Thomas Trotter at Manchester Cathedral - broadcast 26th September 2017 at 7.30 p.m.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Tom Redmond presents a concert given by Thomas Trotter to mark the completion of Manchester Cathedral's new organ.

Following bomb damage in 1940, the Cathedral's previous organ was repaired re-using old pipework and, incredibly, held together for another 75 years. This new organ, built by Kenneth Tickell, is designed with a mechanical key action and is mounted on the screen, as pre-war organs were. Thomas Trotter gives the first performance of a major new work on it, written specially for him by Francis Pott: 'La chiesa del sole - in memoriam John Scott'. Dedicated to "the happy memory" of Scott - organist, choir director and Pott's Cambridge contemporary - it's a powerful new addition to a noble tradition. The concert also includes one of the cornerstones of the organ repertoire, Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm. In the form of a dramatic tone-poem for organ based upon the verses of Psalm 94, it's heavily influenced heavily by the Fantasia and Fugue on 'Ad nos, ad salutarem undam' of his composition teacher, Liszt. It ends in a blaze of terrifying and vengeful fervour and is a work of astonishing maturity for a 23-year-old. The programme opens and closes with the 16th-century book of Danserye by Tielman Susato - publisher of Orlande de Lassus and composer of accomplished works that lend themselves to any instrument - and arrangements of Mendelssohn.

Susato arr. Thomas Trotter: Danserye
Francis Pott: La chiesa del sole - in memoriam John Scott
Reubke: Sonata on the 94th Psalm
Mendelssohn: Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream, arr. S Warren
Mendelssohn: St Paul - overture, arr. W T Best

Thomas Trotter: organ.

[ardcarp]

Quite strange that such a recital has no Bach and nothing from the 20th C. French School. Are two pieces by Mendelssohn strictly necessary?
I shall listen anyway!

There's a big write-up about the new organ in this month's Chopir & Organ. Not everything has mechanical action, e.g. the old Harrison high pressure reeds have been retained, and the entire Solo division is electro-pneumatic.

[EdgeleyRob]

Quite strange that such a recital has no Bach and nothing from the 20th C. French School. Are two pieces by Mendelssohn strictly necessary?
I shall listen anyway!

There's a big write-up about the new organ in this month's Chopir & Organ. Not everything has mechanical action, e.g. the old Harrison high pressure reeds have been retained, and the entire Solo division is electro-pneumatic.

Worth tuning in for the Reubke if nothing else.
Why not give us some proper Mendelssohn organ music ?

[ardcarp]

Thomas Trotter does do a good line in transcriptions though. Whilst highly fashionably in Edwardian times, it died a death until he and others made it cool again.

[ardcarp]

We got some Bach!

I gather the whole concert was played on the mobile console from which the entire instrument can be played. Odd how fortunes are spent on mechanical action organs (e.g. in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester) and yet they are used for concert purposes via a set of electric switches!

The organ was referred to throughout as The Stoller Organ, as if 'Stoller' weere the organ builder. In fact Stoller was the charitable trust which paid for it, so fair enough to give them a mention. But the organ was built by the firm of Tickell & Co whose founder Kenneth Tickell sadly died recently. I think the Tickell name should have been given the priority.

[jonfan]

Well we got some superb Bach, and some Widor at the end as well! Strange the Bach wasn't mentioned on any programme notices before the concert. If any recital could showcase Concert Sound outside of the RAH then this was it. A TT programme is never run of the mill and this was no exception. I enjoyed his intros which just say enough to point you to listen more attentively; especially in the Pott's, which is a worthy memory of John Scott.
The instrument sounds superb and this concert showed all the colours. I enjoyed the solo stops in the Susato, and in the Mendelssohn Scherzo sounded like a cinema organ at times. [In that piece TT's pedaling was very audible as he whizzed over the board]
I can't hear the Reubke enough; a vintage run tonight. I agree ardcarp, the organ should be the Manchester Tickell, just as we have the RAH Willis and the RFH Harrison. We're grateful to sponsors but surely second mention to the artists. I mean do we remember who sponsored the Mona Lisa or Sistine Chapel ceiling?

[Braunschlag]

Looked interesting - until I spotted the inclusion of transcriptions.
It must be me but I really wish these would be banished forever. Their original purpose pre-dates recorded music and to offer orchestral fare to those who wouldn't or couldn't see and hear the real thing.
I find them either trite, utterly pointless (Mahler Symphonies for heavens' sake!), or are they really there as a substitute for that very large canon of some pretty uninspiring real organ music?
I've also heard it said that no organ recital is complete without Bach on far too many occasions and have never understood why.
Nothing against TT by the way, he's lasted well and is most certainly a wizard player.
I'd boldly go now but Scotty tells me the transporter is short on dilithium crystals.

[ardcarp]

I remember my old composition teacher saying, "Not much room for the daylight to get in there, eh?" when my textures were a little dense. OTOH when I did let the daylight in, he'd say, "Hmm. You could drive a coach and horses through that one." You can't win; and I leave possibly puzzled forumistas to work out what I'm referring to in the above!

[EdgeleyRob]

I agree with ardcarp and jonfan,IMO lack of acknowledgement to Tickell and constant reference to Stoller verged on the disrespectful.
The performance of the Reubke especially was stunning,listened again today.

[Dafydd y G.W.]

Looked interesting - until I spotted the inclusion of transcriptions.
It must be me but I really wish these would be banished forever. Their original purpose pre-dates recorded music and to offer orchestral fare to those who wouldn't or couldn't see and hear the real thing.
I find them either trite, utterly pointless (Mahler Symphonies for heavens' sake!), or are they really there as a substitute for that very large canon of some pretty uninspiring real organ music?

It is often said that the "original purpose" of transcriptions was as you state it, and to some extent this was clearly true. But it is not the whole story, and ignores the fact that people have always transcribed music. J.S. Bach, for one, would find it very odd to be told that this was a pointless activity.

Or is there some point in history at which transcription becomes an illegitimate activity? "I know, Mr Best, that Bach transcribed Vivaldi (and indeed himself) for the organ, but it would be very wrong of you to transcribe Herr Mendelssohn's Overture."

Or - if Best was indeed justified in his own day - have his transcriptions since become illegitimate? And if so, are Bach's transcriptions exempted from such a judgement?

[jonfan]

Agree with the above. Transcriptions are a load of fun and none better to have fun with than TT who has helped to make them popular and accepted again.

[Braunschlag]

I intended the 'pointless' remark in the context of the utter futility of transcribing the Mahler Symphonies.
I'd certainly take some persuading that there is any merit at all in doing that, illegitimate most certainly.
As for the Bach/Vivaldi/Best, and the valid point that, indeed, there have always been transcribers fair enough but why are there so many transcriptions peddled now in organ recitals? A misguided attempt at trying to attract new audiences? (in which case it has been a spectacular failure). Popularism?
There's plenty of good organ music there already (and, admittedly an awful lot of dross) without having to dredge up hackneyed transcriptions.
One wouldn't (well,I wouldn't) buy a ticket for Pollini or any top rank concert pianist only to find that they were performing endless Liszt transcriptions, I really don't think they'd last long on the concert platform. It's the sheer volume of organ transcriptions that are now flooding the organ loft, Joplin Rags, pseudo-jazz standards. It dilutes the original repertoire and,especially in the case of using popular idioms, simply doesn't work.
One last point. The demise of the organists status has often been linked to the popularisation of hymnody, bands and keyboards, simplistic worship songs. I find it quite ironic that so many modern recitals now actively include these very same low brow styles and idioms.
I should point out that I am an (ex) organist. Ex because of what I saw was a dinosaur profession which simply failed to move on and dug it's heels in. It was certainly not the fault of so-called happy clappies, takes two to tango.
There, said it now - apologies if feathers ruffled:)

[Alison]

I went through a brief phase of seeking out discs of Mahler and Bruckner organ transcriptions before realising they were of novelty value only and rarely listened to more than once.

[Braunschlag]

To put the organ transcription industry into perspective this might make interesting reading.
Convince me that this really does have a point!

http://www.david-briggs.org/organ-transcriptions

[ardcarp]

........ Ex because of what I saw was a dinosaur profession which simply failed to move on

The 20th century in France certainly saw no diminution of the organist's status. Although the choral tradition left much to be desired, most great ecclesiastical establishments had (and still have) their 'titulaire'. The bedrock was a school of composer-players...several blind and trained from childhood....for whom improvisation was an important element.

So there was certainly no need to rely on orchestral transcriptions. But one has to consider the zeitgeist. In the late 19th century, performers in all European countries...on the piano too....were less squeamish about departing from the urtext. I wish I could put my hands on a contemporaneous Musical Times account of a recital given by Bruckner in England. The programme contains what we would consider a strange mixture of stuff; and I seem to remember something along the lines of 'Mr Bruckner ended with Bach's St Anne Fugue and continued to improvise upon it for several minutes'.