 |
In September 1966 London's Royal Albert Hall staged an organ extravaganza in which two up-and-coming young stars of the British organ scene stole the show: Gillian Weir and Simon Preston. Forty years on, and looking back on careers which have seen both rise to the top of the international concert organist tree, they have separately returned to the Albert Hall to put the newly restored organ through its paces. Weir got in first (reviewed in June 2005), and now Preston has followed with his own immensely entertaining disc.
Neither player revisited the repertoire of their 1966 triumphs (immortalized on an Abbey LP recorded live at the event - APR606), but in Weir's case that's understandable; fun at the time, John McCabe's Miniconcerto for 485 penny-whistles, organ and percussion (with 12-year-old Marc Rochester making his recording debut as a penny-whistler) was never destined for posterity. Preston, however, could well have attempted a repeat of his stunning Bossi Étude Symphonique; but, there again, he probably could never re-create the sheer electrifying virtuosity which, in 1966, roused the entire RAH audience to its collective feet.
His programme is electrifying none the less and even introduces music which would surely have been frowned on by the fuddy-duddies who then held sway with the British organ community. Would he, for example, had dared then to confess his penchant for theatre organs with such outrageous offerings as Howard Cable's unsubtle medley of Gershwin melodies or William Bolcom's Free Fantasia (admittedly written 18 years after the original RAH event)? He might have avoided the ire of the censors with Karg-Elert's syrupy Valse Mignonne, but not played like this, with every nuance of the theatre organist's art laid on thick.
There's seriousness, too, in Schumann and Mendelssohn, W. T. Best's long-forgotten transcription of the latter's St Paul Overture given such a compelling performance here that I suspect it will soon start reappearing in organ recitals. Most of all there is Preston's trademark virtuosity, dazzlingly displayed in a riveting account on Jongen's Sonata ëroica. True, he does get a little carried away, and some of the detail in the fugue doesn't bear close scrutiny, but as a communicative, musical and absorbing performance, this is unbeatable.
Perhaps the recording is a little less vivid that priory's for Weir, and certainly the booklet should have justified the disc's title by providing more that a mere stop-list. Careful editing might also have prevented the 20-year discrepancy between the date of the organ's original opening as given (correctly) on page 3 and (incorrectly) on page 4. But for Preston's playing alone this disc is an absolute must have.
Marc Rochester (Published by International Record Review, September 2006)
Rating:  [4 of 5 Stars!] |
|
|
