French organ music from the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century: maybe we are listening to one of those grand Parisian organs – St Sulpice? La Trinité? Notre-Dame? Possibly not, for now we have the nasal, reedy sound of a Dutch organ… and now there’s a strong reminiscence of an English cathedral organ. All these sounds, and more, were conjured from a three-manual digital organ made by Viscount and specially imported into St Peter’s, Stockbridge for a wonderful recital given by Andrew Lumsden. Andy, as he is known to all the locals, was of course the Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral for more than twenty years. His skill and experience showed immediately in this recital with his relaxed approach to addressing the audience and then encompassing a variety of moods and styles in his playing, revealing real musical insight.
The Viscount organ (some 50 speaking stops for those who collect such information) gave a good account of the Parisian organs, bookending both halves of the concert. The contrast between the manuals creating an effective opening mood in Gigout’s ‘Grand Choeur Dialogue’ – joyous and brilliant – while Vierne’s ‘Carillon de Westminster’ ended the first half in a similar vein. This work is famous for its ‘wrong note’ in Big Ben’s second quarter chime and it builds impressively to a clangour of bells, handled with ease by the Viscount organ.
In between these French sounds Dr Lumsden transported us to Amsterdam for a little gem by Sweelinck which had a beautiful clarity in its voicing, the flute and the reeds providing the authentic Dutch organ experience. He followed this with a Prelude and Fugue by J. S. Bach, again voiced with clarity and building to a well-judged climax at the end. More French music came, courtesy of Duruflé, whose early ‘Scherzo’ showed off some shimmering, impressionistic timbres with lovely solos over hazy chords. This impressionistic mood was also conveyed during the second half of the concert with Messiaen’s delicate piece ‘Les Bergers’, his unique command of tone colour and asymmetric rhythm portraying the shepherds rustic piping.
Frank Bridge is not generally known for his organ music, but the ‘Adagio in E’, written in 1905, might lay claim to being his most famous piece in that medium. Its single voice opening soon blossoms into a mighty climax and Dr Lumsden controlled this superbly as, indeed, he also controlled the build up in Elgar’s famous ‘Nimrod’ variation. More English music came with the solemn ‘Elegy’ by George Thalben-Ball and a magisterial account of Walton’s coronation march ‘Crown Imperial’.
The second half of the recital began with the first movement of Widor’s Fifth Symphony, a series of symphonic variations requiring the full resources of the organ and considerable virtuoso technique to perform them. Having played this first movement it no doubt seemed improper not to play the final, famous ‘Toccata’ and Dr Lumsden saved this for his encore. It provided a rousing finale and was thoroughly appreciated by the large audience.
