Review Details
MUSIC IN THE UNIVERSITY ORGAN RECITAL SERIES FRANCIS JACOB
Alan Cooper
08 December 2009
KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL
The last organ recital in the run up to the holidays was a programme of music to celebrate both Advent and Christmas given by Francis Jacob, organist of Saessolsheim Church. Despite its German sounding name, Saessolsheim is in France, in Alsace, and not in Germany although the two countries have disputed this territory several times in history. The Church in Saessolsheim boasts not one but two Aubertin organs and Francis Jacob also collaborated with Bernard Aubertin during the installation of our organ in King’s College so who better to put the instrument through its paces than this marvellous artist.
Being from Alsace, Francis Jacob’s musical sympathies include German as well as French organ composers and his programme on Tuesday evening celebrated the works of several lesser known German masters who judging from this recital deserve a higher profile than they currently have. Actually, those who are regular attendees at King’s College recitals were already introduced to one of these composers at the late night summer recitals when on Thursday, 13th August this year, Peter Stevens, organ scholar at King’s College Cambridge performed one of the Präludia by Nicolaus Bruhns. Bruhns, a pupil of Dietrich Buxtehude was organist at the Stadtkirche in Husum, a North German town which now hosts an international piano competition.
The second composer whose works ran throughout the programme was Johann Valentin Rathgeber. Born in Bavaria he became a Benedictine monk and later a priest. The last rather less well known composer was Gottfried-August Homilius who was a pupil of J. S. Bach and who like his teacher also composed a St Matthew Passion which has been recorded. Music by the better known masters Buxtehude and Bach also featured in Jacob’s fascinating programme.
Having settled who everyone is, let’s get down to the music itself and to the performance.
Francis Jacob played four of the Organ Preludes by Nicolaus Bruhns, works which are startlingly episodic, a feature which was emphasised by hugely contrasting changes of registration on the Aubertin. This gave the music a kind of vast orchestral scope full of brilliant colour changes and exciting textural variety. The opening Präludium in G major went from clamorous chimes over a sturdy pedal to a delicate filigree of sounds on upper flutes. The Präludium in g minor went from a fast moving jolly section to a slow movement and then to a splendid fugue. The final Präludium in e minor called The Big lived up to its subtitle and made a marvellous conclusion to the programme.
The four Pastorella by Rathgeber which used some of the more characterful French style Aubertin sounds, for instance the upper flutes against the cornemuse drone in the Pastorella in B No.9. This brought out the Christmas spirit of this music, and the Pastorella in B No.10 recalled something of the mechanical musical clocks you see in German town squares.
“Wir Christenlaut” by Homilius was a wonderfully quirky piece with broad contrasts in pitch between the various stops.
The other consistent theme that ran through the recital was music based on the Chorale by Martin Luther: Nun komm der Heiden Heiland. Francis Jacob actually sang four of the verses following translations read by Dr Roger Williams before performing the preludes or fantasia on the music; two by Bach and one each by Buxtehude and Bruhns. This sets something of a challenge for all future organists coming to the Chapel. I was reminded here of Roger’s Alternatim series which has recently finished.
The first Bach setting, BWV 599 is remarkably brief but the second BWV 659 was splendid. It was also played on Saturday on the organ at Blair’s College Chapel by George Chittenden.
Buxtehude’s version was quite meditative while as usual Bruhns packs an astonishing variety of music into his Choralfantasie. This was one of the most generous and startlingly varied recitals we have had on the Aubertin. I was reminded in a way of those Jellybelly Beans which you get in sweet shops. There were new and exciting flavours in every mouthful of this music. I have sat through a lot of concerts in my time and was beginning to think I had heard everything, but it was almost like being a young student again listening to the endless cavalcade of new sounds which Francis Jacob so generously poured out to us for Christmas.