Mid C20th pipes

It was a challenging and thus interesting organ concert from Callum Tolhurst-Close but maybe a bit unexpected for some.  Certainly there were some delayed applauses that suggested the music was not too well known or understood.  Not a Bach on show but one Saint-Saens and several lesser known names form 1930s-1960s: Thalben-Ball, Langlais and CH Stewart.  The Thalab-Ball was an elegy that slowly grew from quiet to loud then decayed to an end.  Just suiting a decent pipe organ.  The Langlais was a Kyrie Orbis factor, loud from the start, then quiet then loud again.  The CH Stewart was a gathering of five songs on hymn tunes, mostly more sedate than the previous works.  Saint-Saens Fantasie no.3 finished the program.  It was written a little earlier and sounded milder and perhaps earlier still.  Hyperion records notes its "sparse, minimal textures and ... thinly accompanied hautbois solo".  This was perhaps the most relaxed work.  The early works played with dissonant harmonies and varied organ tonalities which seems perfectly of the time if maybe SS wasn't.  Whatever, not a fugue amongst them but plenty of interest in tones and colours.

Callum Tolhurst-Close (organ) performed at Wesley Church and Rachel Mink (soprano from Luminesence Chamber Singers) turned pages.