arrived in the loft and with a look of delight on her face said "I've never been up here before", jumped on the bench of the five-manual and played very decently!!

 

 

 

Of course Francis should be given a knighthood – and we should lobby the Prime Minister's office to make sure that he gets one!!!

[OmegaConsort]

.......married in a fairly large church in London ..............

jumped on the bench of the five-manual and played very decently!!

 

Which church was it then?????

[John Robinson]

Which church was it then?????

 

The (many) clues are in the text!

[S_L]

Which church was it then?????

 

 

Work it out!!!! - or are you being - I can't think of the word!!!!!

[John Robinson]

Of course Francis should be given a knighthood – and we should lobby the Prime Minister's office to make sure that he gets one!!!

 

...before it's too late. I'm serious.

 

Unfortunately, in the days when organists were (occasionally) given knighthoods, the organ was rather more popular than it is today.

[MusingMuso]

Whilst interesting to read the comments which the original thread appears to have spawned I somehow feel that the subject of the issuing, or non-issuing, more to the point, of gongs and other associated trivia by The Establishment, is not what the thread is really about.

 

I think however in reply to the above post it could be said that whilst Bernard Lovell is first and foremost a scientist, and an astronomer ( I have not checked but along with the likes of Patrick Moore I presume that he is stilll extant ) he can be included within the ranks as being considered to be a competent organist. I can still clearly remember seeing him being interviewed on a local news tv programme which showed a decent clip of film in which he performed a more than competent fragment of Choral No. 3

 

 

======================================

 

 

Alive but fragile would be the best description for both gentelmen, I think.

 

Lovell is a remarkable man, and his work on radar during WWIII was critical to the war effort. There is even the suggestion, (which he refuses to talk about), that he was on a Russian assasination hit-list at some point; so sensitive was some of his work.

 

Of course, the huge radio-telescope at Joderell Bank, Cheshire, is his most spectacular and visible achievement, dating from the time he worked at Manchester University.

 

I am inclined to think that the principles of interferometry derive from the heterodyne effect of organ celestes and the helmholz theory, but if nothing else, Sir Bernard belongs to that remarkable lineage of organists and organ-builders who have invented and designed some very clever kit over the years.

 

As for Frank Jackson, I think it is absolutely disgusting that he's never been knighted, when loudmouthed, rapidly fading businessmen appearing on reality TV, are knighted without a second thought.

 

If one were to take an overview of the entire musical establishment in the UK, who is better qualified or more deserving?

 

OMC at our second most important church for, was it, 50 years or so?

 

THE greatest British organist of his generation bar none, who has composed much fine music in a number of genres; including royal occasions. A worthy diplomat abroad, a scholar, a gentleman and, above all, an inspiration; he is the very eiptomy of what a Knight of the realm should be.

 

MM

[DHM]

======================================

 

...his work on radar during WWIII was critical to the war effort.

MM

I don't recall this effort being acknowledged in General Sir John Hackett's history of the Third World War of August 1985.

[pwhodges]

(Oops)

[MusingMuso]

I don't recall this effort being acknowledged in General Sir John Hackett's history of the Third World War of August 1985.

 

 

==============================

 

 

To wit to 2.

 

It reminds me of the old catholic priest, who in summing up the talk given by the Sisters of Mercy, said, "We're going to have a second collection this morning, and every penny we collect will go towards the 3rd world war."

 

He actually meant that the money would be divided between War on want and the Sisters of mercy, working in the 3rd world.

 

 

MM

[OmegaConsort]

Work it out!!!! - or are you being - I can't think of the word!!!!!

 

sigh.....I wasn't being serious! Irony, sarcasm and the like doesn't work in print does it.