A splendid way to spend a Saturday evening in Walkden!

By Keith Harrington

Last Saturday's Ian Tracey recital at Walkden, conveniently scheduled early enough that we could all watch the England-Panama match afterwards, was a splendid affair. For those of you who have yet to meet him (where have you been?) in addition to playing very approachable music, Ian is a great raconteur and tells some wonderful stories about organs, organists and composers through the years. This recital's content was very much aimed at the general public with plenty of music that is both tuneful and approachable and showed the organ off at its best.

Ian started with the Antonio Soler Minuee from Concerto VI for two organs. It’s a super piece he often plays and gives the organist the chance to give both Great and Swell reeds an outing. It varies in volume from mf to ff and gives the impression that there is much more to come.

Bach’s Fantasia In G major has three movements which are all well known, my favourite being the Gravement which, with some practice, is very playable by itself with a nice pedal solo.

Following the Pescetti Sonata in C and Schumann’s four sketches for Pedal Piano came the Capriol Suite by Peter Warlock. This is a really nice piece of music we carry in stock (£5.50 from here). Peter Warlock was also known as Philip Heseltine (1894 - 1930). Ian told us all quite a sad story of his life and eventual suicide. Apparently he was the father of the art critic the late Brian Sewell (1931 - 2015).

Elmore's delightful Pavane from his Rhythmic Suite was followed by the hilarious Serenade by Bourgeois (£7.95 from here) which he wrote in 11/8 and 13/8 time for his wedding procession. Finally, specially for Ben was the Dubois Toccata in G (£7.00 from here). His special request encore was Widor's Toccata.

For me it was simply wonderful to simply sit back and listen to the organ which Ian and I had voiced some weeks ago with very familiar music being played. I could listen to individual stops and combinations. The organ really does sit together well and I am delighted that this installation is so close to Shaw.

I certainly concur that the church is very lucky to have Ben, an ex-pupil of Ian’s, as organist, but the converse is true, Ben is very lucky to have such a supporting and friendly congregation.

Just a short drive home to sit down and worry for ages that England will win!

Thanks to Church Treasurer Jackie Meredith for the photo from left to right (Prof Ian Tracey, Ben Anguige & Dr Keith Harrington). According to the St Pauls Church Facebook account “What a wonderful evening we’ve had celebrating the new Makin Windermere organ at St Paul’s. It was a joy to hear Professor Ian Tracey play assisted by St Paul’s resident organist, Ben Anguige and Dr Keith Harrington from Makin Organs. A genuine Dream Team.