the Royal Pageant Corridor organ is 70 and organist James McVinnie is celebrating with a Southbank Centre residency

James McVinnie performing on the Royal Pageant Corridor organ with Bed room Neighborhood – Sept 2015

The Royal Pageant Corridor organ is 70. Constructed from 1950–1954 to the specification of the London County Council’s marketing consultant, Ralph Downes, it was restored and re-configured by Harrison & Harrison as a part of the corridor’s reconstruction throughout 2005-2007 and it was re-inaugurated on its sixtieth anniversary in March 2014. Now, to have fun the instrument’s seventieth birthday, organist James McVinnie has a residency on the Southbank Centre that includes organ recitals together with a variety of repertoire in addition to an look by the James McVinnie Ensemble.

Although James had performed the organ as soon as earlier than the rebuild, he was not conversant in it till he got here to play it as a part of the 2014 celebrations. However he spent two years as an organ scholar at St Albans Cathedral the place the organ was additionally designed by Ralph Downes and constructed by Harrison & Harrison (in 1963). James’s interval at St Albans was extremely formative for him, as he carried out at Evensong each night, and he realized from the organ. This meant that when he got here to play the Royal Pageant Corridor’s organ, all the things appeared to be acquainted and with each devices the organist is correct up near the instrument.

Ralph Downes designed the organ to problem the established order of what an organ was within the Nineteen Fifties. Organ constructing in Britain on the time nonetheless adhered to the romantic supreme as evinced by the organs at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Royal Albert Corridor. However Downes was one thing of an outsider, when the musical institution was conservative; Downes was not within the custom of the organ as emulating an orchestra. While Downes’ strategy was very forward-looking, he used methods and philosophies from organ constructing from 200 years beforehand. On the time, the organ institution was very dismissive of those ‘primitive’ organ-building methods.

James McVinnie (Picture: Graham Lacadao)

Nevertheless, James emphasises that the organ does converse with its personal voice and the instrument was one thing of a shot in the dead of night for Harrison & Harrison who had been liable for constructing it. You will need to perceive the context behind the constructing of the instrument and certainly the corridor itself. Publish-war Britain was nonetheless affected by rationing and Londoners had been dwelling with the destruction wrought by the Blitz. The corridor and the organ had been an amazing forward-thinking enterprise, a brand new 3000-seater corridor to switch the Queen’s Corridor that had been destroyed by bombing in 1941. It was a philosophical assertion, that the humanities had been necessary and it is a assertion that’s nonetheless applicable right now with the funding crises that the humanities are dealing with. So the corridor and the organ are each an amazing enterprise and a perfect for us right now.

The result’s an organ that James sees as supreme for music from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, something that has counterpoint together with Bach and French classical. James’ recital on the afternoon of 23 March 2024 has a programme of the kind of music that Downes would have had in his ears, Sermisy, Praetorius, Sweelinck, Pachelbel, Böhm, Buxtehude and Bach [see Southbank Centre website].

However in his second recital on the night of 23 March, James is exploring the opposite finish of the repertoire with a efficiency of Infinity Gradient, the 2021 tour-de-force for organ and 100 audio system by American composer and sound artist Tristan Perich. James wished to present a pair of concert events to point out how adaptable the organ is, from Early Music to the current day. In a means, the 2 concert events present totally different sides to the organ, however they each use the identical stops and pipes, the recitals show the organ’s chameleon nature.

James McVinnie and Tristan Perich

James describes Perich’s piece as an hour-long symphony for organ and digital audio system, successfully it’s a duet for organ and audio system. Perich usually makes use of electronics in his music and he likes primitive digital sound. For the 23 March live performance, the audio system are one-bit (regular audio system are 16-bit), so have a primitive decision, akin to a Nineties pc! There are 100 audio system of three totally different sizes, 4 massive, 27 medium and the rest small. They’re custom-made by Perich and can be grouped on the corridor stage, making a robust visible assertion too. James premiered the work and has given eight or 9 performances of it since and is happy to be bringing it to London. He thinks that each corridor and organ can be supreme for the work, the audio system will look wonderful.

On 29 June, James is again on the Southbank Centre, on the Purcell Room this time, with the James McVinnie Ensemble in a programme entitled American Minimalism, with music by Gabriella Smith, Philip Glass, John Adams and inti figgis-vizueta. The ensemble options 4 keyboard gamers, James himself plus Eliza McCarthy, Siwan Rhys, and Hugh Rowlands. The ensemble has its origins in 2017 when Philip Glass was turning 80. James has all the time been an enormous fan of Glass’s music, significantly that from the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies. He’s a type of who noticed Einstein on the Seashore in London in 2021 and it modified his life. One other work that he discovered highly effective was Glass’ Music in Twelve Components, written between 1971 and 1974. One thing of a cult piece, the work had by no means been revealed and so had by no means been carried out by anybody apart from the Philip Glass Ensemble. James wrote to Philip Glass to ask if he might put collectively a efficiency for Glass’s eightieth birthday. The consequence was a efficiency by a bunch of musicians assembled by James on the Barbican on 1 Might 2017. It was a novel alternative and the genesis of his ensemble.

He didn’t do something additional with the ensemble till after the pandemic when he launched it extra significantly, performing music by Glass, Adams and percussionist Chris Thompson on the Barbican. They think about music that’s much less well-known within the UK. The ensemble options two organists and two pianists, all devotees of music by Glass, Adams and different comparable composers, and their programmes combine music for all 4 with two piano repertoire and solos. The June live performance will characteristic ensemble items as properly music for 2 gamers together with early Philip Glass items in addition to Adams’ China Gates and Hallelujah Junction. The live performance is on the ultimate weekend of the Southbank Centre’s 12 months when there’s a pageant throughout the entire Southbank, which James calls an exquisite place.

James grew up as a pianist, the place the default is performing by yourself and he thought that this was the norm, while different devices want different performers. He loves performing with others, each in his ensemble and in concertos with orchestras.

Premiere of Gabriella Smith’s Respiration Forest at Walt Disney Corridor with James McVinnie, Los Angeles Philharmonic & Esa-Pekka Salonen – Feb 2022

The June live performance contains music by American composer Gabriella Smith, and searching forward James can be performing Smith’s organ concerto Respiration Forests with the Cleveland Orchestra, conductor John Adams in Severance Corridor, Cleveland on 4 and 6 April 2024. The work was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for James and premiered in 2022 by them at Walt Disney Corridor, carried out by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and James has subsequently carried out the work in San Francisco. James explains that each one of Gabriella Smith’s music is worried, indirectly, with the local weather emergency. She is each a composer and environmentalist, concerned in rewilding initiatives together with a current one at a former Air Pressure base.

Her organ concerto for James sprang from a gathering that they had in Los Angeles at a efficiency of her music. The organ within the Walt Disney Corridor in Los Angeles has an all-wood façade, and Gabriella Smith got here to consider the organ as like a forest. For the concerto, the forest is a part of the regeneration of the local weather and the work’s three actions, Develop, Grieve, Burn, are in regards to the life-cycle of the forest and a lament for the lack of forests, significantly by fireplace. While fireplace is a pure a part of the lifetime of a forest, the ultimate motion of the work is an acknowledgement of the adjustments current many years have wrought, with the wildfires in California. James has carried out the work twice in California; as a Londoner, he’s very acutely aware of how totally different life is in California, with the risks of wildfires. He describes the concerto as vastly highly effective; for him, Gabriella Smith’s music will get to the center of the matter with out sounding trite or cliched. There’s an immediacy to her music and it really works on a lot of totally different ranges.

One other work by Gabriella Smith that James mentions is her Requiem, written for the vocal ensemble, Room Filled with Enamel and string quartet. Relatively than utilizing the standard liturgical textual content, Smith units the Latin names of species which have change into extinct within the final 100 years.

While James’ profession is now centered on live performance and recital work, he regards church music as an exquisite custom and it’s a large a part of who he’s. He retains his hand in as director of music at two Metropolis of London church buildings. Being within the Metropolis, this doesn’t require a Sunday dedication from him, thus enabling him to get his church music repair.

James was assistant organist of Westminster Abbey between 2008 and 2011; earlier than this, he held comparable positions at St Paul’s Cathedral, St Albans Cathedral, and Clare School, Cambridge (the place he studied). He made the transfer into extra common live performance work as a result of he felt that he had come to the tip of the shelf-life for the job he was doing, and outdoors of church music he was coming into contact with a world of up to date composers. These had been kindred spirits, and he didn’t know anybody within the organ world doing this kind of music. So, he did a side-step, specializing in live performance work however feeling that he might return if essential. And twelve years later he’s nonetheless right here, having constructed a little bit of a novel, {custom} profession that has a momentum of its personal.

He nonetheless misses Evensong, taking part in the psalms and canticles, the music of Stanford and Howells. For James, the repertoire of music for Evensong is extraordinary. However dwelling in London with that sense of rubbing shoulders with different cultural choices made him wish to concentrate on different areas, to discover and uncover different music. He has now had main concerto and solo works written for him by Nico Muhly, Gabriella Smith, Tristan Perich, Tom Jenkinson/Squarepusher, Martin Creed, David Chalmin, David Lang, Richard Reed Parry, Bryce Dessner, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Darkstar, and others.

Most of his commissions have been via composers who’re pals, and it’s uncommon for him to get entangled in a mission the place the composer doesn’t already know his work. However writing for the organ may be considerably daunting for non-organists; it really works finest if the composer isn’t too particular, they should have an instinctive really feel for the instrument. When Gabriella Smith was writing her concerto for him, he despatched her a lot of issues to take heed to they usually had a really satisfying back-and-forth whereas she was writing the piece. He describes it as an amazing collaboration. Some composers are fairly hands-off relating to organ specs, while Nico Muhly, who has a church music background, is aware of instinctively the right way to write for the instrument, leaving scope for the participant.

James McVinnie on the Royal Pageant Corridor in 2015

When Esa-Pekka Salonen was writing his Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra (2023) he talked about being daunted that the organ is an orchestra in itself. Most of the repertoire items for organ and orchestra, Poulenc’s concerto, Saint-Saens’ symphony, Alexandre Guilmant’s symphony and Jón Leifs‘ concerto (which James calls wonderful and troublesome) are usually a battle between organ and orchestra. Composers now are taking a extra built-in strategy, and Gabriella Smith’s writing in her concerto feels very natural, with the orchestral writing popping out of the organ. Nico Muhly’s piece for organ and orchestra, Register makes use of the orchestral wind in a really organ-like means, and the work is one thing of a philosophical dialogue. James just lately gave Register its European premiere with the Helsinki Philharmonic, conductor Pekka Kuusisto on the Helsinki Music Centre on 7 and eight February 2024 as a part of the inauguration of the corridor’s 124-stop Rieger Organ.

James grew up with the concept that there was a scarcity of concerto repertoire for organs. However extra just lately composers have been taking over the problem, as an example Kaija Saariaho wrote Maan varjot (Earth’s Shadows) for organ and orchestra in 2013 and issues are trying up.

Within the second half of his year-long residency on the Southbank Centre, James can be exploring extra Romantic repertoire in addition to specializing in Bach, in order that in the course of the year-long residency he will get to point out who he’s. However the two concert events in March present his predominant pursuits, Early Music and trendy music.

After I ask whether or not the Royal Pageant Corridor organ is appropriate for the Romantic repertoire, James solutions with a agency ‘Sure it’s’. He factors out that the organ’s specification is numerous and that with cautious registration you may make it sound French, significantly as the entire reed stops are constructed within the French method. However you can even play music by Liszt and Julius Reubke with integrity (James heard the organist Thomas Trotter in Reubke on the Royal Pageant Corridor, and he sounded terrific). However you can even play Bach with integrity on the instrument.

James factors out that the Royal Pageant Corridor isn’t probably the most beneficiant of acoustics, you get much less of a thrill from the room which suggests that there’s an unimaginable readability and immediacy to the sound of the organ. Gillian Weir stated that she loved Messiaen on the corridor’s organ due to this readability. Additionally, the organ offers the participant a really instant expertise while taking part in it, it does what you inform it!

James McVinnie on the Union Chapel with Nico Muly and Oneohtrix Level By no means – Feb 2015

Typically, the organist has the worst seat in the home relating to listening to the organ. On the Union Chapel, there’s an incredible Father Willis organ (relationship again to 1877), however the organist is much faraway from the sound within the room. On the Royal Pageant Corridor, you’re proper subsequent to the organ. The sound does change as you go additional again into the corridor, the stability is totally different, however on the console, you continue to get an amazing image. While on the Royal Albert Corridor, the organ there factors in so many instructions that you simply both must know the instrument or have somebody pay attention for you.

23 March – 28 June 2024 – The Royal Pageant Corridor at 70 live performance collection
see Southbank Centre web site.

29 June 2024 – American Minimalism, Purcell Room
see Southbank Centre web site.

By no means miss out on future posts by following us

The weblog is free, however I might be delighted in the event you had been to point out your appreciation by shopping for me a espresso.

Elsewhere on this weblog

• Virtually an expressionist nightmare: Janáček’s Jenůfa at ENO with Jennifer Davis within the title position – opera assessment
• Little wanting a revelation: Michael Spyres, Les Talens Lyriques & Christophe Rousset discover Wagner’s influences with Within the Shadows – file assessment
• Upheaval: cellist Janne Fredens & pianist Søren Rastogi in music by 4 girls composers from the years 1911 to 1918 – file assessment
• One thing astonishing: Olivia Fuchs’ new manufacturing of Britten’s Demise in Venice for Welsh Nationwide Opera concerned a collaboration with circus arts, NoFit State – opera assessment
• Lumen Christi: I chat to Grasp of Music, Simon Johnson about his first disc with the choir of Westminster Cathedral – interview
• Szymanowski’s hardly ever carried out Harnasie from the LPO, with a visible set up from Wayne McGregor & Ben Cullen Williams – live performance assessment
• Danza Gaya: Simon Callaghan & Hiroaki Takenouchi play with fantastic élan & relish, clearly having an excessive amount of enjoyable – file assessment
• Ian Venables’ intense settings of John Clare on the centre of the Dante Quartet’s Conway Corridor live performance alongside Gurney and Elgar – live performance assessment
• Six Concert events avec plusieurs devices: London Handel Gamers at Wigmore Corridor – live performance assessment
• Musical strengths, visible confusion & two Rakes: English Touring Opera’s new manufacturing of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress – opera assessment
• Shamus O’Brien: withdrawn by the composer for political causes, Stanford’s hottest opera languished within the twentieth century however all that appears set to alter – interview
• Dwelling