CH Organ recital (at the re-inauguration)

[brian walling]

I trust that the chapel organ inauguration yesterday, 30 Sep, with Adrian Bawtree (Old Blue) playing, went well. Does anybody have a copy of the programme that could be posted? It would be nice to know what music was played.

The last event of this type, I believe, was in 1981 following the major 50-year overhaul of the 1931 organ. The rededication concert then was given by Professor Ivor Keys (celebrated Old Blue music figure) and a recording of the entire event was published on an LP – whose contents can still be found on the Web and downloaded. The 1981 recital included a quite dramatic rendering of R. Wagner’s Overture to Die Meistersinger, transcribed for organ. I hope that a recording of yesterday’s recital also will be made available for sale in due course.

The CH chapel organ was built by Rushworth & Dreaper of Liverpool. Organ buffs who may be reading this post might be interested to view a short video clip showing another smaller R & D church organ, a venerable small 1918 (or earlier) instrument playing while being ‘pumped’ by hand. This is how it used to be before electricity and electric blowers came in the 1920s or so. This organ is in the very old church of St Mary Magdelene in East Ham, London, the oldest building in East Ham and which claims to be the oldest parish church still in regular use in Greater London. This is my own recent family homeland; I believe in fact that my father used to pump the organ here for pocket money. The St Mary Magdelene organ, which pre-dates any municipal electricity supply, was subsequently given an electric blower when electricity arrived. In 2020 the organ was fully rebuilt, after 100 years of service, and for authenticity the original manual pumping mechanism and bellows were also restored. A year or so later the church suffered a fuse box failure and was left without electric power – and without its organ. The congregation rose to the occasion and immediately resorted to the hand pump, which worked brilliantly. A brief video clip was fortunately made during this incident. Go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6ivsdtbJeY

The organ is played by Dr Chris Maxim, Director of Music at the church.

[MrEd]

I remember the 'interlude' in c. 1980-1981 (or thereabouts) when an apparently untuned upright piano was used in the Chapel during services with Malcolm McKelvey or someone else pounding away gamely to try to fill the void left by the organ refurb, Adrian Bawtree would have been there, probably a Third Former at the time. Also around this time, the late, great Chris Tambling, RIP, was honing his immense talent at the time on the CH organs, I remember counting 5 including Big School and the Music Rooms having organs. He said that he used to go to Dixons in Horsham on a Saturday and bash out pieces on the then-popular electronic organs that were on sale. He became an ARCO at 17 and spent his gap year as an organist at Canterbury Cathedral.