October organ preview
AFTER months of lockdown restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organ in Rochdale Town Hall will sound again today, Saturday, October 10, at noon.
Gifted to the town by Sir Samuel Turner in 1913, the organ was commissioned from James Jepson Binns of Leeds, one of the finest organ builders of his day.
Rebuilt in 1973 by Walkers, it is renowned throughout the organ world.
ORTOA (Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside Organists’ Association) has organised several recitals per year for many years, bringing international virtuosos, all of whom saluted the instrument and looked forward to putting it through its paces.
Paul Carr has kindly agreed to perform the concert he should have done in August.
A freelance musician based in Birmingham from where he graduated and has since been honoured by the conservatoire there, he has performed all over the UK and also in Germany, France and the USA.
His experience and knowledge has led him to choose music to match the particular qualities of James Jepson Binns’s mighty instrument.
His programme will consist of music by English composers Parry and John Ireland, arrangements of J.S. Bach and Beethoven’s Symphony no 7, French masters Dupré, Fauré, Vierne, Saint-Saëns, who are ideally suited to the Rochdale instrument, plus transcriptions of orchestral pieces such as Widor Marche Américaine [arr. Dupré], Mussorgsky’s Gopak and culminating in Dvorák’s Slavonic Dance in C major ‘Furiant’.
The town hall will close in 2021 for three years during the massive restoration project, which, hopefully, will include the organ.
So, meanwhile ORTOA’s recital programme will continue at St Chad’s, Rochdale Parish Church next year, extending to include other notable instruments in the area thereafter.
The concert will be free to enter but you have to pay to get out.
This is Music Hall speak for ‘a retiring collection will be taken’.
Covid-secure rules will be in operation on the day.
ORTOA’s Honorary President is Jonathan Scott, the internationally acclaimed organist in residence at the Bridgewater Hall.
He hopes to play his annual Christmas Concert, on December 16, 2020, which will be the last chance to hear the instrument until after the renovation project has been completed.