Fifth International Organ Academy to take place in August

Carolyn Shuster Fournier is a French-American organist and musicologist living in Paris, France, where she is titular of the Aristide Cavaillé-Coll choir organ at La Trinité Church. An international concert organist, she wrote her doctoral thesis on Aristide Cavaillé-Coll’s secular organs. Her writings on French music and organs have appeared in numerous reviews.

The Neue Bachgesellschaft has organized a series of Europa Bach Festivals, which will take place periodically in large European cities. The first festival occurred in Paris and its region from September to December 2005. It was organized by Martin Petzoldt, the president of the Neue Bachgesellschaft in Leipzig; Rudolf Klemm, director of the French Section of the Neue Bachgesellschaft; and notably by its director, the musicologist Gilles Cantagrel, a Bach specialist, author of Bach et son temps and Le Moulin et la rivière, air et variations sur Bach (Paris, Fayard), and a member of the advisory committee of the Bach-Archiv Foundation in Leipzig.
Inspired by Bach’s writings “for the entertainment of amateurs,” this festival offered high-quality music for all types of audiences in at least forty different locations: concert halls, churches, and historic castles. Its universal approach has welcomed various interpretations and responses to Bach’s music (Baroque, Romantic, modern, even jazz) on a variety of organs and with numerous musical formations. In addition to the concerts, there have been lectures, international symposiums, expositions, and presentations for children.
At the German Evangelical Church in Paris, the organist Helga Schauerte-Maubouet gave fourteen concerts on the 1964 Detlef Kleuker organ with commentaries by Gilles Cantagrel. Entitled “Bach & B” (Bach and Buxtehude, Böhm, Boëly, Brahms . . . ), these concerts symbolize the name of BACH (B=2, A=1, C=3, H=8). Two fine presentations accompanied them: Martin Petzoldt’s excellent exposition “Bach and the Bible” was complemented by two films that are available in DVD. The first film is a DVD made by France 2 Television on the life of J. S. Bach and was filmed in Germany (in Arnstadt and Leipzig). The second film presents François Delhumeau’s construction in 2004 of the organ at the church of Pontaumur (near Clermont-Ferrand), an exact replica of the historic Bach organ in Arnstadt. An exposition also provides details about two eminent Bach festivals in France: the first Bach Festival in France took place in 1962 at Saint-Donat-sur-l’Herbasse (in the Drôme); the second one occurred more recently: “Bach in Combrailles”, created by Jean-Marc Thiallier, and featuring the Pontaumur organ. Martin Petzoldt summed up his wishes for this first Europa Bach Festival in Paris by citing several lines of Johann Christoph Gottsched’s funeral ode written for the funeral in 1727 of Christiane Eberhardine, the Princess of Saxony:

May Bach’s music
Resound within us each day
And bring to all of Europe
An expression of our joy.

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Janice Feher is organist in residence at First Presbyterian Church, San Diego. She holds a BM from Michigan State University and an MM from the University of Michigan, and she is a Colleague of the AGO. Her teachers included Corliss Arnold, Leslie Spelman, Donald Sutherland, Robert Noehren, and Marilyn Mason. She and her husband, Bela Feher, published two photobooks as part of an ongoing project on pipe organs of Europe—Sacred Spaces of Germany and Denmark (with Marilyn Mason) and Sacred Spaces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (available from Blurb.com ). Photo credit: Bela Feher

Robert Noehren impressed me with
his concern that organists should spend more time listening to music. I think he would have approved of the Leslie Peart organ tour of 2010 that included organ concerts, an evening at the BBC Proms, and choral services. We heard some impressive sacred and secular music in Scotland and England, as well as sharing memorable meals of representative local cuisine.
The 2010 Scotland and England organ tour—July 13–26—began with a welcome luncheon at the Ramada Mt. Royal Hotel in Edinburgh. This hotel is located on Princes Street, above shopping and restaurants, and it provided a great base for visiting the varied organs of Edinburgh. We began by playing the 1989 Collins organ at the Greyfriars Church, followed by the fine Willis organ at the Episcopal Cathedral. That evening we enjoyed a generous amount of time playing on the wonderful 1992 St. Giles Cathedral organ, built by Rieger Orgelbau of Austria.
The next day, Scottish rain and chill failed to dampen our spirits as we explored Queen Elizabeth’s yacht, Royal Brittannia. We were treated to lunch at St. Mary’s Metropolitan Catholic Cathedral, where concert organist Simon Nieminski is music director. Afterward, we played the large 2007 Copley organ in the church.
Next we visited historic St. Cuthbert Church, which has a large organ by Robert Hope-Jones, dating from 1899. The 93-register organ was extensively reconstructed in 1997–98 by J.W. Walker & Sons Ltd. of Brandon, Suffolk. We found an unexpected treat in the Freemasons’ Hall of Edinburgh, where there is a 1913 vintage Bridley & Foster pipe organ that has been preserved in original condition by Forth Pipe Organs of Edinburgh. The day concluded with a memorable organ recital at St. Giles, played by the cathedral’s director of music, Michael Harris.
An early arrival before the public at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow gave us time to see and play the historic Lewis organ from the 1901 International Exhibition. Later, we joined the public for the lunchtime concert played by our fellow tour members, Bob MacDonald and Dene Barnard.
Notable experiences in northern England included visiting Keswick in the beautiful Lake District, where we stayed at the Country House Hotel and cruised on Lake Windermere—England’s largest lake. We were warmly welcomed at St. Bees Priory, which has a historic 1899 organ built by “Father” Willis that is essentially untouched. It was the last major instrument he personally supervised. The original programmable pistons (the first in England) are still in place.
On Sunday we enjoyed the sung Eucharist accompanied by the historic Willis organ at Durham Cathedral. After playing the organ at Ripon Cathedral, we traveled to York Minster for Evensong in the large Gothic cathedral.
The highlight of the next day was touring Castle Howard, the location for Brideshead Revisited, where we played the organ in the castle’s beautiful chapel.
Our host in Liverpool was concert artist Ian Tracey, who helped us discover the impressive Willis organs of Liverpool. “Father” Henry Willis founded his pipe organ firm in 1845 in Liverpool. He contributed much to the science and art of organbuilding, and he was regarded as the leading English organbuilder of the Victorian era. Willis organs were placed in town halls and churches throughout the UK. Many remain today, including the 121-rank 1855 “Father” Willis organ in St. George’s Hall, Liverpool. Ian Tracey, Liverpool’s city organist, has great enthusiasm and concern for the maintenance of this historic organ.
A second great Willis organ is located in the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, where Ian Tracey is cathedral organist. It was the largest musical instrument ever conceived when dedicated in 1926. Today it is the largest organ in the UK, even larger than Royal Albert Hall, with recent additions. It is playable from two matching five-manual consoles.
We toured the Willis organ factory, where we were impressed with the quality of their current instruments and the historic Rolls-Royce that David Wyld, the new owner of the company, had driven to work that day. Our Liverpool adventures were capped by an evening visit to the dramatic Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, where a 1967 Walker organ is installed.
The last few days flew by with visits to play many organs, including those at Coventry Cathedral; Rugby School, where the game of rugby originated; Worcester Cathedral, with its wonderful 2008 organ by Kenneth Tickell; and the military academy, Sandhurst.
On our way to London, we realized we had visited a total of 28 instruments in England and Scotland!
A special memory of our London visit was the sung Eucharist at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where we had reserved seats under the dome for Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with orchestra, organ, and soloists. The service concluded with the Fantasia in F Minor on the organ. Sunday afternoon Evensong at Westminster Abbey was followed by an organ recital by Christian Lane, assistant university organist at Harvard.
We flew home from London well rested, with great memories and new friends, and thankful for exposure to such wonderful and diverse organs.
If you are interested in seeing the highlights of our UK organ tour, visit gallery.me.com/janbela#100052 for a 24-minute slideshow. (Note: Grid allows manual control of timing; slideshow is automatic. Locations are identified above or below the pictures.)
The twenty-third annual England Choral, Castle, and Organ Tour will be July 12–25, with four days in London, three at the Southern Cathedrals Festival at Winchester Cathedral, and many other organs and castles along the south shore of England. For more information, go to www.organtours.com, or contact Leslie Peart at [email protected], phone 217/546-2562.