Anna Lapwood (organ)
Firedove
The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Jess Gillam (saxophone), Elena Urioste (violin)
Works listed at end of review
rec. 2024, Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, Norway; Masterchord studios and St. John’s, Upper Norwood, London
Reviewed as a download
Sony 19802809272 [76] 

This is Anna Lapwood’s second full-length solo recital on Sony and she is still only in her twenties. It is a concept album like her first record Luna, released in September 2023. Whereas that disc had as its inspiration the huge magnitude of the Zambian night sky panorama, its expanse, its twinkling, shooting stars, this new album has a less focussed, more all-embracing theme. Lapwood explains in her notes that recording it felt like “spreading her musical wings” and hopes it will encourage us listeners to do likewise.

Anna Lapwood was an organ scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, the first woman to be awarded an  organ scholarship there in its 560-year history. She was appointed Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge aged only 21. She is a trailblazer for women getting into music and one of the best ambassadors for promoting classical music amongst the younger generation we have had in years. Her late-night practice sessions at the Royal Albert Hall, alone at the famous organ with its 9999 pipes went viral on the TikTok platform so beloved of our youth today. She has broadcast on BBC television and radio and is followed by many thousands on X (formerly known as Twitter). She has toured throughout the UK and around the world with programmes that show her eclectic tastes, and her organ recitals often sell out. She performed a late-night prom in 2023 and will do another one this year. I think this upcoming prom was initially promoted as an “all-nighter”, but I note that the Royal Albert Hall now states that the concert, which goes under the banner “From Dark to Dawn”, will start at 11pm and have two intervals, with no end time stated. Given that sunrise on 8 August will be around 5:35 am I would think we should have heard quite enough of “The voice of Jupiter” well before that time, even considering her artistry of Anna.

It is likely that she will program her recital at the proms in a similar manner to this new album. Like her recent tours, it mixes film music, new pieces, pop song transcriptions and classics of the organ loft with contributions from some of her musical friends and of course the girls from her beloved Pembroke College Chapel Choir. The record was made in the Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway, presumably just for the organ pieces with the choral contributions being recorded back in the UK. The sound is very well managed by expert hands and sonic balances change though the record, complementing the musical genres very intelligently.

The first two pieces are based on films: Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the 2010 Leonardo DiCaprio hit Inception. The arrangements are highly effective, especially the hypnotic chord shifts in the Hans Zimmer piece. Next, we hear a duo between the organist and saxophonist Jess Gillam in a piece called Flight by Rachel Portman. This is a tender, lovingly shaped song for saxophone, superbly realised here. Gillam’s playing is wonderfully supple and the sonics are fantastic. It is one of my favourite pieces on the album.

Olivia Belli’s piece which she wrote for Lapwood’s 2023 BBC prom translates as “Threshold of Light”. It is an accomplished piece which builds to an impressive climax and ends in calming, blissful peace. Anna Lapwood clearly feels it deeply and writes about the journey she feels it takes her on each time she plays it. Like most of the album, it is easy to listen to and appreciate. It precedes the title track Firedove which sits rightly at the centre of the recital. This is inspired music from the pen of Julie Cooper for choir, violin and organ. In just five minutes, Cooper has created an oasis of calming, soothing tonal beauty. Layers created by the ethereal voices of the choir and the shimmering violin sit above a soft foundation laid by gentle figurations in the organ – beautiful.

Come to me is an unaccompanied choral work. Anna Lapwood conducts her Pembroke College Choir which she leaves as Director this year to focus on her international organ career. It is followed by another piece for chorus that may be a little more familiar. Her arrangement of Bob Dylan’s Make you feel my love is lovely. It certainly sounds as if the choir loved singing this. From here on though, it’s just the organ. 

Robbie Williams’ Angels is clearly a track that will be cherished by some buyers of this record more than others. It is a special piece to many people, and I can well understand it being included in the line-up. It is followed quickly by Northern Lights, a serene, contemplative miniature by a Norwegian composer. That piece sits really nicely after the Robbie Williams number and before the next work by Poppy Ackroyd. Murmurations is the name for flying groups of starlings; the way they flock together, turning, shifting, swirling and rolling, is well evoked on the organ. The music has much in common with Vierne’s Naïades which follows. A moto perpetuo set up, reflecting the sparkling and twinkling of the water and the dancing nymphs. All trip lightly from the triplets exquisitely played here.

Hania Rani’s Glass is another of those hypnotic pieces that moves slowly in phases. It is surely a homage to Philip Glass, presumably written originally for piano and arranged here for organ.

The final work in the program is the great Duruflé favourite Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain of 1942. This work was written in memory of Jehan Alain (brother of Marie-Claire) who died fighting for France in June 1940. He was a friend of Duruflé and studied with him at the Conservatoire. He was set to be a great composer when he died. Duruflé’s use of triplets in the prelude ensures a constant movement but there are distinct episodes as he moves between the two themes and develops them. We arrive at a more static, reflective section at 5:46 based on the second theme and the section ends softly. The fugue, which is separately tracked, ratchets up the tension from 1:50 with a quickening of tempo and a whole new theme introduced. The last couple of minutes are a tour de force, a superb crescendo of joy and renewed confidence. In her notes Anna Lapwood tells us they used the first take of the fugue in the recording, unedited. It is a marvellous, fiery finish, appropriate given the disc’s title.

Anna Lapwood’s admirers will be delighted with this disc. It is every bit as successful as Luna and I enjoyed listening to it. I see that next season she will be working with the Hallé as their “featured artist” performing Jongen, Poulenc and Max Richter. I wonder if she will get to conduct them. Her musicianship seems to know no bounds and it seems a sure thing that if she did, sparks would fly – and of course, I mean that in a good way.

Philip Harrison

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Contents
Alan Menken (b.1949) The Bells of Notre Dame “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
Hans Zimmer (b.1957) Time “Inception”
Rachel Portman (b. 1960) Flight
Olivia Belli Limina Luminis
Julie Cooper (b. 1964) Firedove
Ivo Antognini (b.1963) Come to Me
Bob Dylan (b. 1941) Make You Feel My Love
Robbie Williams (b. 1974) and Guy Chambers (b.1963) Angels
Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978) Northern Lights
Poppy Ackroyd (b. 1982) Murmurations
Louis Vierne (1870-1937) Naïades
Hania Rani (b. 1990) Glass
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) Prelude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain Op. 7