In one of the most thrilling organ recitals it has been my privilege to hear, Malcolm Archer of Winchester College took this recently restored instrument to new elevations.
Howells’ Rhapsody No 3 was composed overnight during a Zeppelin raid in the Great War and Archer’s performance surely evoked the terror of falling incendiaries. From high in the organ loft he rained down streams of notes of vastly greater musicality than the actual event and I suspect there was no shortage of invective directed upwards, the final bars eliciting unquenchable defiance.
Sitting at the console once occupied by Percy Whitlock must give a real sense of occasion and from his Plymouth Suite Archer played the delightful Chanty and Salix.
The beauty of Vaughan Williams’ Rhosymedre followed the first movement from Elgar’s wonderful Sonata in G in which Archer’s performance played to this work’s orchestral conception.
With so many great items, picking a piece-de-resistance is nigh impossible, perhaps Frank’s Chorale No 3 which seemed to reach down like a thousand voices of praise, or maybe the Andante and Finale of Vierne’s Symphony No 1, a magnificent crest-of-a-wave ride that concluded Archer’s programme. No surprise then that he was formerly director of music at St Paul’s Cathedral!
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