Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY NIGEL ALLCOAT ORGAN RECITAL
Alan Cooper
13 October 2009
King's College Chapel
A goodly crowd packed King’s College Chapel on a very wet night to welcome back the renowned organ virtuoso Nigel Allcoat exactly a year after his last recital in the Chapel. Once again he capped a fine performance of some fascinating music with a resplendent improvisation, this time using the text of the Magnificat. To give the programme a perfect sense of balance, it was with a setting of the Magnificat by the 18th Century French composer Michel Corrette that Nigel Allcoat opened his recital. I sometimes think the titles of the music of these French composers is a little like the menus in a Chinese restaurant, in other words what the title says is precisely what you get. Unlike German music for example where the performer is often left to choose the combinations of stops he will use, the required registrations are part of the very core structure of the music, perhaps even the most important part. We are of course lucky to have the magnificent Aubertin organ which has easily to hand exactly the sounds prescribed by Corrette for his six part setting of the Magnificat.
Opening with the rich Plein jeu and a strident Pédalle de Trompette Nigel Allcoat moved on to the light 3 foot Nazard. A busy Duo à deux Basses led to a minuet-like invention for flutes. Actually the last three movements all had the feeling of rather elegant dance music, even the more strident final Fuga doppia. This sense of bringing the dance into the church is something that often runs through French music and in one of his Sorties Lefébure-Wely actually brings something like the spirit of the Moulin Rouge into the Church.
William Boyce was an English contemporary of Michel Corrette and his Voluntary 1 begins with a far more decorous sounding Larghetto but the music soon livens up in almost military mood with fanfare like trumpets and flutes calling to one another across a parade ground.
Bach’s Fugue in B minor on a subject by Corelli BWV 579 is one of the Master’s less ostentatious fugues. Nigel Allcoat made it unwind and develop beautifully using flute stops with a “chuff” that added to the attractiveness of the sound.
Pachelbel’s Aria Secunda (from Hexachordum Apollinis) : Theme and 5 variations was unusual first for the length and sinuousness of the theme and secondly for the way in which the theme was decorated but scarcely disguised throughout the piece.
Finally we reached the highlight of the recital with Allcoat’s own Improvisation upon the Magnificat. Rather different from the French idea of improvisation upon a set theme, this was a grand scale musical meditation upon the words and more importantly the ideas contained within the Magnificat. This performance would have matched some of the ideas currently being explored in Roger Williams’s Alternatim series.
The Improvisation opened in rich almost symphonic style with a definite English flavour. A solo and duo for flutes led to a portentous hymn-like section followed by music that seemed to relate to plainchant. A scurrying scherzo was followed by dark angry chordal music and then a splendid polyphonic section with a fugal texture. A beautiful aria-like andante was followed by full organ for the final part of the Magnificat then with the words Glory be to the father…. opening out into the most effulgent of celebratory conclusions. Another splendid recital by a true master of improvisation!