Church in the Wood, Friday 28 July 2017
Church in the Wood have had their new Viscount organ in use for some time now but Saturday was the first time that Jeremy Meager, the Managing Director of Viscount Organs, had come down to perform and put the instrument through its paces.
He chose an eclectic range of works, which aimed to please the audience with familiar pieces and include a variety of styles to demonstrate the flexibility of the registration. He opened with a rapidly paced rendition of Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations and moved on to Bach’s Prelude & Fugue in E flat BWV 572. This brought us some fine top flutes and a splendidly articulated fugue.
The gentle tones of Malcolm Archer’s Elegy gave way to a bombastic account of Handel’s Overture to the Occasional Oratorio before returning to the lyricism of Bach’s Bist du bei mir BWV508. The first half ended with Vierne’s familiar Carillon de Westminster.
The second opened with a Trumpet Tune – though not one of the more familiar wedding choices. This one was by Tambling and showed us the brashness of the organ’s trumpet stop. Franck’s reflective Prelude, Fugue and Variations followed with the dynamic changes during the fugue impressing. S S Wesley’s Choral Song is equally familiar though not the accompanying fugue which, on this occasion sang with aplomb.
R Goss-Custard’s Chelsea Fayre is a real lollipop and moved us gently into Parry’s Chorale Prelude on Eventide – better known to most as Abide with me. This brought us to the inevitable concluding item – the Toccata from Widor’s 5th Symphony. Jeremy Meager raced through this to the delight of the audience, even if some of the notes seemed to get lost along the way.
As an encore he played Herbert Sumsion’s Ceremonial March – about as English and CoE as one could wish. He has promised to return and will obviously be very welcome.