Home  |   Concerts  |   Organ  |   Season Tickets  |   CD  |   Video Team  |   Links  |   Guestbook  |   Contact


In this 150th anniversary year of the Romsey Abbey organ, my first thoughts turned to the 1858 opening recital programme, of which a copy survives in the organ archives.

What struck me first was how little organ music it contains – just one piece, in fact, referred to only as “Fugue, by Bach”. The rest of it was made up of choral and orchestral transcriptions, where the organ imitates other musical resources.

Romsey’s organ is well suited to virtually any music from Bach onwards. It’s curious to say the least that centuries of organ literature would be left untouched in its unveiling. But then I thought – why not? Historically, organs were found in town halls, grand houses and music halls as well as churches. The ‘typical organ recital’ as we know it is a comparatively recent thing; a hundred and fifty years ago, orchestral transcriptions would have been the norm, simply because the demand for this music existed in a way which is now fulfilled by radio and recordings.

So my starting point for this year’s series has been to feature the organ in as many roles as possible. As well as organ repertoire from all ages, it’ll be accompanying choirs, instruments, solo voices and hymns; it’ll be providing the orchestral backdrop for a piano concerto; it will be giving all the necessary colour to a first performance of my new transcription of Prokoviev’s Peter and the Wolf, with a special guest narrator; and, of course, the first sounds this instrument ever produced will be reproduced once again, 150 years on. Welcome to the series!