THIERRY ESCAICH
Royal Festival Hall, London 2nd November 2015
After the brilliantly eclectic opening concert with James McVinnie and members of Bedroom Community in September the series continued with a solo concert from French virtuoso Thierry Escaich. As well as being a well established performer he is rightly known as a skilled practioner in the art of organ improvisation.
The evening opened with a flamboyant rendition of Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor (Dorian). This left the audience in no doubt about the power of the RFH instrument or of Mr Escaich’s ability to control it. To my ear the pedal line in the fugue could have benefitted from a more positive registration.
Two contrasting movements from Vierne’s Symphonie No 4 in G minor allowed some different voices to be heard. In Alain’s Variations sur un theme de Clement Jannequin we were taken back in time to a Renaissance sound world, albeit with 20th Century interventions. There was some beautiful registration here. The second piece by Alain, Litanies, (“an incessant repetitive musical prayer”), was given a passionate rendition, mostly at breakneck speed.
The second half really allowed Thierry to showcase his skills as an exciting performer, arranger and improviser together with much more variety of registration, style and mood.
His own arrangement of Liszt’s Les Preludes opened in dramatic style but also had moments of intense beauty. There were bombastic pedal reed passages contrasting with ethereal tremulant flutes. A very exciting and engaging performance, as was the extended improvisation, Tryptique (on given themes). Throughout Thierry masterfully wove contrasting rhythmic and harmonic ideas using a variety of registration and contrasts of style and dynamic. The second melodic fragment, Scarborough Fair, kept reappearing in a variety of surprising guises. A wonderful experience.
A brisk encore followed the enthusiastic applause of the appreciative audience, bringing a very entertaining evening to a close.
The next concert in the series features David Titterington on February 8th 2016.