TIMOTHYBYRAM-WIGFIELD
ALFRED HOLLINS ORGAN WORKS
CAIRD HALL ORGAN DUNDEE
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ALFRED HOLLINS
ORGAN WORKS
CAIRD HALL ORGAN DUNDEE TIMOTHYBYRAM-WIGFIELD
1. Concert Overture in C major (1889) [8:33]
2. Benediction Nuptiale (1898) [5:38]
3. A Trumpet Minuet (1929) [5:01]
4. Allegretto grazioso (1906) [4:31]
5. Concert Overture in C minor (1899) [7:48]
6. Evening Rest (1917) [7:28]
7. Concert Overture in F minor (1922) [8:52]
8. Andante in D (1895) [9:50]
9. A Song of Sunshine (1913) [4:49]
10. Maytime Gavotte (1927) [3:54]
11. Theme with Variations and Fugue [13:13] (1911)
Total playing time[79:40]
Alfred
Recorded on 22 & 23 February 2005, in the Caird Hall, Dundee Producer: Paul Baxter 24-bit digital editing: Adam Binks
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Design: Margareta Jönsson
Photography: Dr Raymond Parks
Made and printed in the UK © 2006 Delphian Records Ltd 2006 Delphian Records Ltd
Hollins at the Caird Hall Organ‘I hope I may have done something to make a few people a little happier than they might otherwise have been, and that when I put in the stops, and turn off the wind, and close the organ, there may still be heard an echo of harmony, as it were the whispering of a melody that lingers after the playing is finished.’
Alfred Hollins (1936)Blind from birth, Alfred Hollins was born in Hull in 1865 and was educated at the Royal Normal College for the Blind in Norwood, London, where he was taught the organ by William Barnby – brother of the famous hymn tune writer Joseph Barnby – and E J Hopkins. At this stage, piano was Hollins’ first study, and his teacher was Frits Hartvigson, who had been a pupil of Liszt. Hartvigson’s philosophy was to treat his blind pupils as if they were sighted, and he went on to introduce the young Hollins to many distinguished musicians. The great conductor Hans von Bülow thought Hollins ‘one of the rare true musicians amongst piano virtuosos’. In the years from 18831888, Hollins appeared regularly as a soloist with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the Hallé, performing much of the standard concerto repertoire. He didn't pursue a lasting career as a concert pianist,
noting that ‘the physical strain inseparable from the life of a public pianist would have been too great for me’.
As a result of E J Hopkins’ influence, Hollins became increasingly active as an organist, and held posts first at St John’s Redhill, then at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Upper Norwood, from 1888-97. He gave regular recitals at the People’s Palace, the Royal Albert Hall and his early compositions also date from this period. This recording opens with his first major published work, the Concert Overture in C major, which was dedicated to Hopkins. Written in conventional sonata form, this is a work bristling with youthful vigour, from the swaggering confidence of the opening to the dazzling virtuosic display of the main allegro theme. We hear some of what were to become Hollins’ compositional trademarks: lithe, acrobatic keyboard textures, especially in fast music – a true debt to his brilliant pianism, surely; a unique gift for lyrical melody; and a Sullivan-esque penchant for counterpoint, often superimposing themes with great ingenuity and wit.
During this time, Hollins made two significant friendships: one with his contemporary, the organist Edwin Lemare, the other with the organ builder Thomas Christopher Lewis. Lemare, the most highly
paid organist of his day, was resident at St Margaret’s Westminster for many years, before emigrating to the United States of America where he held municipal posts in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Portland (Maine) and Chattanooga. His playing, especially of orchestral transcriptions – and particularly those of Wagner’s music – was legendary, and his recitals attracted capacity audiences. Before moving to the USA, Lemare was a commissioning editor for the publisher Novello, and under his guidance they published a highly-influential series of new concert works for the organ; these included works by major composers of the day, including William Wolstenholme, C H H Parry, Walter Alcock, Bernard Johnson, Lemare himself and Hollins. One of the first pieces to appear in this series was the Hollins’ Andante in D, published in 1895 and dedicated to Lemare; Hollins considered it his finest composition, ‘although while perfectly suitable for recitals, it is more a church than a concert piece’. It is reflective and soulful, and has a breadth and intensity of emotion rarely found elsewhere in his output, largely due to its string-like textures –especially at the opening – and its Wagnerian harmony (surely a musical homage to Lemare?). After an enormous climax in the first section – in which the full resources of the organ are exploited – a gentle reed solo follows, which inevitably is combined with
the opening melody in preparation for a repeat of the opening music; the hushed coda is particularly effective. With a performance time of almost ten minutes, this is one of Hollins’ more substantial works deserving of its reputation as one of the great slow movements in the English romantic organ repertoire.
In 1897, Hollins was invited to apply for the post of Organist at the St George’s Free Church in Edinburgh; he was duly appointed and remained in the post for the rest of his life. This had been a brave move for the church, since the prevailing view of nineteenth-century Scottish Presbyterianism was completely against the use of organs in divine worship. It was the Rev Hugh Black, newly-appointed assistant to the renowned preacher Alexander Whyte, who saw the need for an organ, and persuaded the church to install a brand new instrument by Lewis; in just a few years, St George’s was to become as famous for its organist as for its preacher.
Hollins clearly revelled in the new organ, and made the fullest use of it, in spite of its modest size; he instituted a series of regular organ recitals, and many of the most notable organists of the day performed there, including G D Cunningham, George Thalben Ball, Lynwood Farnham and Marcel Dupré. One of Hollins’ many charming little
occasional pieces, Benediction Nuptiale, dates from his early days in Edinburgh, and was written for the marriage of the Rev Hugh Black to Miss Edith Kerr in 1898. Hollins uses the combined initials of the married couple –H E B – as the opening three notes of the main melody (translated into musical notation as B natural, E and B flat), and asks for the softest registers of the organ to be used.
During his tenure at St George’s, Hollins’ reputation as a concert organist spread far and wide, and, in addition to his busy recital schedule in this country, he was often invited overseas. He toured South Africa three times (in 1907, 1909 and 1916), Australia and New Zealand in 1904, and an almost year-long visit to the USA and Canada in 1925-26; such was his popularity that the latter tour had to be extended.
As a recitalist, Hollins was acutely aware of the need to entertain his audiences, and from as early as the mid-1890s identified a lack of what he called ‘real concert pieces’ in the repertoire. He was clearly disparaging about other organists’ recitals too, when he wrote in 1928:
‘Organists are too much inclined to play programmes for the enjoyment of themselves … but they rarely take the man in the street into consideration, or listen to their performances with
his ears. Hidden away in an organ loft they revel in the rolling polyphony of Bach without the slightest idea that it may be a mere blurred noise to the majority of listeners.’
Whilst he did include the major works of J S Bach in his concert programmes, Hollins would also include works of his own as well as music by his contemporaries, and from time to time some orchestral transcriptions. He thus achieved a balance between items that would educate and those that would entertain; and when he felt that a particular piece of music needed some explanation, he would talk to the audience and play over the work’s main themes prior to performing it. Many of his smaller pieces were written specifically to amuse audiences: these include the jaunty Maytime Gavotte, the ever-popular Song of Sunshine, Allegretto Grazioso and the Trumpet Minuet, with its hearty Handelian overtones; the Allegretto Grazioso in particular is shrewdly written, brimming over with ingenious counterpoint.
Since his time in London, Hollins had been fascinated by the mechanisms of the organ, and had learnt a great deal from T C Lewis whom he had met through his recitals at the People’s Palace; the organ builder would often ask him for his advice about a particular aspect of his organ design, especially when it involved new ways of manipulating the stops.
Hollins embraced this new technology eagerly, and he was increasingly asked to advise on the construction and tonal design of new instruments. One of his proudest achievements was his scheme for the new organ in Johannesburg Town Hall, which was built in 1916 by the Norwich-based firm of Norman & Beard. Hollins gave the opening recital in March of that year, and composed a piece for the occasion. Evening Rest is a gentle nocturne and was designed to demonstrate some of the more novel features of the new organ, including the French Horn stop – for the opening melody –and the Carillon, whose distant bell chimes appear throughout the course of the music. (There are no chimes on the Caird Hall organ – the bell effects can be assimilated in other ways. There is a fine French Horn stop.)
Another one of Hollins’ significant organ designs was for the new organ in Dundee’s Caird Hall. He gave the opening recital on Wednesday 27 June 1923, and his choice of repertoire on that occasion was a model of his unique programming style. It included Mendelssohn’s first organ Sonata, the Toccata from Widor’s Fifth Symphony, two short pieces by Guilmant, a Bach fugue, and ended with Rossini’s William Tell Overture; he also played three of his own works, including Evening Rest
During his trip to the USA and Canada Hollins’ eyes were opened to the tonal and technical innovations in organ building happening on the other side of the Atlantic. He wrote about these in glowing terms in an article for The Organ magazine in October 1926; he was particularly impressed with those organ builders who had devised sophisticated mechanisms for effecting rapid changes of colour and for saving different combinations of stops electronically. On his return to Edinburgh, he began to incorporate these ideas into his organ schemes; in 1930, he had his own organ at St George’s enlarged and updated, and in 1933 he drew up a scheme for an organ in Edinburgh’s newlybuilt Reid Memorial Church, which included new electric actions, and a state-of-the-art piston system. This was still functioning in its original condition until 1998.
When the music of Hollins and his contemporaries fell out of favour with organists in the decades following the Second World War, the Concert Overture in C minor was one of a handful of pieces that remained in the repertoire. Written in 1899 and dedicated to the American organist Clarence Eddy, in this piece more than any other Hollins treats the organ in truly orchestral terms: after a dramatic opening in which much of the thematic material is exposed, the music launches headlong into a large-scale
sonata allegro. Hollins’ friend Cyril Rootham exclaimed ‘You know, that’s a splendid overture, but it isn’t organ music. I hear the fiddles in it.’ Later, in his autobiography entitled A Blind Musician Looks Back, Hollins wrote ‘he [Rootham] could not have paid me a greater compliment, for I had always tried to write concert music for the organ and always had the orchestra in mind when composing.’ Rootham’s comment was distinctly accurate: the vigorous first subject has all the qualities of Mendelssohn’s string writing (compare the Hollins with the opening of Mendessohn’s Ruy Blas overture, for example); listen also to the ingenious way Hollins ‘orchestrates’ the repeat of the second subject, complete with clarinet counterpoint. The conclusion of the work is a breathtaking display of virtuosity – a great fusion of Hollins’ brilliant piano technique and his remarkable ear for orchestral sonority.
Dating from 1922, the Concert Overture in F minor was the third and last that Hollins wrote in this form. It is dedicated to the Canadian organist Ernest MacMillan who, when his parents settled in Edinburgh, had studied with Hollins; after a spell interned at Bayreuth during World War I, MacMillan eventually returned to Canada and took up a teaching post at Toronto University. Of the three concert overtures, this is the least performed, partly due to its technical difficulties and its often brooding and
elegiac nature; in many ways this overture is exploring new territory, from both a formal and emotional standpoint. One of the technical challenges of the work is its demanding writing for the pedal part; as well as having a brilliant keyboard facility, Hollins must have possessed a formidable pedal technique. On the last page of the score in particular, the pedal part covers the whole compass of the pedalboard in a torrent of virtuosic semiquavers before the final peroration on full organ.
Throughout his career Hollins strived to present and maintain the role of the concert organist as a legitimate art form; he was in good company, and with his colleagues Lemare, William Wolstenholme and William Faulkes built on the fine tradition that had started with W T Best at St George’s Hall Liverpool. He saw the need for concert music that would demonstrate the full capabilities of the modern concert organ. Prior to giving a recital in Canada, he addressed his audience by saying:
‘I am not going to dose you with too much Bach this evening … there are so many conveniences on modern organs that organists should use their instruments orchestrally.’
Even so, Hollins was aware of the tension between organists who shared his views, and those of a more traditional bent, who thought
that the German school – rooted in the works of Bach, Mendelssohn, &c – the only true school of organ music. In a lecture to the Royal College of Organists in Glasgow in 1910, he defended the concert organ tradition, stating:
‘
…because the style of our organ music … has grown out of the development of the instrument, it is hardly reasonable to say that such schools are not legitimate and just as true to the genius of the organ. I have never heard it said that, because Chopin and the modern pianoforte composers availed themselves of the improvements in their instrument, those masters who preceded them were the only composers of ideal pianoforte music.’
This sums up the philosophy of the concert organ tradition, not just in this country, but in France too, where the most popular organists of the day such as Aléxandre Guilmant and Joseph Bonnet also saw the need for the evolution of different, lighter style of repertoire.
One of Hollins’ most extended concert works is the Theme with Variations & Fugue, published in 1911, and on so many levels it reveals to us Hollins’ genius as organist, composer and, moreover, entertainer. Hollins dedicated it to his friend and colleague, the blind organist William Wolstenholme, and it is a most affectionate tribute. Despite its title, Hollins employs two themes throughout
the course of the piece; the arresting opening introduces both themes together: one in the pedals, and the other in the keyboard part. The main theme – a lyrical melody – is heard in full after this, and is the basis for a set of seven variations: these include a scherzando for the oboe and flutes; a three-part dialogue between oboe and clarinets; a majestic march, with a running pedal part in quavers, and a humorous Gavotte. Instead of basing his fugue on the first theme, however, Hollins takes his subject from the tune first heard in the pedals at the opening – an angular theme characterised by the opening leap of a fifth. Unlike many fugal movements of this period whose counterpoint fizzles out after a few entries of the subject, Hollins – as ever –fully employs the technique and treats the subject rigorously (described by one critic as ‘serious counterpoint in the ecclesiastical manner’); the fugue builds to an exciting climax, before Hollins brings us full circle, ending in the triumphant manner with which the piece had started, this time in an exciting blaze of full organ.
Formal recognition of Hollins’ unique musical talents came in 1922 with the conferment of an honorary degree of Doctor of Music by the University of Edinburgh. Such was the esteem in which he was held by the musical hierarchy that the prominent musicians who
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nominated him for this award included Sir Edward Bairstow, Sir Edward Elgar, Sir Charles Stanford, and Sir Henry Wood. Hollins died in 1942. The autobiography he wrote six years earlier documents a career of rare variety: the blind pianist who at 16 years old was invited to perform to the Queen; the international touring virtuoso who visited 65 cities in the USA in a year; the dedicated church organist with a 45 year-long position; the steadfast promoter and defender of the Concert Hall organ tradition, and a composer who left behind a large body of music most of which is relatively unknown today. Hollins sought to perform music that would engage those who had not the facility to appreciate the traditional repertoire in the western classical organ tradition. As fashions change, we are likely to see a renaissance of Hollins’ music. Towards the end of his autobiography, Hollins muses on the thencurrent trends in organ playing, and comes to the conclusion that he is an unrepentant Victorian, unashamed of sentiment, ‘without which no one, I think, can really love music.’
© 2006 Jeremy Cull
Dr Jeremy Cull is Director of Music at the Reid Memorial Church, Edinburgh, and maintains a busy schedule as organist, accompanist, composer and arranger. He is a keen advocate of the art of organ transcription, and a number of his arrangements have been published by Animus. He writes regularly for Delphian Records.
Bibliography:
Hollins, Alfred ‘The Modern Concert Organ and Concert Organ Music’ – a lecture delivered in Glasgow on March 3, 1910
Hollins, Alfred ‘A Blind Musician Looks Back’ William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, 1936
‘The Rotunda’ September 1928
With thanks to; Peter Baxter and the Music Library at the Central Library, Edinburgh; Jeremy Filsell; Matthew Hynes; Robert Lightband; Susan Pasfield, Stuart Muir and the staff at the Caird Hall, Dundee and David Strudwick.
Detail Caird Hall, DundeeThe Organ in the Caird Hall, Dundee
The Caird Hall was opened in 1923 by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII), and was a gift to the city from Sir James Caird, one of Dundee's prosperous jute mill owners. The hall was designed by the City Architect James Thompson and dominates the main City Square.
The organ in the hall was built by the Durham firm of Harrison & Harrison in time for the hall's opening, and was designed by Alfred Hollins, embracing many of his philosophies concerning organ design, specification and repertoire, making it an ideal vehicle for this recording. This was Harrisons’ first concert organ, and the extant correspondence between Hollins and Arthur Harrison shows that Hollins encouraged Harrison to take bold risks with the design. City rivalry was evidently keen, as Hollins also urged Harrison to try to give the Caird Hall instrument the edge over the larger Norman & Beard organ built in Edinburgh's Usher Hall in 1914. The original Dundee tonal scheme had comprised a much larger organ, but rising building costs and the death of the benefactor Sir James Caird led to the construction of a less sizable instrument. Nevertheless, the organ is laid out on a scale virtually unparalleled in this country, with separate winding to bass and treble, and several massive soundboards for each manual – almost certainly a key to the organ’s success.
The hall seats over 2000 people, and some concern was expressed during its construction that an organ of 50 stops might not be sufficient. The review of Hollins' opening concert quashed such fears however, expressing awe at the considerable power available. Wind pressures are
enormous, and the pipe scales are some of the largest ever produced by the Durham firm; the result remains entirely musical and successful. Each stop is exquisitely voiced to a standard rarely achieved, and the spacious layout of the chamber allows every pipe ample room to speak. The bold treble voicing gives the organ a magisterial presence with no loss of clarity, while the curious Harmonics mixture – with its seventeenth and flattened twentyfirst – is surprisingly useful. The powerful Trombas are enclosed in the Orchestral box, and crown the organ without overpowering all in their path. The orchestral reeds are very fine, featuring an early example of a French Horn on the Swell. The relative poverty of the Pedal organ, however, with few independent ranks, is redolent of the times.
The organ was fully restored to original condition by Harrison & Harrison in 1992, with Robert Lightband as consultant. This work included a slight raising of the organ's pitch, which was achieved sensitively. The original exhaust pneumatic action was retained, and is exceptionally prompt and responsive. Built during an era often characterised by dull and characterless instruments, the sound of the Caird Hall instrument is lively and rich, and the organ is one of the finest examples of British organ building from the interwar period.
© 2006 Andrew CaskieDCD34044_BOOKLET.FINAL_ORDERED 27/11/06 18:36 Page 14
CAIRD HALL ORGAN,DUNDEE
Great Organ
Double Geigen 16
Bourdon16
Large Open Diapason (leathered) 8
Small Open Diapason8
Geigen8
Hohl Flute (open wood to CC)8
Rohr Flute (stopped metal) 8
Octave4
Wald Flute (triangular wood) 4
Octave Quint2 2/3
Super Octave 2
Harmonics 17 19 b21 22IV
Contra Tromba (in Orch’l box) 16
Tromba (in Orch’l box) 8
Octave Tromba (in Orch’l box)4
Great Reeds on Great Swell to Great Orchestral to Great
Orchestral Organ (enclosed)
Double Salicional 16
Viole8
Violes Celestes (II sharp and flat FF)8
Harmonic Flute8
Concert Flute (harmonic)4
Harmonic Piccolo2
Cor Anglais 16
Corno di Bassetto 8
Orchestral Oboe 8
Tremulant
Tuba (unenclosed)8
Great Reeds on Orchestral
Octave
Sub Octave
Unison Off
Swell to Orchestral (New at restoration)
Wind Pressures
Pedal flues 4”-6”
Pedal reeds 18” & 20”
Orchestral 6”
Tuba 20”
Great flues 5”
Great reeds 18”
Swell Flues and light reeds 5”
Swell chorus reeds 10”
Action wind 12”
Swell Organ
Open Diapason (leathered) 8
Stopped Diapason (wood)8
Echo Salicional8
Vox Angelica (AA)8
Octave Geigen4
Stopped Flute (metal) 4
Fifteenth 2
Mixture 12 19 22 26 29 V
Oboe8
Vox Humana 8
Tremulant
Double Trumpet16
Trumpet 8
Horn (French)8
Clarion4
Octave
Sub Octave
Orchestral to Swell
Pedal Organ
Double Open Wood (FFF)32
Open Wood (ext)16
Open Diapason (leathered)16
Geigen (Gt) 16
Salicional (Orch)16
Sub Bass (Gt) 16
Octave Wood (ext) 8
Flute (ext)8
Ophicleide16
Trombone (Great) 16
Posaune (ext)8
Great to Pedal (mechanical)
Swell to Pedal (mechanical)
Orchestral to Pedal (mechanical)
Accessories
8 pistons to each division
8 general pistons (on separate memories)
Usual reversers, including both tremulants, 32’, Ophicleide
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Caird Hall organ, Dundee
Photography: Dr Raymond Parks
Timothy Byram-Wigfield received his formative training as a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge. Following study at the Royal College of Music he won an organ scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, before being appointed Sub Organist of Winchester Cathedral. During his time there, Tim studied the organ with Richard Popplewell and David Sanger, leading to his appearance as a finalist in the Royal College of Organist’s Performer of the Year competition.
In 1991 Tim took up the post of Master of the Music at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, and embarked on a wide range of activities whilst there including training the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus, participation in the Edinburgh Festival and touring extensively as a recitalist. In 1999 he was appointed to the newly-created post of Director of Music at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he combined his choral activities in the college with teaching and playing, before arriving in Windsor in January 2004.
As a solo organist Tim has won considerable acclaim; a recording of overture transcriptions on the celebrated Lewis organ in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery (DCD34004) was a critic’s ‘choice of the year’, 2004. Tim’s first Messiaen recording with Delphian - on the organ of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle - featured the opulent Les Corps Glorieux (DCD34024) and was met with universal critical acclaim; 2008 will see a further double-album of Messiaen’s earlier works for solo organ.
Timothy Byram-Wigfield organ
Organ music from Delphian
Byram Wigfield on Delphian
The Kelvingrove Organ
Timothy Byram-Wigfield (DCD34004)
Byram-Wigfield, master of music at St George’s, Windsor, plays a variety of Edwardian transcriptions on one of the world’s finest concert organs: the Lewis organ in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Gallery.
‘Byram-Wigfield's performances are superb; there's none of the shallow, showy musicianship one hears from a few international recitalists, but instead, carefully crafted interpretations played with consummate skill.’ – Gramophone, March 2004
More organ music on Delphian
The Usher Hall Organ
John Kitchen (DCD34022)
John Kitchen, Edinburgh's City Organist, presents a wide-ranging eclectic programme of music brilliantly brought to life on the Usher Hall's newly-refurbished monumental Norman and Beard concert organ: never before heard on disc.
‘a source of endless delight.’
– Gramophone, September 2004
Olivier Messiaen: Les Corps Glorieux
The Organ of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle
Timothy Byram-Wigfield (DCD34024)
Byram-Wigfield presents Messiaen’s ground-breaking Les Corps Glorieux on the organ of Windsor’s St George’s Chapel, with its protean personality. Byram-Wigfield is an ideal exponent of this work and its extremities; from his sensitive approach to its spiritual narrative, to his thrilling handling of its gargantuan climaxes, the listener cannot fail to be drawn into Messiaen’s colouristic world.
‘the interpretation is intelligent and rigorous ... thoroughly exemplary recording’ – Choir and Organ, September 2006
Organs in Glasgow
John Butt and John Kitchen (DCD34032)
Two of the UK's foremost keyboard interpreters come together in a selection of Glasgow's finest organs. Instruments by Hill, Lewis and Willis are heard alongside other contemporary examples showcasing the golden era in Glasgow's organ building history.
‘in such expert and enthusiastic hands this delightful collection of different tonal palettes and acoustics does not disappoint.’
– Choir and Organ, June 2005
DCD34044_BOOKLET.FINAL_ORDERED 27/11/06 18:36 Page 22
More on Delphian
O How Glorious is the Kingdom
The Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle; Timothy Byram Wigfield (DCD34048)
The Choir of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, offers a sumptuous programme of jewels from the anthem tradition whose repertoire spans five centuries. Under the luminous direction of Timothy Byram-Wigfield, and in the luxurious resonance of St George’s Chapel, the choir resounds with exhilarating energy, at once arresting and awe-inspiring.
‘robust and energetic performances ... beautifully balanced singing’
– Organists’ Review, August 2006
2000 Nails
Michael Bonaventure, Organ (DCD34013)
Bonaventure, virtuosic proponent of new music for the organ, presents here a luminous recital of premiere recordings, a rare invitation into this phantasmagorical sound world.
‘Bonaventure commissioned all of these works and he is a thoroughly convincing advocate. His registrations combine colour with clarity, captured in atmospheric sound.’
– BBC Music Magazine, September 2005
Giles Swayne: Convocation
The National Youth Choir of Great Britain; Laudibus; Mike Brewer, conductor; Michael Bonaventure, organ; Stephen Wallace, counter-tenor (DCD34033)
When a powerful team of new music exponents come together, magic will happen; when the music is by Giles Swayne, a composer whose light shines brilliantly in its own unique direction, the results will entrance. This disc offers a bracing sonic experience - vividly communicative music performed with rare verve, passion, and youthful vibrancy.
‘Swayne is undoubtedly the finest choral composer writing today.’ – The Times, October 2006
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Sacred Choral Works
The Choir of St Mary's Cathedral; Matthew Owens, conductor; Michael Bonaventure, solo organ; RSAMD Ensemble (DCD34037)
In the 1960s few would have predicted that Sir Peter Maxwell Davies would eventually write a set of Evening Canticles; yet religious texts have always been of fundamental importance to the composer as this disc vividly demonstrates by bringing together sacred masterworks from both ends of his career.
‘The choir makes a compelling sound, with a beautifully open and powerful tone from the trebles ... This recording also captures the awesome acoustic of the cathedral in the sparser textures in O Magnum Mysterium’ – SPNM, October 2006
