Symphony Hall Sorcery
Thomas Trotter (organ)
rec. 2021, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK
Regent REGCD566 [75]
Everyone knows and loves Paul Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Made famous in 1940 by Walt Disney’s Fantasia with Mickey Mouse, the stays in the repertoire. The story goes back to the Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata’s Lover of Lies, which scorned the magicians and alchemists of his day. Goethe took up the tale in 1796 as a comic ballad. A hundred years later, Dukas created his one hit wonder for full orchestra; the progress of this tone poem needs no explanation. The present soloist made this organ transcription for the Symphony Hall’s 21st birthday celebrations. The instrument’s registrations perfectly match the brilliant orchestration of the original. (I wish that the listeners investigate Dukas’s small catalogue, especially the Symphony in C, the ballet Le Peri and the Piano Sonata in E flat minor. I think people would find them rewarding.)
There follows a movement from Charles-Marie Widor’s Symphonie No.5, but not the ubiquitous Toccata. Trotter plays the opening Allegro vivace, an excursion through a set of variations that reveal the tonal colours of the organ. It opens with a “balletic” main theme and progresses through a “goblin-like” dance before turning more serious. The movement ends in a blaze of “power and energy.” Trotter’s performance is superb. He correctly observes that this movement is “much more satisfying, entertaining and original” than the Toccata. (Every quotation in this review comes from the liner notes, with my profound thanks.)
A contemporary review of John Gardner’s Five Dances for organ emarks that they “showcase the composer’s love of jazz and contrapuntal ingenuity”. This is as it should be: Gardner’s two musical loves were jazz and the baroque. The five numbers include a lively Lavolta (Italian dance with high springs and bounds), a noble Pavin, a nonchalant Irish Jig, a profound Lament and an increasingly extrovert “Highland” Fling. Once again, Trotter’s imaginative registrations make for a delightful set of dances. They can be performed as a set or individually.
Camille Saint-Saens’s Fantasie served to inaugurate the rebuilt organ at his Paris church Saint-Merry. There are two sections. Witchery and style are characteristics of the first part of this diptych. The second “demonstrates the power and majesty of the full organ.” It is rightly popular.
Derek Bourgeois’s short Serenade is new to me. This is best known in the brass-band world, but it started life as a piece for the organ – a “cheerful recessional for his own wedding in 1965”. This catchy, rhythmical miniature suggests the bride and groom must have skipped down the aisle. It is just as welcome as Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.
The clock turns back nearly four hundred years with Dances from Danserye by Antwerp-based composer and publisher Tielman Susato. Trotter says that much of Susato’s work was designed for singing: madrigals, chansons, psalms, masses and motets. Amongst some fifty books of music was a volume of sixty-six popular tunes: dances and “rustic peasant songs”. Trotter has arranged five of them for the present charming Suite.
Hungarian composer, theorist, and organist Zsolt Gárdonyi’s Mozart Changes is based on “two dance like motifs” from the finale of Mozart’s last Piano Sonata in D minor, K572. After the first few bars, which are purely classical, it moves into “the groove”. Blue notes, jazzy episodes and swing take Mozart Changes into the 20th century. The registration at times nods to a cinema organ. It would make a great, if quiet, encore.
Rachel Laurin’ssophisticatedSweelinck Variations celebrate Thomas Trotter’s 800th recital as Birmingham City Organist. The piece was premiered shortly before lockdown in February 2020. Laurin’s theme comes from Ballo del Granduca for harpsichord or organ by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621). The piece may have been by his pupil Samuel Scheidt. In any case, the actual melody was composed in Italy in 1589 by a certain Emilio di Cavalieri. No matter. The Variations explore a vast range of musical “texture mood and colour”. It has moments “that are light, humorous, meditative, expressive, impressionistic, exuberant, and dramatic”. The work concludes with a massive fugue.
David Gammie’s liner notes give all the information one needs to enjoy this disc, including the all-important organ specification. This four-manual instrument was built by Johannes Klais Orgelbau based in Bonn, and commissioned on 19 October 2001. It is the largest mechanical action organ in the United Kingdom. The booklet also features several stunning photographs of the instrument and one of the soloist.
Thomas Trotter has devised a splendidly diverse programme. I have noted above the impressive and creative registrations that he has chosen for these pieces. Equally extraordinary is his technique and his irrepressible enthusiasm apparent in every bar that he plays.
John France
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Contents
Paul Dukas (1865–1935)
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1897), arr. 2012 by Thomas Trotter (b. 1957)
Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937)
Symphonie No. 5, Op. 42, No. 1: I. Allegro Vivace (1879)
John Gardner (1917–2011)
Five Dances for organ, Op. 179 (1988)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Fantaisie in E flat major (1857)
Derek Bourgeois (1941–2017)
Serenade, Op. 22 (1965)
Tielman Susato (c.1510–c.1570), arr. Thomas Trotter
Dances from Danserye (1551)
Zsolt Gárdonyi (b. 1946)
Mozart Changes (1995)
Rachel Laurin (b. 1961)
Sweelinck Variations, Op. 96 (2020)
