All Saints, Hastings

James Lloyd Thomas, 14 July

Bastille Day – and a programme of French music to celebrate the occasion. If in the end this was not quite the celebratory event that the choice of works promised, there was a much to enjoy.

The most successful work was Messiaen’s Joie et Clarte from Les Corps Glorieux. Finely chosen registration, and succinct articulation and rhythms brought the work boldly to life. Before this, movements from Couperin’s Messes pour les Paroisses seemed overlong if brightly registered, and Franck’s Second Choral lost its way in the telling with little sense of shape or direction.

The first half ended enthusiastically with the conclusion of Guilmant’s Sonata No1.

There were times when James Lloyd Thomas seemed to be fighting with the Willis. It is not an easy instrument to master, and, watching him on the large screen, there were many times he appeared hesitant about his next move – a hesitation which affected both phrasing and choice of registration.

Dupre’s Prelude in F minor worked well but the following Fugue rambled in its melancholic way.

The Willis really does not do very fast, and both Alain’s Litanies and the concluding Dubois Toccata suffered from the pace at which they were played. Exciting certainly, but a lack of clarity and some garbled phrasing.

A programme which appeared on paper to be stimulating and apt turned out to be something of a curate’s egg. Perhaps a final splash of the Marseilles would have sent us out singing?

Next week – Daniel Cook from Westminster Abbey playing Bach, Widor and Stanford.