Friday 11 August 2017

The Viscount organ in Church in the Wood can sound quite different depending upon where you are sitting as the speakers are placed throughout the building, the choir being high up in the chancel. On this occasion I sat close to the font which seemed to be a good position both for impact and balance.

Stephen Page opened with a breezy account of Herbert Murrill’s Carillon before moving on to two classical works. JS Bach’s Prelude in G major BWV541 demonstrated the bright top work on the organ and some fine articulation. By total contrast, he then gave us the delicate intimacy of a Sonata for a musical clock by Handel – the final movement deftly reflecting the familiar tones of the Harmonious Blacksmith.

George Oldroyd’s Liturgical Prelude No3 was in more romantic vein even if it maintained an obvious close connection with liturgical compositions.  Stanley Vann’s Hymn Prelude: Blaenwern enabled Stephen to demonstrate the string sounds of the organ with its gently flowing meter, before two chorale-improvisations by Karg-Elert –the first a less familiar but warmly enclosing O my soul, rejoice with gladness before the popular Nun danket. The range of tone which this organ can provide was clear in Ireland’s charming Vilanella which led into the more populist part of the evening, opening with a rousing Crown Imperial by Walton.

One of the benefits of an electronic organ is the variety of stops open to the designer and the next few pieces clearly showed the range available. C Armstrong Gibbs Dusk included piano and/or xylophone together with some theatre organ sounds, but it was Leslie Clair’s Dance of the Blue Marionettes which gave us the full Wurlitzer. But Stephen was able to top even this when Ketelbey’s In a monastery garden rang with tubular bells alongside the organ.

The evening ended with a number of familiar community songs – though The Lost Chord­ seemed a little lost on some of the audience! – and an encore, more Walton in the shape of the Spitfire Prelude.

All of the above was sandwiched between a summer evening stroll in the woods and a fish and chip supper. Who could wish for more?