Christopher Herrick at the Royal Albert Hall

Christopher Herrick playing the grand Willis/Harrison organ in the Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms 1994, recorded from BBC Radio 3 broadcast. The piece is Edwin Henry Lemare's criminally underplayed Concert Fantasia Op. 91, I think the only commercially available performance is by Herrick himself on Hyperion's Organ Fireworks Vol.2. Concert Fantasia is a transcription by Lemare of his own improvisation recorded on a Edison phonograph cylinder. It skilfully weaves three tunes, 'The Sailors Hornpipe', 'The British Grenadiers' and 'Rule Britannia' and managed to combine all three at the end - leaving just the Piéce de resistance, 'Auld Lang Syne' appears in the pedals briefly at the end!

The organ was built by Father Willis in 1871-2, Harrison and Harrison rebuilt it in two stages, first in 1924 and completing it in 1933. Then more restoration in 1954 when the pitch of the organ was raised, and several alterations and colsole aids were added in 1973. The organ began to deteriorate badly, with the bellows leaking air and splits in the wooden trunking much of the electrics were over 50 years old, causing no end of problems, ciphers, dead notes etc. The most obvious problem was the lack of wind pressure for climaxes.

Manders completed a complete restoration in 2004, adding just one 4 rank mixture to make it the largest organ in the UK at the time, 9997 pipes. In the last rebuild, the roof was removed from above 32' Ophicleide which makes it now sound a little less thunderous in comparison to older recordings, but at least we still have those searing orchestral trumpets and tuba chorus. There are many detractors of the organ saying its too loud, too brash etc, but have always found it magnificent, very grandiose, very 'Imperial' befitting its home. I hope this recording shows, that despite it being out of tune and lacking wind in crucial moments, it sounds fabulous and has a unique and beautiful sonority.

Christopher Herrick is a virtuoso organist with a career spanning 22 years in two great church music centres in London, first St Pauls as chorister, then as assistant organ for 7 years. And then Westminster abbey for 10 years with 6 as Sub Organist. For the last twenty years his association with Hyperion has included dozens of CDs, including the complete organ works of Bach and 13
volumes of Organ Fireworks.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Christopher
• Herrick
• Royal
• Albert
• Hall
• Organ
• Orgue
• Orgel
• Edwin
• Lamare
• Concert
• Fantastia

[bombarde1701a]

Wasn't this on Organ Fireworks as well?

[JFSnail]

Yep, I prefer this live version though...

[a55b47]

Good to see you're back in business ;-)

[JFSnail]

The vids take me so long to do, there is some stiff competition out there! ;-) Plus I like to put up stuff that nobody else has...

Hope to have a rarely heard Cochereau improv from St Thomas NYC up soon!

[smudger671]

Are you sure the picture at the start of the video isn't Albert Steptoe?

[codeman2008]

@EccentricRichard I agree with everything you just said.

[EccentricRichard]

@codeman2008 - 'already-composed', I wasn't sure how to phrase that when I wrote it. I'm talking music written in the past for the organ - not transcriptions, improvisations, barely any new music (given how dire most of it is, that's no bad thing - did you hear that Judith Bingham piece in the Sunday Organ Prom a week ago?). As for the rest, I can only agree! However, with the likes of Nathan Laube and Thomas Heywood making more of an impression, Lemare is becoming better-known as a virtuoso.

[codeman2008]

@EccentricRichard Yes - everybody has heard of him and knows of him - and an incredible number of organists play his transcription - but he is still underplayed and people don't think of Lemare when they think virtuoso because there's virtually no one living who heard him play in person. It has to do with distance and the technology of the time. You say outside just 'already-composed' 'organ' music - this is a curious phrase. What do you mean by 'already-composed'?

[EccentricRichard]

@codeman2008 - almost forgotten? I think not! Every organist worth their salt has at least heard of Lemare, and those who like to go outside just already-composed organ music, looking to improvisations, transcriptions etc, have ALL heard of Lemare!

[EccentricRichard]

@ds1868 - I dunno, the roof's removal has definitely improved sound projection. Also, I don't want to see those pipes cleaned either! Look what Harrisons have done at St Alban's, replacing the old frontpipes with polished tin and staining the casework. What was beautiful and understated is now just bling. It's as bling as the cars you see on Pimp My Ride. The RAH just wouldn't be the same with shiny pipes - and it would definitely dazzle the audience. Leave well alone is my advice.

[mightybassman1]

@ds1868 No, the same thing can happen in Germany, too. I am working on an organ where the pastor said in 1958 (when it was built): "Make it as quiet as possible!" Well, that's it. You can't hear her 43 stops in a full church!

[itdany84]

Wonderful!!!

[ds1868]

@JFSnail The reason for not cleaning them was that it was felt the 'shiny' facade pipes would provide too much of a distraction to the audience. Now this is ridiculous but this is the 'official' position of the Consultant and is supported by the RAH authorities. Quite frankly I've never heard such rubbish. It could only happen in Great Britain.......