David Price at Lunchtime Live!

 David Price, Portsmouth Cathedral, Sept 18 

Relatively ancient and relatively modern music made up David Price's organ recital today. Three Psalm Preludes by Herbert Howells were punctuated with chorales by Buxtehude and Bach. The first two Howells pieces went from distant or crepuscular restraint to more assertive statements of intent before Prelude Set no.2, no. 3 reversed the process and rent apart the prevailing calm with a stentorian blaze that came as a bit of a shock before a strange coda in which I'm sure was to be heard 'the clack of wood under his dancing feet'.

Not everyone is expected to recognize that line from a poem about Buxtehude but it was he that provided the highlight with Komm, Heiliger Geist, BuxWV 199, with the charming chiming of bells from the cymbalstern stop and, in not the most competitive of fields, I have a new favourite organ piece.

Bach's Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 731, was sober and reflective before that Howells finale but in some contrary way today what the organ sounds like was almost the support act for those booked onto Dr. Price's comprehensive tour of this remarkable item of engineering.

The history of the instrument is convoluted, its mechanicals are involved and its maestro's knowledge of it is fathoms deep. It is more than its numbers, its 6000 pipes from half an inch to 32 feet long and its insurance value. It is surely more complicated to drive than an aeroplane, given that computers drive aeroplanes now, with its console a bewildering array of stops, buttons and effects. A very impressive piece of kit currently in the care of one who fully appreciates it. It was a most rewarding afternoon and thanks to Portsmouth Cathedral for their dedication in putting on these recent Heritage Tours. I was glad to hear how much the Lunchtime Live! series raises in support of the cathedral's musical projects. It's an idyll in a world in which such things can be hard to find if you don't know where to look.