Herbert Sumsion plays Wesley - Choral Song & Fugue

Herbert Sumsion (1899-1995) plays the 'Choral Song & Fugue' of Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876).
Recorded on the Arthur Harrison organ of Gloucester Cathedral.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Herbert
• Sumsion
• plays
• the
• 'Choral
• Song
• Fugue'
• of
• Samuel
• Sebastian
• Wesley
• (1810-1876).
• Recorded
• on
• Arthur
• Harrison
• organ
• Gloucester
• Cathedral

[CantorisAlto2]

I just wish I'd had the chance to sing Howells' Gloucester service accompanied by the instrument he wrote it for. This Wesley is a under-rated piece. So glad to have found it on Youtube. What a man Sumsion was.

[EccentricRichard]

@1401JSC - remember, at that time, there was an ideological backlash against Romantic organs. The 1971 organ was a fine concert instrument but (I'm told) a pig to use liturgically. The Nicholson rebuild has made it easier, but it's still not a good English organ. I think the 1971 rebuild was a heinous crime - but ripping out the fine present organ to recreate the old would be equally bad. However, I note that the transept arches in the quire are empty - I'd get a new Romantic Willis in there!

[waldenhouse]

Beatiful - this is a very nice registration by Sumsion. He had a wonderful sense to make the individual phrases sound so prominent, treating each stave and phrase with differing sounds. He is sadly missed but left a wonderful legacy to church music which I am proud to be able to say I took part in.

[JadyBee1]

This was the retiring Music when we were Married exactly 44 years ago tomorrow !

It was the habit in those days to marry before 5th April, to get the Tax Allowance for the full Tax Year

John Barrow

[1401JSC]

@3NUNS

S Wesley (father to ss) !

Without Mendelssohn, I doubt that English organs would ever have had independent pedal divisions.

S Wesley's Fugue in B Minor "composed expressly for Dr. Mendelssohn on Sept. 9th 1837" is very old fashioned and written manualiter.

The young SS must have heard Menselssohn play and known his compositions (the oratorios were well known in England). The style in Choral Song is very close to that found in the Mendelssohn Organ works.

[lustful2]

That was probably the case then and since then it is ironic that the Gloucester Cathedral Organ has since seen further tonal additions from the English Builder Nicholson.

[1401JSC]

@lustful2

I'm sure this was the reaction of conservative opinion when Harrison enlarged the Willis instrument.

How can you know better than John Sanders what was needed in the Cathedral, which hosts the Three Choirs' Festival, in 1971?

[1401JSC]

@3NUNS

But Wesley and Mendelssohn were great buddies !

[stad97]

i just love this piece of music. a brilliant organist too. i have a friend who plays this.

[lustful2]

Listening to this Recording it's hard to imagine why the Harrison Organ was ripped out for some neo-classical instrument of the present today. Sumsion was a very good organist as this recording testifies. Love this.