Robert Quinney - Live in Concert

[ardcarp]

Did anyone hear this tonight (Sunday)?

Live from Peterborough Cathedral

Robert Quinney gives a recital on the cathedral's fine 84-stop William Hill organ. One of Britain's leading organist, Robert Quinney will have a chance to explore the Peterborough organ's wide range of tone colours in this recital of music ranging from Bach to Elgar.

JS Bach: Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV548
CPE Bach: Sonata in F
Brahms (arr. Rogg): Variations on a Theme by Haydn

c. 8.10pm Interval

c. 8.30pm
Francis Pott: Sonata Brevis (first performance)
Elgar: Sonata in G

I'm not sure whether this is the place to post this...but in any case did anyone hear it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03q59w6

[Frances_iom]

yes - enjoyable + very unexpected given that there was a previous organ recital with a montha ago.

[Alison]

Splendid playing, no show off fireworks, very musical.

Ideal for a winter Sunday evening.

[edashtav]

Splendid playing, no show off fireworks, very musical.

I agree, Alison.

[ardcarp]

...but switching on R3 this a.m. (ought to know better) it was ruddy Widor's Toccata again. Wonderful piece and all that but is this the only organ music Breakfast considers acceptable to the cereal gobbling public?

[Frances_iom]

...but switching on R3 this a.m. (ought to know better) it was ruddy Widor's Toccata again. :

well at least it's organic rather than the sugar laden pap they are consuming aurally + orally

[Contre Bombarde]

...but switching on R3 this a.m. (ought to know better) it was ruddy Widor's Toccata again. Wonderful piece and all that but is this the only organ music Breakfast considers acceptable to the cereal gobbling public?

In an idle moment a couple of years ago I drafted an email in the form of an internal BBC memorandum which I sent to "Breakfast". I don't remember the content verbatim but it was something along these lines...

Radio 3 - Notes for presenters on the playing of organ music.

a) The playing of organ music on Radio 3 is discouraged but if considered unavoidable it must be sanctioned by the controller.

b) Three (3) pieces of music have been written for the pipe organ.

1) Toccata & Fugue by J.S.Bach. It should be noted that BBC policy is to remind listeners that this piece was in all probabililty not written by Bach nor was it conceived for the organ. Academic opinion is that the piece was composed for orchestra by Leopold Stokowski and Bach later made a much inferior arrangement for organ.

2) Toccata by Widor. This piece forms the sole movement of Widor's Fifth Organ Symphony and was written for the wedding of HRH Prince Edward in 1999. It is generally regarded as the most difficult piece in the organist's repertoire but is nonetheless an essential part of all weddings. This is particularly true for a church which has no functioning electronic stereo system and the organ in which has fewer than 10 stops.

3) There is no number 3).

[Guest]

Excellent!! The scare is that some numpty would think this was indeed correct background. Would love to have heard the presenter live uttering same, and then been a fly on the wall when they came off air and being de-briefed.

[ardcarp]

3) There is no number 3).

This piece forms the sole movement of Widor's Fifth Organ Symphony and was written for the wedding of HRH Prince Edward in 1999. It is generally regarded as the most difficult piece in the organist's repertoire but is nonetheless an essential part of all weddings. This is particularly true for a church which has no functioning electronic stereo system and the organ in which has fewer than 10 stops.

[mangerton]

Could I please add a note c) to Contre Bombarde's excellent instructions?

c) Remember that organs are not "played". They are "put through their paces".

[Vile Consort]

No doubt organ recitals appeal to the BBC management in these straitened times because very little expense is involved - especially in the case of an organist giving a recital on an organ at his normal place of employment.

Every cloud ...

[mw963]

It's sad - I missed it BECAUSE I NO LONGER LISTEN TO RADIO 3.

How many times must the muppets who run the station be told that when you drive away listeners by dumbing down (in my case it was 1992 when the wretched WRETCHED Kenyon vandalised the network) they don't even bother to check the schedule and no longer plan their listening.

Until 1992 I would go through the Radio Times and circle everything I wanted to listen to in felt-tip - and record the programmes I was going to miss.

And I knew when the regular organ programmes were going to be - anyone remember "Organ Gallery" or the Monday afternoon programme?

I only listen to Choral Evensong now. I can't say I miss anything else on Radio 3 because I've got European classical radio by the bucketload via satellite (22 stations) but I'm annoyed when I find out that something I really would have liked to hear has cropped up.

A plague on Radio 3 management. Still, in fairness I ought to say that I will now go to the iplayer (well actually get-iplayer, which allows me to outwit the system and keep programmes indefinitely - invaluable for BBC 4 xtra vintage comedy) and listen to Mr Quinney.

[Vile Consort]

I missed it too and had to listen to it on iPlayer. I didn't even know it was coming up because, like mw963, I've given up on Radio 3.

Yes, I remember Organ Gallery. IIRC, it was always the last programme before the station closed, and there were only about 6 programmes a year. There must have been a lot of organ music on R3 in the mid 1970s and early 80s because I had reel after reel of tape recorded from the radio (yes, I know ....). Perhaps it was the Monday afternoon programme referred to.

Even after all this time, I can still recall Peter Hurford playing Franck and Marchand, Graham Barber playing Georg Boehm, and a stunning performance of "Ad Nos" by Jaroslav Tuma - his prize-winning performance in the finals of the Nuremberg competition in 1980. I have never heard a better performance of the work.

One of the Georg Boehm programmes was interesting because the introductions to each piece hadn't been edited properly, and we heard the announcer (Peter Barker?) having several goes at them, developing the wording as he went along and muttering to himself between attempts - "No, that's not quite right ... I want to say ...". Clearly he was not merely reading a script.

And yes, the rot started with Kenyon.

[Lento]

Interesting to hear of brave plan to lower the pitch to 440 - didn't seem radically sharp to me compared to, say, St Michael's, Cornhill, though playing with orchestras would obviously be an issue. I wonder how the work would be scheduled and how long it would take to complete.

[ardcarp]

...funny if they did one rank at a time, the organist having to remember which stop agreed with what.