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Organ Openings can be very tedious affairs. Too often an established organist is invited to do the honours and plays it safe; it can be a nerve-wracking experience for the organ builder and the audience is frequently under-whelmed by the occasion. The Opening of the organ at Scotch College on 30 March was a different matter altogether.
The Scotch College authorities, the consultant John Maidment, and the two organ builders involved in the rescue and reinstatement of this fine British 1930s instrument can only be glowing with pride and justifiably so! The college Memorial Hall is a neo-gothic, semi-ecclesiastical building which positively reeks of tradition, but which possesses an organ acoustic to kill for.
By all reports, in its original home the organ was pushed to the limits of power to cope with a very dead acoustic. And in its new home this power is very evident when the hall is empty: it is almost too lively for comfort. However, one of the most interesting features of the opening night, when the hall was packed, was how perfectly 'full organ' sounded. The high pressure Phonon and Trombas sat well in that environment.
It was an inspired stroke to invite a brilliant young organist who is still establishing his international career to unveil this remarkable instrument. And it was entirely to his credit that he chose a program which on paper looked like 'bits' but which was triumphantly suited to the occasion. It demonstrated almost every facet of the organ's capabilities. It was stunningly executed, and captivated the audience completely. Clive Driskill-Smith not only plays well: he has the ability to speak to the audience clearly, interestingly, and wittily, without either gush or condescension. He won his audience from the start.
The program itself was symmetrical and dramatic. Each half began in moderately grand style, the first with the Allegro maestoso from Elgar's Sonata in G, the second with the Con moto maestoso from Mendelssohn's Sonata No 3 in A. The Elgar is grand and reflective, and the playing was sensitive to the nuances of the score. So from the start of the concert, both the big sound and the soft reeds, strings and flutes were evident. The Mendelssohn is pretty much go-go throughout and builds to an exciting climax with the return of the grand opening.
The second item in each half took us from the grand to the almost pop! Karg-Elert's rarely played Valse mignonne revels in sounds from the cinema organ and it was played with exquisitely judged schmalz, languor and 'glide'. In the second half, Seth Bingham's Roulade oozed charm and brilliance. Bach's Jig Fugue (if it is his - which Driskill-Smith made us doubt!) was counterbalanced with Howells's Master Tallis' Testament in a most intensely moving performance. The whispered ending was truly breath-taking and was met with a moment's silence by the audience.
Two French works followed in each half: Durufle's Prelude et Fugue sur le nom d'Alain and Marcel Dupre's Variations sur un Noel. Here the performer's virtuosity matched that of each score. Where Durufle's score is a moving tribute to a dead comrade, Dupre's ingenuity brings about colourful and crowd-pleasing excitement. It would be hard to state the pick of the evening among such riches, but I think these two brilliant but contrasting items clearly demonstrated what the organ and this kind of organ-playing is about. But in the whole program what was most impressive was not the virtuosity - and there was plenty of that - but the way it was always under the control of a fine musical sensibility.
Each half of the program ended with a concerted item in which the school orchestra under John Ferguson joined the soloist. The first was Handel's Op 4 No 5 and here the player demonstrated something of Handel's own brilliance in decoration and keyboard dexterity. In this performance it matched what a poet once said of his craft - that it 'should surprise by a fine excess, and not by singularity'. The orchestra's support, although rather heavy-handed made for a satisfying performance and we reached interval in a calm but elated state!
The evening concluded with all the big brass - the final pages of the Saint-Saens 'Organ' Symphony No 3. This rather stretched the ensemble of the orchestra but not so the organ and organist. They obviously all enjoyed the great big sound at last! Whatever happened to an encore, perhaps we will never know!
So congratulations to Clive Driskill-Smith - the evening was really yours! Please return soon. Congratulations too to the South Island Organ Company and Peter D. G. Jewkes for a masterly reconstitution of a fine organ by Hill, Norman & Beard (1930). And to Scotch College for the vision and resources which made it all possible. The Principal told us that the organ's main role will be in leading school assemblies and such ceremonies. But we earnestly hope that a new crop of young players will emerge from the school and also that the organ may be heard and played by others than the Scotch community.
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