VCH Organ Series: The Story of Babar

THE STORY OF BABAR 15 June 2019 Victoria Concert Hall Tom Bell, organ Oniatta Effendi, narrator

PROGRAMME VIERNE Carillon de Westminster, Op. 54, No. 6 7’ J.S. BACH Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564 15’ BLISS Ballet for Children from Things to Come 5’ POULENC L’histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant, FP 129 25’ - Post-concert Autograph Session -

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Tom Bell, organ Tom Bell’s playing has been described as “invigorating” (Sunday Times), “compelling” (Organists’ Review) and “brilliant” (American Record Guide). Based in the UK, Tom has built a vibrant international portfolio of work as performer and educator. Recent engagements have taken him to Europe, the United States and Australia. Tom is known as an innovative collaborator, having worked with beatboxers, visual artists, poets, folk musicians and dancers, and his work has been broadcast worldwide. He gave one of the reopening concerts on the organ at the Royal Festival Hall in London in 2014.

Current and forthcoming projects involve music by Olivier Messiaen, and nineteenth century editions of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. His educational activities are centred on his work as a Director of the Royal College of Organists, and he is at ease leading workshops for small children, or teaching the next generation of professional musicians. Some of his students hold prestigious scholarships in the UK, and Tom has given masterclasses in Australia and the USA. Tom is Artistic Director of the London Organ Day, studied with Kevin Bowyer at the Royal Northern College of Music, and lives in the north of England. tombell-organist.net

Oniatta Effendi, narrator Oniatta Effendi is an applied drama practitioner and drama educator.

She was nominated Best Actress for Life! Theatre Awards 2012 for a role in “The Gunpowder Trail” staged in August 2011.

Oniatta is a familiar face on Suria. She was a TV presenter on an award-wining children’s TV programme, Krayon, for 4 consecutive seasons. She was recently involved in the Singapore Theatre Festival. playing the role “Aminah” in Tan Tarn How’s ‘Press Gang’. She was also in ‘Walking in Beauty’ which was part of the M1 Fringe Festival in January 2018 and also in London in July 2018.

Oniatta has also facilitated several applied drama programmes for youth offenders at rehabilitative spaces. Her work has also reached youth with special needs, children in welfare homes as well as ex-inmates with addiction issues at a halfway house.

Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Programme Notes Published in 1927, Carillon de Westminster is the final piece of the third instalment of Louis Vierne’s Pieces de Fantaisie. The melody is famous as that played by the clock chimes of the Houses of Parliament in London, albeit not currently as they are under renovation until 2021. The piece is dedicated to the organ builder Henry Willis, grandson of the great ‘Father’ Henry Willis (1821-1901). It is reputed that Willis sang the melody of the clock chimes down the telephone to Vierne. Sadly either he made a mistake or Vierne did, as the second phrase is wrong! Nonetheless, the result was a fabulously radiant and atmospheric piece, perhaps reminiscent of a misty morning on the Thames, the sun rising to its fullest extent by the final bars.

Despite the undoubted energy of the final section of the Carillon de Westminster, it is surely an impressionist painting rather than a dramatic showpiece, unlike Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue (though this nonetheless contains several minutes of repose in its central section). As with so many of Bach’s organ works, there are many questions to which we do not have answers: when, where and why was it written? Were all three sections written at the same time, or at different times and compiled later? What seems very likely is that the initial Toccata section – whose opening flourishes and pedal solo are the longest such passage in the repertoire – is a response to the Stylus Fantasticus style of keyboard composition exemplified by the work of Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), with whom Bach studied in 1705.

Typically of Bach however, this Toccata is on a scale far grander than anything of its type written previously. Bach has examined a style, absorbed it, and then developed and expanded it in his own inimitable manner. The elegant, Italianate Adagio betrays other influences, and as for the Fugue - what can one say? It is ingenious, energetic, playful, and the ending comes as a surprise!

Similarly playful and energetic is Arthur Bliss’s Ballet of 1934-1935, which originally formed part of the score for a science fiction film, Things to Come. Arranged for organ by Robert Gower, it was first recorded by Tom Bell in 2012 and published a year later.

Poulenc, like Bliss, was not an organist, and in fact left no original solo organ music (although his Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani is perhaps the most frequently played organ concerto other than those by Handel). Babar was written in 1940, for piano and narrator. No arrangement for organ of this lovely piece seems to exist, at least not commercially, and the piano score is most unsuitable for the organ without substantial reworking in places. Is this the first ever performance on the organ? Possibly! Will it work? There is only one way to find out…

Programme notes by Tom Bell

Go green. Digital programme booklets are available on www.sso.org.sg.

Scan the QR code in the foyer to view a copy.

Visit www.sso.org.sg/klaisorgan to learn more about Victoria Concert Hall’s Klais organ, Singapore’s only fully mechanical organ.

Visit our mini organ exhibition at the Atrium (level 1) and Concert Hall Foyer (level 2) to find out more about pipe organs! We're open from 3pm - 4pm, 5pm - 6pm on 15 June.

UPCOMING EVENTS AT VICTORIA CONCERT HALL

28 JUL SNYO CHAMBER CONCERT

1 & 2 AUG KERSON LEONG PLAYS SCHUMANN With Singapore Symphony Orchestra

9 & 10 SEP THE SSCC EXPERIENCE

One day voice workshops capped by a performance at the Victoria Concert Hall.

Recommended for ages 8 to 12.

14 SEP THE SSC AFFAIR

One day masterclasses capped by a performance at the Victoria Concert Hall.