How Do You Choose An Encore?

[AJJ]

I've heard Marie Claire Alain do the same sort of thing.

 

A

[Davidb]

I heard Tom Leech (Ripon) Once encore the Elgar organ sonata with bachs 'O Mensch' (Orgelbuchlein) -

 

It sounds strange in principal, but in practice it was so achingly beautiful and contrasted well

[Nick Bennett]

I heard Tom Leech (Ripon) Once encore the Elgar organ sonata with bachs 'O Mensch' (Orgelbuchlein) -

 

It sounds strange in principal, but in practice it was so achingly beautiful and contrasted well

 

 

I can certainly see a piece of that calibre working as an encore. Some might think it was the best piece on the programme! What can make encores such a let-down is to use a much lesser piece for that purpose, thereby creating an anti-climax.

[Peter Clark]

Surely it depends on your audience? I can see O Mensch being appropriate if your listeners are mainly organ buffs and would probably know (and love) the piece, but as this is often not the case in the average parish church recital, might it be nice to send the people on their way with a tune they can hum and which they may recognise, thus tempting them to come back again next time? Didn't Holz make a similar point in another post?

 

Peter

[Paul Morley]

I think that the idea of playing something intimate and beautiful as an encore when the last programmed item has been a barnstormer is very sound. Some years ago, I attended a concert at the Bridgewater Hall, where the big second-half work was the Dvorak 'Cello Concerto. After a dazzling performance, the soloist was left in no doubt that the audience wished to hear more. What we were given was a movement from one of the JSB 'cello sonatas. It brought a terrific evening of music to a wonderful conclusion.

I can also see an advantage for the soloist/recitalist. A piece of music that calms the audience down rather than keeps them high may well reduce the possibility of demands for multiple encores. The performer, who by this time is almost certainly physically and emotionally drained, can then leave the stage without too much delay, whilst still retaining the goodwill of his/her fans.

I can think of one major organ recital venue where this practice almost appears to be official policy. Has anyone been to a recital at Liverpool Cathedral given by one of the home team where Yon's Toccatina wasn't the encore?

[Dulciana]

A few years ago I attended a recital at Glasgow Cathedral given by Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin. The final programmed item was an improvisation which I found thoroughly captivating. I really wished she'd left it at that, because my excitement at what I'd just heard was quickly extinguished by the (perhaps inevitable) Widor which followed as an encore. (Not that it wasn't splendidly played.)

[handsoff]

A few years ago I attended a recital at Glasgow Cathedral given by Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin. The final programmed item was an improvisation which I found thoroughly captivating. I really wished she'd left it at that, because my excitement at what I'd just heard was quickly extinguished by the (perhaps inevitable) Widor which followed as an encore. (Not that it wasn't splendidly played.)

 

I found just the opposite to be the case at Olivier Latry's recent recital at St Paul's Cathedral. I found his improvisation rather inaccessible even though constructed (apparently) on well known themes. His encore, Boellman's Toccata was quite a relief...

[Nick Bennett]

Surely it depends on your audience? I can see O Mensch being appropriate if your listeners are mainly organ buffs and would probably know (and love) the piece, but as this is often not the case in the average parish church recital, might it be nice to send the people on their way with a tune they can hum and which they may recognise, thus tempting them to come back again next time? Didn't Holz make a similar point in another post?

 

Peter

 

Yes it does, but my experience of organ recitals in parish churches and elsewhere is that the audience are a pretty knowledgable bunch. But whether they are or not, finish with a great work and be done with it. Don't patronise the poor dears with "tunes they can hum"! After all, the RSC don't read out a Pam Ayres poem as an encore after performing Macbeth (perhaps on the grounds that the audience should be sent on their way with something that rhymes and is cheerful).

 

It could be argued that, if you need an encore to take away the taste of the final work in the "official" programme, then your choice of finisher wasn't appropriate in the first place!

 

I think Paul Morley is right about encores being used to bring a frenzied audience down. This especially seems to apply to high profile visiting orchestras with celebrity conductors. I bet Ted Downes wished he had a little encore the night he conducted Shostakovich 7 in the Bridgewater Hall (or was it the Free Trade Hall?) and dragged the leader off after about 8 returns to the podium with the applause showing no sign of abating.

[Peter Clark]

Don't patronise the poor dears with "tunes they can hum"! After all, the RSC don't read out a Pam Ayres poem as an encore after performing Macbeth (perhaps on the grounds that the audience should be sent on their way with something that rhymes and is cheerful).

 

I'm not sure the Macbeth analogy stands, Nick. People going to a performance of Macbeth know exactly what they are going to get, whereas people turning up for an organ recital often don't - more often than not the programme is given as you go in (or sometimes there isn't one and items are announced by the recitalist!). Also, many that take place in the parish church setting are supported by parishoners who do so becaue they are friends of the recitalist, or they want to support church events - and not always that they are organ-savvy o organ music-savvy. The last thing I would want to do is to patronise ie to make out I am better than they because I can play the organ and they can't. No sirree! But, as has been remarked many times before on this discussion board, it is important that we wrench the organ away from its frankly struffy - to so many people - reputation and show it can be fun. If an "light" or "popular" encore can do this then all to the good.

 

 

Peter

[HarmonicsV]

it is important that we wrench the organ away from its frankly struffy - to so many people - reputation and show it can be fun.

 

Peter

 

Why?

 

There are plenty of better ways of having 'fun', surely...? What's wrong with 'serious', 'profound', 'beautiful', etc.

[gazman]

Why?

 

There are plenty of better ways of having 'fun', surely...? What's wrong with 'serious', 'profound', 'beautiful', etc.

Why not include them all?

[Dulciana]

I agree that there is nothing wrong with a bit of fun at an organ recital, but I don't think fun on its own is why people attend organ recitals and, indeed, concerts in general. If a light/fun/frivolous encore is required in order to take away the bad taste left by the programmed pieces, then surely that indicates that the programming was faulty. There are certain pieces that organists seem to like playing which I could well imagine would not appeal to non-organists. There is a vast amount of good organ music around, and the audience who has experienced fine playing of a well thought-out programme will go home feeling satisfied even without an encore. What an encore shouldn't be is an apology for what has gone before.

[MichaelDavidson]

Has anyone been to a recital at Liverpool Cathedral given by one of the home team where Yon's Toccatina wasn't the encore?

 

Yes, but that was 30 years or so ago and (at least on those occasions) Rawsthorne didn't "do" encores ...

[msw]

I'm definitely in favour of doing something fun as an encore, whatever has come in the programme proper. My favourites are the Whitlock "Paean" and Walton "Popular Song" - I've found that they never fail to raise a smile!

 

As for the issue of whether one should play an encore or not: I think each situation has to be judged accordingly. I've played lunchtime recitals in cathedrals where I've been trying to keep to time limits (both for their sake and my own!) and so preparing an encore would be inappropriate; on the flip side, a town hall or concert hall performance, even at lunchtime, is much improved by the addition of an encore.

 

Then again, a friend of mine inserted an encore into a recital at a certain cathedral not far from here and was actually praised for doing so by one of the resident organists; furthermore I've been to town hall programmes which were one piece too long and didn't really need an encore when the dust had settled! I've also had discussions with my fiancee, who always yells out for an encore and (on occasion) has been taken aback to find I haven't got one ready.

 

Of course, as others have already noted, the planning of the whole programme is an important factor in considering these things. As a colleague once said to me, the trick with any recital programme is to put down slightly less than the time available requires, so that the audience goes away satisfied AND feeling as if they could have had more...