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Pori's organ concentrates on the French-romantic repertoire. But there is a fine organ in the church of Siikainen built by the Kangasala Organbuilders in baroque style and, in order to bring some variation to the festival, a concert was arranged there.
Clive Driskill-Smith's concert on Saturday started with Bach's work Piece d'orgue BWV 572. And how refreshing Bach's music felt! Driskill-Smith's musical authority was obvious from the first moment. He created breathless excitement right from the start of the first piece. Jan Peeterszoon Sweelinck is a composer in the border zone between renaissance and baroque. At the beginning of his work Est-ce Mars a very concentrated atmosphere reigned in the church room. The public was able to sense in an intimate way the refined nuances of articulation and enjoy the variation of flute and reed stops. Driskill-Smith chose even English baroque music for his program. Johann Christoph Pepusch's work Voluntary in C made an impression with its simple means. In the fast figures of the fugue one could once again observe Driskill-Smith's profound musicality. With some other performer's these figures could seem ordinary. Michelangelo Rossi's Toccata settima is a real musical jewel. The chromatic figures at the end where interpreted masterly by the organist. Mendelssohn's Sonata in D op. 65 nr. 5 was the most recent music of this concert. At the organ of Siikainen and by following baroque composers, Mendelssohn seemed quite conservative. Handel's Organ concerto in F was realized brilliantly even without orchestra. When a master is at work, everything seems possible. Mozart's Fantasia K608 finished the concert. Driskill-Smith proved that this piece, which Mozart composed in the year of his death, can be compared to his masterpieces from the same year. The Pori Organ Festival is doing well; as my favourites of the foreign organists rose the profound artist Kurt Lueders and the superior baroque musician Driskill-Smith.
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