David Price (organ), Portsmouth Cathedral, Sept 25th.
Portsmouth Cathedral's own David Price, organist and Master of the Choristers, had a home fixture as he played this week's lunchtime set on his own patch.
Couperin's Messe pour les Couvents was a lively and lovely opener but de Bruhns Praeludium and Fugue was more of a challenge to the listener.
Three C18th Voluntaries began with an almost funereal passage by Boyce, not quite what his symphonies lead us to expect from him, but the organ made fine, delicate sounds in Greene and Stanley in pieces very enjoyable in their intricacy and development.
But the highlight was possibly the Franck Praeludium, sounding more modern than his dates suggest but then again, his dates are earlier than I thought. In two parts, the low, continuous note is embellished with attractive motifs over the top, providing a great accompaniment to the way sunlight put extraordinary colours onto the wals at an angle from the stained-glass windows.
I could probably survive without Walton's Suite for Richard III but the Festival Toccata by Fletcher (1879-1932) is a rousing finale, one that I might have heard there previously, doing all that Reginald Dixon might have done and more and demonstrating the range and power of Portsmouth's set of pipes.
David Green
- David Green (Books) is the imprint under which I publish booklets of my own poems, or did. The 'Collected Poems' are now available as a pdf. The website is now what it has become. It keeps me out of more trouble than it gets me into. I hope you find at least some of it worthwhile.
