Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY In association with S-O-U-N-D ROGER B. WILLIAMS MBE Organ
Alan Cooper
17 November 2009
King's College Chapel
Once again, I am indebted to Rohan de Saram for his comment that “Bach is eternally new”. It used to be accepted that people whose blood group was O negative could donate to the members of any other group. They were called “universal donors”. Where on earth am I going with this? Well, J. S. Bach is music’s only universal donor because it is within his huge repertoire alone that you will always find some pieces which can be put comfortably into any kind of programme; from early music to the avant-garde, from mainstream classical to jazz. Even rock and pop musicians have occasionally been happy to offer him a slot in their programmes.
For this reason Bach was the perfect choice for Roger B. Williams to introduce and separate pieces from the Aberdeen Organ Book which began to accumulate new works from when the Aubertin Organ was first installed in the Chapel.
Three of Tuesday’s four contributors to the project: John McLeod, John Hearne and Jonathan Stephens were present in the Chapel to hear Dr Williams perform their pieces. John Hearne’s and Jonathan Stephens’s works were both receiving their second performances while John McLeod’s The King’s Toccata was a world premiere and John Purser’s Toccata for organ was having the first performance of a version with a newly realised ending.
Opening the programme in the most gloriously exultant fashion was Bach’s Toccata in F, BWV540. Dr Williams launched into this festive piece at a spanking pace which seemed to transform the organ into a thrilling carillon of celebratory bells. The amazing counterpoint rose and twined in spectacular surges throughout a performance that never for a moment slackened its dizzying pace.
John Purser’s Toccata for Organ changed the atmosphere entirely with a dark, even ominous prelude leading to strident cluster chords. Dark bass sounds persisted into the opening of the Toccata proper but gradually a suggestion of almost jazzy rhythms rose out of the darkness leading to a clearing of the skies and a bright chiming conclusion which in this concert referred us back neatly to the opening of the concert.
Martin Luther’s familiar tune set by Bach for his Chorale Prelude: Ein Feste Burg, BWV720 had marvellous quirky decorations spun out above it. Here Bach’s imagination far beyond his time fitted in nicely with the experimental ideas of our contemporary composers. One of these was John Hearne in his Toccata Trilinea. It had fast moving figurations in upper octaves which grasped the nettle of Toccata texture right away and this was a piece with a very clear and satisfying sense of direction and development.
In Bach’s next Chorale Prelude: Erbarm’ dich, BWV 721 the steady tread of the accompaniment chords had a kind of twilight softness drawn from an imaginative selection of stops over which the melody unfolded sweetly. The subtle use of the tremulant here added to the overall gentle attraction of this performance.
In his introductory note to The King’s Toccata, John McLeod states his intention to write a piece that will display some of the special sounds of this particular instrument. If the opening piece by Bach transformed the organ into peals of bells, John McLeod turns it into a full orchestra. His ever changing sound colours and textures echo much of the avowed aims of later French organ masters. Although the form and structures of his music are entirely his own, I thought that this piece followed the French desires by fitting in most closely with the intrinsic character of this specific instrument.
Paean by Jonathan Stephens uses more popular musical language in this piece dedicated to the memory of the late Chris Cadwur James. Its bright harmonies and clarion fanfares made it fit in nicely with the idea of the Toccata which ran through much of the programme. Here too Professor Stephens explores the sound world of the Aubertin but from a gentler English angle.
The final Bach Chorale Prelude: Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier BWV 731 had a gentleness that was perfect following on from Jonathan Stephens’s warm kindly music. Then to conclude the concert in true regal style, Roger Williams chose Bach’s Fugue in F major, BWV 540 thus summing up one of the most stimulating and entertaining organ recitals of the whole series. The response of a capacity Sound Festival audience made the stones of the Chapel resound with the warmth of genuinely ecstatic applause.