GMCD 7165 You can order this CD in our E-Shop under Instrumental/Music for Organ Reviews *** Sound Clips***	Around the World in 80 Minutes Nigel Potts Concert Organist

Contents:

DDD Total time = 64.23 / Recorded on the 1912 Walker Organ in The Church of the Sacred Heart, Wimbledon, London

This recording presents a programme of music representing ten different countries from around the world. We take the long-haul flight from England to Hong Kong, and via an extremely circuitous route which no travel agent would fathom we visit Finland, France, Germany, the USA, Canada, Russia, New Zealand and finally, Ireland. It is all accomplished in under eighty enjoyable minutes by the young New Zealand organist Nigel Potts playing the outstanding and little-known Walker organ in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Wimbledon - a vast and imposing Catholic church in the south-west London suburb famous the world over for its summer tennis tournament.
Sir William Walton (1902-1983) Spitfire Prelude
Walton was a maverick who relished his individuality, spurned his country by choosing to live on the idyllic island of Ischia, and yet was Elgar's natural successor as the voice of the British establishment in music. His bubbling exuberance and natural sense of humour were never far below the surface in whatever he wrote, and his outstanding ear for colour was demonstrated again and again in orchestral works for the concert hall, and in a huge output of film music for which his style was perfectly suited.
His Spitfire Prelude and Fugue was written for the 1942 film The First of the Few which told the remarkable story of the 2nd world war fighter aircraft and its designer R.J.Mitchell. The Prelude, with which this programme begins, is heard under the opening titles of the film and is a typical Walton March which stirs the blood and which fed the nationalist fervour of the day. It was arranged for organ, for which it is particularly well suited, by Dennis Morrell.
Paul Spicer (b1952) March for the Retreat of the Governor of Hong Kong - July 1st 1997
This March was written shortly after the composer had been to Hong Kong to produce a recording with the organist Christopher Herrick. As it occurred very shortly before the British hand over of the colony he thought it would be a highly suitable occasion to commemorate in the title.
The groundplan is different from Walton's March in that, although there is a definite ABA shape where the original material returns for the final section, the middle part of the work is developmental rather than featuring a separate 'big tune'. The work has ambivalent feelings during its course - the central part is quite dark in character - but the mood of the opening soon returns and the coda dances its way to a triumphant conclusion. This work is dedicated to Nigel Potts.
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) Finlandia op.26
Finlandia was written in 1899 at a time when Finland was feeling the grip of Russian pressure on its internal systems and public freedoms. Such interference by a distant power always stirs up nationalism, and Sibelius used the medium of a pageant supporting press pension celebrations to write a work which became synonymous with the country's sense of national pride.
The work is remarkable because of its sense of writhing unease as expressed in the opening tremolandi which seems to mirror the people's feelings of the time. That Sibelius then goes on to turn those pounding heartbeats into music which stirs the heart is a tribute to his imagination and skill even at this early stage of his career. The great melody which became a national icon was Sibelius+s own and helped to quickly establish him as Finland's pre-eminent composer. This arrangement is made for the organ by Herbert Austin Fricker.
Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) Scherzo op.2
Duruflé is remarkable amongst French organist-composers even by the standards of that extraordinary genre. Surely one of the most self-critical of composers, Duruflé modelled himself on his teacher Paul Dukas who left only a handful of works, choosing to destroy many which did not come up to his high expectations. Duruflé left even fewer than his fastidious teacher - just 12 opus numbers almost all for the organ but including the Requiem which has become a mainstay of the choral repertoire and an ideal and beautiful alternative to Fauré's masterpiece.
The Scherzo op.2 was written in homage to his organ teacher Charles Tournemire (organist at Ste Clothilde, Paris) and displays all Duruflé's brilliance of touch - exquisite harmony, a wonderful sense of colour, mystical distance, light fingered virtuosity and an overall feeling of a music which grows organically from the stones of a great building.
Max Reger (1873-1916) Siegesfeier op145 no.7
Reger was by far the most prolific composer of organ music of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries. He wrote prodigiously difficult music which needs extremely careful handling to make sense for the listener of the many strands of counterpoint and the often thickly scored chords which, coupled with a highly reverberent acoustic as the conditions in which this music would be most often heard, can cause severe aural difficulties for the listener.
Siegesfeier is something of an enigma. It was apparently written in anticipation of a German victory in the 1914-18 war. Reger died half way through hostilities and never knew the outcome. His publishers, Breitkopf and Härtel, were left with an embarrassing work on their hands which they refused to publish with the other op.145 pieces - and indeed the other scores in the series still only feature six rather than seven in the full list of op.145 works. With the benefit of the passing of time it was eventually added to its rightful place as the final triumphant conclusion to the set.
Reger punctuates short statements of each line of the hymn tune Nun danket alle Gott (Now thank we all our God) with virtuoso passages before bringing the work together at the end in an elaborate and richly harmonised version of the German national anthem (Haydn's Austria) which includes a canon at two phrases distance!
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) The Liberty Bell
Sousa was an American composer and bandmaster who came up through playing in theatre orchestras. After being appointed Director of the US Marine Band in 1880 he went on to form his own band in 1892 through which he began to make a national reputation.
Sousa wrote some 130 marches which show his originality, inventiveness and ability to surprise. They have become an essential element of the repertoire of bands throughout the world and have occasionally been transcribed (very successfully) for organ as here.
Healey Willan (1880-1968) Epithalame (Sortie)
Healey Willan was born in London but emigrated to Canada in 1913 to live in Toronto where he held a variety of academic, theatre and church posts all of which attested to his wide ranging ability and musical sympathies. He had enormous influence in Canada and was twice President of the Royal Canadian College of Organists and was also invited to compose an anthem for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation (O Lord our Governor).
Epithalame was written for the wedding of Sir William and Lady McKie in Westminster Abbey, April 5th 1956. It is very much in the Elagarian mode of Pomp and Circumstance marches with a lively opening theme, a central section with a big tune, a return to the opening idea, and two final grandioso statements of the central tune to end. It is perfectly matched for its occasion and its setting in the great church of state of England.
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Vocalise op.34 no.14 arr. Nigel Potts
Rachmaninov seemed to have an endless supply of melody. All his compositions attest to his natural feel for the ebb and flow of a phrase, and for his ability to create a memorable tune wonderfully harmonised, and beautifully orchestrated or accompanied on his own instrument, the piano.
The Vocalise was written as the last of a collection of songs setting miscellaneous poems and was wordless from the beginning. Rachmaninov orchestrated it at Koussevitsky's suggestion and Nigel Potts has arranged it for organ specially for this recording. Its haunting melody and lovely chordal accompaniment is especially suitable to the subtle colours of the organ as played here.
Paul Spicer (b1952) Kiwi Fireworks: Five Variations on 'God Defend New
Zealand' / Overture and Theme / Scherzo / Meditation / Dance / Introduction and Finale
When Nigel Potts was organ scholar at Lichfield Cathedral he introduced Paul Spicer to the New Zealand National Anthem. When, soon afterwards, Christopher Herrick stated his intention of making one of his successful Organ Fireworks series recordings for Hyperion at Wellington Town Hall in New Zealand this seemed a perfect opportunity to write a work for the series featuring this fine tune, and it was written between September and November 1994.
The work begins with a grandiose French Overture-style movement which introduces the first phrase of the tune on the Tuba before continuing it in a lavish harmonisation. The second movement Scherzo is for manuals alone and pays homage to the light organ music of Percy Whitlock. The theme is woven into the texture and occasionally appears in solo lines. The Meditation is unashamedly romantic in nature and acts as a reflective buffer between the light hearted movements which surround it. The Dance which follows begins in 11/8, moves to 5/8, 7/8 and almost anywhere except an even number of beats in the bar! It features the melody played strongly as a solo and later incorporated into the texture. The Introduction and Finale starts with a fanfare for the solo reeds before setting off on a vigorous toccata which features the melody in the pedals. It goes through various transformations and even a hint of 'All we like sheep' from Handel's Messiah (paying tribute to New Zealand's favourite woolly animal) before rounding the whole thing off with an extravagantly harmonized statement of the tune and a rousing ending.
Paul Spicer (b1952) Dreams of Derry
This short piece written in March 1998, which acts as an encore to this 'around the world' recital, was also written for one of Christopher Herrick's series of organ recordings - this time his Organ Dreams series for Hyperion, the antidote to the Fireworks series.
After a short introduction, the Londonderry Air, surely one of the loveliest and most haunting of melodies, is introduced and taken through richly-worked harmony to its climax, from where it subsides to a peaceful end with repeated material from the opening.

Page revised 27.06.03