IT is always a pleasure to hear the Mulholland Grand Organ being put through its paces by a capable executant such as Jane Watts, the Royal College of Organists' 1986 Player of the Year, even though there were times in this recital when one was tempted to separate pleasure in the sonorities of the instrument from pleasure in the music.
Most of it was by specialist composers for the organ, and some items, Sir Ernest MacMillan's Cortege Academique, for instance, were written unashamedly to show off the instrument. The most modern composer was Simon Preston, whose Vox Dicentis began eerily but then lost its way. Stanford's Fantasia (In Festo Omnium Sanctorum) was more assured but less memorable; one preferred the lush (if soggy) pastures of Richard Popplewell's Elegy and the Franckian simplicity of Flor Peeters' Aria Op. 51.
French composers, of course, dominate the modern instrument. The legacy of past styles were evident in Marcel Dupre's Prelude and Fugue in G minor Op. 7 No 3, but he has a strong enough voice of his own to ensure that there is no feeling of pastiche. Joseph Bonnet's Etude de concert and Pastorale showed the same confidence, the latter item giving the organist the chance to explore softer reed combinations. The recital concluded with Alexandre Guilmant's Gothic-revival Sonata No 5 in C minor Op 80, which combined Franckian harmony with nods to the Baroque with the same elan and conviction as Dupre.
Some organists present felt Jane Watts over-used the organ's pedal reeds, but one couldn't help feeling that she was right to luxuriate in the sounds themselves.
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