Who Are The Best Organists You've Heard Live?

[Florian]

Do you know Jennifer Bate's recording of this composition? I wonder if she played it at Westminster Cathedral also with this incredibly slow tempos...

[Peter Clark]

Do you know Jennifer Bate's recording of this composition? I wonder if she played it at Westminster Cathedral also with this incredibly slow tempos...

 

 

Hi

 

No but I recently got the Gillian Weir version. However I seem to remember reading somewhere that a video recording was made of her playing the Livre and I wonder if anyone else has any info on this?

 

Peter

[Florian]

Hi

 

No but I recently got the Gillian Weir version. However I seem to remember reading somewhere that a video recording was made of her playing the Livre and I wonder if anyone else has any info on this?

 

Peter

 

Gillian Weir is on the quicker side, as it is Olivier Latry. I have to confess that I prefer the Livre in these rather flowing performances - the cycle is long enough

[Jeremy Jones]

Jennifer Bate's British premiere of Messiaen's Livre du Saint Sacrement was a very special occassion. The setting - Westminster Cathedral - was perfect for this music, as the incense still hung in the air and the iconography and decor of the building added to the mystery of and theological propositions suggested by the music. As icing on the cake, Messsiaen himself was there. I think that of all the organ recitals I have been to, this one will always be for me that which will never be superceded.

I certainly still remember that evening, if not praps for the right reasons. I came up to London with a group from Bristol and we were late so found seats right at the back of the Cathedral. Anyone who knows WC will know that is probably not the safest place to sit for an hour or so of Messiaen, however well played! Nonetheless, a memorable occasion.

[Peter Allison]

Hi

 

No but I recently got the Gillian Weir version. However I seem to remember reading somewhere that a video recording was made of her playing the Livre and I wonder if anyone else has any info on this?

 

Peter

It was played on the tv, I have the video hanging around somewhere, but it was not labeled

probably cause i had just come in and needed to use the VCR

Peter

[Guest delvin146]

I think Paul O'Grady's pretty hot, when he does the organ game

[harrispeter@onetel.com]

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

 

It's amazing how Germani's name comes up time and time again. Was he the greatest of his generation, I wonder?

 

He certainly left an indelible impression on me as a 15-year-old, when I first heard him. Oddly enough, I can still recall the feelings I had on the lengthy journey home. Before that, I just didn't realise how good organ-music and organ-playing could be: in a word, stupendous.

 

Sadly, I never heard his equal as a Reger exponent, the late Anton Heiller.

 

MM

I was never lucky enough to hear Germani live in concert but it was his Bach recording at Alkmaar which lit my musical fires at the age of 16. My school music department had a copy which I must have worn out comprehensively playing it over and over again in sheer excitement at the novelty of the sounds I was hearing.

[MusingMuso]

I was never lucky enough to hear Germani live in concert but it was his Bach recording at Alkmaar which lit my musical fires at the age of 16. My school music department had a copy which I must have worn out comprehensively playing it over and over again in sheer excitement at the novelty of the sounds I was hearing.

 

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

 

 

If you have never heard the organ at Alkmaar live, then beg, borrow, steal, sell gold, silver, your left kidney....anything....but go hear it.

 

The trouble is, when you've heard an organ THAT good, and in such a wonderful acoustic, and when you know that there are wonderful historic (and new) instruments only a few miles in almost any direction, you never really want to come home again.

 

MM

[Nic DAVIDSON PORTER]

My intro to Reger on LP was Rosalinde Haas playing B-A-C-H op. 46 on the K Schuke in Berlin's Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtniskirche. A performance I have NEVER heard bettered, even by her. Germanian virtuosity allied to Walcha'isch attention to polyphony. 

[Barry Oakley]

Fernando Germani

Jeanne Demessieux

and in more recent times: John Scott, David Hill, Clive Driskill-Smith

 

[madorganist]

I’ve been fortunate enough to hear some amazing organists over the years : GTB, Jackson, Alain, Langlais, Kynaston et al.

Some of these performances have been amazing and fully deserving a ten out of ten score. Nathan Laube’s  recital to mark the rebuilding of the Canterbury Cathedral organ was a clear eleven (it can be found on YouTube).

[Andrew Butler]

Allan Wicks playing "Transports de Joie" on the old Willis at Canterbury......

Clifford Harker playing "Sarabande for the Morning of Easter" at Bristol.....

[pwhodges]

Francis Jackson playing the Grove organ at Tewkesbury to mark its restoration (which included the completion of the 32' with the longest pipes from Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, inside one of which the key to the organ loft used to be kept).  It was a suitably romantic program (including "Grand Dramatic Fantasia" by Neukomn, depicting a summer picnic interrupted by a thunderstorm!).  The Mendelssohn 1st Sonata and Franck 3rd Choral were more to my taste, though.

I bought a copy of the cassette recording of it which was made available, and still listen to it occasionally.

Paul

[peterdoughty]

I've not very much experience at all of live performances, sadly, but those I've been privileged to hear have therefore stuck in the memory.

Hmm. In very roughly chronological order: Gillian Weir giving a masterclass at Armagh RC Cathedral, on the Franck Cantabile (I was a young teenage spectator). Possibly 1993. She performed it right through from memory after hearing all of the students and it was stunning. It was raining cats and dogs outside afterwards, and my now late Dad offered the passenger seat of our car for her to shelter in while she waited for her own car to pick her up. Her fur coat was something else. I made overawed and embarrassed conversation with her, such as I could. She was gracious and encouraging.

Christopher Herrick came to Belfast's Ulster Hall to perform on the Hill / Mander instrument, at a time when the Organ Fireworks Hyperion series was in full swing, alongside his Bach, and he was receiving rave reviews all over the world. It was 1994. Do you know how many people were in the audience? Less than 10. Perhaps even less than 7, including me and my Dad. I felt awful for him. I trespassed backstage afterwards, to see whether I could find him, and he signed some of my CD booklets moments before leaving via the stage door, again alone to a car. No valedictory committee, nothing. Needless to say he never came back but his performance was kaleidoscopic. I can't remember exactly what he played but it was a collection of the Fireworks repertoire.

Around the same time, John Scott came to St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast to give a recital to the Ulster Society of Organists and Choirmasters. He made the instrument sound like new, of course. I remember Philip Prosser, a local organ builder, talking to him afterwards about the work he'd recently done on the Swell whiffletrees to make them more reliable in preparation for his visit.

In May 1995 the USOC had a trip to Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford and environs, and David Briggs improvised for us at Gloucester Cathedral. Utterly marvellous. Philip Prosser was with us, and had voiced sections of the instrument for Ralph Downes at that major rebuilding, so had plenty of detail of his own to share.

Skip to more recent times, and I was in the Royal Festival Hall for Olivier Latry's 2014 recital in the inaugural series to celebrate the restored instrument there. Marvellous. Likewise, a couple of days later, Cameron Carpenter gave an absolutely inspired, fluid and striking improvised live soundtrack to the German expressionist silent film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, which is one of the more extraordinary live organ experiences I've had. Quite jazzy, which was oddly fitting.

As for a live performance I wish I'd heard - Gillian Weir performing Messiaen. Or Christopher Herrick performing Bach. My god. And I'm not even religious!

[Tony Newnham]

Hi

 

I'll probably miss someone - memory isn't what it once was.  But "best" organSIsts:-

Fernando Germini (My first organ recital soon after I started learning the organ)

Nigel SPooner

David Dunnett

Carlo CUrley

In the theatre organ realm:-

Ken Double

Michael Wooldridge

They are probably the best and most musical players I've seen/heard live.

 

Every Blessing

Tony

[Colin Pykett]

I suppose it rather depends on how one defines 'best organist'.  If it means 'most enjoyable occasion' then I agree with Tony that Carlo Curley pretty much tops the bill for me.  I went to a number of his concerts; all were very well attended and one which still stands out was at Canford School in Dorset in the early 1990s.  He was playing his Allen touring organ as he often did, and I was struck not only by the absolute precision of his (perhaps rather fast) playing, mostly from memory, but what an informal and generally nice person he was.  Some of the numbers featured singers from the school, whom he accompanied sensitively and then offered some appreciative and encouraging words afterwards to much applause.  During the interval he spotted me looking at the console, and said "if you play, by all means do so".  So I did, and thereafter one or two others did the same.  For its day I thought it was a most impressive piece of musical and audio engineering, if only because it enabled a reasonable-sounding instrument to be taken to the people rather than the other way round.

Such events can only help to demystify and heighten the appeal of the organ.  For what it's worth, I think he was a good ambassador  for the instrument during his lifetime.

A close second was when GTB came to Worcester cathedral in the 1970s in Christopher Robinson's day (I was living in Malvern at the time).  His playing, too, was immaculately precise and because I was sitting fairly close to the instrument in the crossing its sounds were not swamped by the acoustic.  However, at that time some of the Hope-Jones pipework remaining from the rather circumscribed H&H rebuild in the 1920s was still there, contributing to the sheer power of the thing at such short range being almost overwhelming.

The only disappointment was that GTB himself only put in the briefest of appearances at the beginning and end, when he appeared for a few seconds only to give a bow before scuttling away.  He never said a word!

[Adnosad]

Comments make for very interesting reading considering, by necessity, how subjective this topic is.

In my list I would include :-

Garth Benson

GTB

Simon Preston

Fernando Germani

Noel Rawsthorne

Eric Chadwick

Dennis Brain

John Watkins

Jeanne Demessieux

Jane Parker-Smith

Richard Elsasser

Nicholas Kynaston

Carlo Curley

,,,,,,,,,,,, to name but a few, not all of which I have bee fortunate enough to hear in the flesh, so to speak.   Fortunately there is a healthy plethora of up and coming players/ future virtuosi to take on the mantle of these former greats.

Think we can agree that the unquestionable maestro was Germani.   Heard him play at Clitheroe Parish church in `69/` 70 and was one of the earliest recitals I attended.   To my utter chagrin to this day I cannot recall a single item he played!!!!!!!!!!!!!    There was no introduction, no programme. Germani just played, and left the building. My overall impression though was of it all being rather good!

I am hoping that in my final gasping moments on this mortal coil his programme will be revealed in all its glory to me and I will then know that it wasn`t such a wasted life after all!

Good to hear from at least one contributor here about attending a concert given by the other CC at the RFH. That is one cat I would like to see /hear.

[S_L]

On 21/04/2023 at 17:30, Adnosad said:

Good to hear from at least one contributor here about attending a concert given by the other CC at the RFH. That is one cat I would like to see /hear.

 

Me too!!!

[Adnosad]

16 hours ago, S_L said:

 

Me too!!!

Well that puts the total number of fans  of CC up to a total of three!

One thinks of the quote regarding " mighty oaks growing out of acorns "  

[S_L]

2 hours ago, Adnosad said:

Well that puts the total number of fans  of CC up to a total of three!

One thinks of the quote regarding " mighty oaks growing out of acorns "  

CC has a formidable technique, to say the least! Some would question his musical taste and some, as was evident on here a few years back, made personal comments that, at the very last were unhelpful, at worst, they were slanderous and were removed!!

[Keitha]

I'm limiting this response to performances at which I have been lucky enough to be present, where I experienced spine-tingling brilliance:

Jane Parker-Smith - Great Hall, University of Birmingham when I was a student

David Briggs - Coventry Cathedral (an instrument he knows well - and it showed!)

Thomas Ospital - St Eustache, Paris 

Daniel Roth - St Sulpice, Paris

Stefan Schmidt - Würzburg Cathedral last June - a stunning programme of improvisations after verses of religious poetry

Whoever played the improvised Sortie after Sunday Mass in Carcassonne Cathedral in September 2016 - I never found out who he was, despite trying very hard!

And on a separate note of a lasting impression - Mr Harrison (they were all "Mr" then!), who played the Widor Toccata after the Mass at which I made my first Holy Communion, which set me off on a trail that I am still following...