Interviews Archive 2007 - 2008

• Dong-Ill Shin
• Henry Fairs
• David Sanger
• Anne Page
• David Goode
• Emmanuel Hocdé

Meet . . .Dong-Ill Shin

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

Since I am playing in the UK, I shall start the programme with British music. The reason is that this voluntary by Purcell is personal to me as I played it during the competition in 2001 on this organ. It will be a nostalgic moment.

This year is Buxtehude's anniversary and the Collins organ demonstrates German repertoire well, including Buxtehude and Bach. That is why I included music by these two composers in the rest of the programme. I also would like to show the tie between these two. For example I play two versions of 'Nun komm' in a row and you will hear how much Bach was influenced by Buxtehude. The highly embellished ending is an especial proof. I also would like to show how the music evolved with time. Buxtehude's music consists of lots of different sections which is ‘Stylus Fantasticus’ whereas Bach's mature works show that he was pursuing 'Unity'. In the 'Wedge' Fugue the composer even foreshadowed the ‘Sonata Form' that was completed later by Haydn. 

What first attracted you to the organ as an instrument and how old were you when you started playing?

I started to play the piano when I was five.When I started in junior high, my father asked me not to play it any more. I grew up in a typical Asian culture and there was no room for me to rebel against him. It was like pulling teeth. One day I went to Seoul to visit my grandmother and it was at that moment that I got to hear a real pipe organ for the first time in my life. I was immediately captivated by its sound. I thought it was an orchestra that was played by a person. I think I was attracted by that orchestra-like character of the organ as a boy. I was thirteen then.

Who (or what) has had the greatest influence on you as a player?

There are a lot of them.As an organist  Kwak Tong-soon, Jean Boyer, Olivier Latry. Otherwise musicians such as G. Leonhardt,  M. Perahia, E. Kissin, K. Zimerman, S.Kujiken, J. Savall, David Christie and Michel Bouvard...

What is a typical day in the life of Dong-Ill Shin like?

I begin my day with reading the newspaper on-line and check out emails and answer them. And I go to work. Sometimes it begins with a meeting or a rehearsal. I often finish my day with rehearsals. I spend several hours in my office calling people, scheduling, organising things. I try to work out twice or three times a week and it really helps with my physical endurance.  I read for hours - books, magazines - or practise before going to bed.

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

After this European tour, I will be staying in Texas for the entire month of December to prepare Christmas concerts and worship at my church. Next year I will be playing concerts in Australia and Singapore (I have never been to these countries) besides European and American tours.

Meet . . . Henry Fairs

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

I was asked to include Bach in my programme, and have chosen two pieces with links to Italy; Bach's arrangement of Vivaldi's A minor concerto and a Fugue on a theme by Lengrenzi. These are framed by works with references to Christmas and Epiphany: Maurice Duruflé's Prélude sur l’Introït de l’Épiphanie and Messiaen's Les Mages & Dieu parmi nous from La Nativité du Seigneur. The most substantial piece in my programme is Reger's twenty minute Second Sonata, in which the chorale Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her makes a brief appearance at the end of the second movement.

What first attracted you to the organ as an instrument and how old were you when you started playing?

My grandfather had been an organist, and I was a chorister at Leominster Priory when I heard the organ for the first time. The attraction was instant, and playing the organ has been an important part of my life ever since. Everything about the instrument was an attraction; the sound, the presence in the building, the sensation of playing, and above all - the music. I started out on the piano before beginning organ lessons when I was about twelve, and played both at music college.

 

Who (or what) has had the greatest influence on you as a player?

David Sanger.

What is a typical day in the life of Henry Fairs like?

During term, my time is divided equally between teaching and practising/performing. I usually get up at seven (am), have a coffee and travel into work with my wife. I like to have days where I either just teach or just play, so that I can be completely focussed on what I'm doing. I try to have one day a week when I don't play or listen to music, and I enjoy meeting up with family and friends as often as I can.

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

Highlights include playing Messiaen's complete organ works in a series of six recitals at the University of Birmingham (the first of which is a day after this recital!), and recitals at Aarhus Cathedral, Denmark, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, St. Davids Festival, Wales, the Frauenkirche Nuremburg, St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Full details are on www.henryfairs.com...

Meet . . . David Sanger

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

I have to say at the start that the new organ at St Peter’s is not known to me. Therefore I feel as if I am on a blind date! I chose a wide variety of music to see how well the organ copes with different styles.

I chose the opening Dutch piece, Praeludium in E flat by Georg Dietrich Leyding, to kick off on a lively note, with its bouncy rhythms and dialogue between the manuals.

Then the Greater Kyrie Preludes from the Clavier Übung are any organist’s favourite ‘heavy weight’ pieces from the Baroque. They are written in the ‘antique style’, Bach’s own favourite, and contain some of the most beautiful chorale workings ever. The passionate ending of the 3rd ‘full organ’ prelude is unsurpassed in contrapuntal intensity with its sudden chromatic adventure.

I wanted to include some Messiaen to celebrate the centenary of his birth, and this evocative movement, Communion (Les oiseaux et les sources)  from Messe de le Pentecôte displays all the colours and rhythms for which he was famous, together with his unique use of birdsong and water drops.

I am  playing some Vierne because, over the past 4 years, I have been working together with Jon Laukvik on a new complete edition of Vierne’s organ works for Carus (Stuttgart). It will be published in a boxed set in February 2008. Vierne began work on his 2ème Symphonie op. 20 while staying at the resort of Cayeaux-sur-Mer in Picardy (northern France) in 1901, probably in July. The work was completed in April 1903 and published by Pérégally et Parvy fils in Paris that same year. It is dedicated to Charles Mutin (1861-1931), who carried on the firm of Cavaillé-Coll after the death of its founder. Mutin had built a house organ for Vierne's residence in 1899 and directed the renovation of the Notre-Dame organ in 1904. Later he had a relationship with Vierne's wife Arlette, which contributed to the dissolution of Vierne's marriage in 1909.   As early as 21 February 1903, Vierne played the Choral and Scherzo from the 2ème Symphonie on the organ of the Schola Cantorum at the 308th concert of the Société Nationale de Musique. The listeners included the young Claude Debussy, who at that time was a critic for the newspaper Gil Blas. Debussy wrote: ‘Monsieur Vierne's Symphony is really remarkable; the most fertile musicality combines with elegant ideas in the special sound-world of the organ. Old J.S. Bach, the father of us all, would have been satisfied with Monsieur Vierne’. 

In my opinion the Sonata in G minor by Oskar Lindberg is a fine piece of Swedish romantic organ music, and deserves to be better known in this country. The musical language in the 2nd and 3rd movements is unmistakably Scandinavian, while the last movement bears some similarity to the stormy music of Rachmaninov. 

What first attracted you to the organ as an instrument and how old were you when you started playing?

In the church I attended as a boy (The Congregational Church in Bexleyheath, Kent) I used to stand and sing opposite the Bevington organ, which I now have in my house in Cumbria! It appealed to me very much because it had a rich and dark tone at times, and I was curious about what the organist was doing behind that blue curtain. As soon as the service was over I would trot across and watch him from behind. I was hooked! When the church was struggling to find an organist I was roped in to play some of the services at the ripe old age of 12. By 13 I was taking the choir practices too!

Who (or what) has had the greatest influence on you as a player?

My mother was a fine local piano teacher (she taught me piano till age 16), and my father an amateur singer, so it would be ridiculous to suggest that they never influenced me. Later in life the masterly playing and teaching of Douglas Hawkridge set me on the road for the RAM. After that I was strongly influenced by Susi Jeans, Marie-Claire Alain and Anton Heiller; all wonderful teachers. Gillian Weir's playing at the RFH during my student days made me realise just how high playing standards could be, and made me strive for greater things!

What is a typical day in the life of David Sanger like?

This has changed somewhat recently in view of the recent pressure of co-editing 13 volumes of sometimes complicated and heavily chromatic music. I have endeavoured to have the same sort of varied life-style as previously, but the work on Vierne has often involved early morning through to late evening sessions at the computer or scrutinizing scores and texts! I am glad it’s all over now (18th January) and all gone to press. Now I have to consider completing some articles which have been requested by a couple of Journals about the project….and I need to do some serious practice, having let that slip for a time!

Meet . . . Anne Page

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

The organ at St Saviour's is a good one for Bach - and I chose the programme because I love the music. It takes us through early to late Bach: the E major Prelude and fugue is in the so-called stylus fantasticus with two fugues, in the manner of the North German masters; the partita is sometimes rather French sounding, in the style of Böhm - another important early influence on the composer. From the composer's maturity we have a sonata 'for two keyboards and pedal', the last of the six: the idea of transferring chamber music to the organ was, and still is, an incredibly original leap of imagination, not to mention technique. Yet with Bach it is always the beauty of the music which captures us, not the virtuosity. Next, a chorale prelude from the Leipzig or '18' chorales, rather strictly treated formally but with striking chromatic counter-melodies. Finally, the great E minor Prelude and Fugue - this is on a symphonic scale, we can hear how the time-span has enlarged from the earlier E major work into two massive movements. The fugue's famous subject combines the time-honoured descending chromatic fourth with a simultaneous ascent; Bach's inexhaustible imagination combines the form of fugue with the Italian concerto, including interludes which evoke the harpsichord.

What first attracted you to the organ as an instrument and how old were you when you started playing?

I had discovered Bach's music on the piano through the '48' and some of the toccatas, when I happened upon an LP recording of Lionel Rogg playing the E flat Prelude and fugue on the Zürich Grossmunster organ. This had such an electrifying effect on me, that I entreated my piano teacher for organ lessons. I think I was then 15 years old.

Who (or what) has had the greatest influence on you as a player?

Bach's music has remained for me the best reason to play the organ, along with the music of Messiaen: very different repertoires but one can spend a lifetime with them and continually make new discoveries. Influential people -  first, my teacher in Perth, Annette Goerke (a marvellous Messiaen player); Dame Gillian Weir who performed a complete Bach cycle in Perth while I was a student there; Marie-Claire Alain and Peter Hurford, both really great teachers and pre-eminent Bach interpreters; Jacques van Oortmerssen, who offers compelling insights based on performance on historic organs.

What is a typical day in the life of Anne Page like?

No day is typical - if it includes practice (most of which I do at home on a pedal-piano) and some gardening, I consider it well spent.

 

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

I'd like to mention the Historic Organ Sound Archive with which I have been very closely involved - this is a web-based resource with around 20 hours of recordings on historic English organs available free from: www.bios.org.uk/npor.html  
As for concerts, these include  Messiaen's Livre du Saint Sacrement at Royal Holloway Chapel on May 25 at 7.30pm - part of their Messiaen Centenary series; May 29 and 30 concerts with Crispian Steele-Perkins in Cambridge and Fotheringhay; October 11 a harmonium recital in the Purcell Room - part of a South Bank harmonium day. More details can be found on my website: www.anne-page.co.uk

 

Meet . . . David Goode

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

My programme reflects the Bach and Messiaen theme of this year's Concert Series.  Vater unser and the Diptyque are fascinating pieces of which one never tires, and Vater Unser has a kaleidoscopic, intricate beauty that reminds me of certain Messiaen pieces; while any of the 6 Trio Sonatas is naturally always worth a visit. I've placed these, symmetrically, in the framework of the German Romantic tradition, specifically Preludes and Fugues by Mendelssohn and Reger which in their different way respond to Bach's legacy.

What first attracted you to the organ as an instrument and how old were you when you started playing?

I was a cathedral chorister, which I loved, and I think I was attracted by the pivotal role the instrument played in the music I grew up with. I started lessons from 11 (as soon as I could reach the pedals) and took to it like a duck to water.

 

Who (or what) has had the greatest influence on you as a player?

I've been lucky with my teachers all the way through at Eton and then with David Sanger at Cambridge. Of course one still learns from the finest organists around (and sometimes from the not so fine!)  but often it's other music making that inspires one - the transcendental command of a Vengerov or Volodos - or the way a great singer like Callas could phrase communicatively. I love playing the piano, solo or in ensemble, whenever possible for this reason. Finally, of course one's pupils are a great influence - and a challenge to one's own playing!

What is a typical day in the life of David Goode like?

During school term I'm pretty busy not only with the 30 or so boys learning the organ but a host of other teaching and pastoral duties. A thriving boarding school like Eton keeps going all day every day, which is very invigorating! I try to grab little bits of practise time, but most of the leisurely and concentrated work goes on in the holidays, as well as catching up on seeing family and friends, and hobbies such as reading. In those times I might be travelling around for concerts also, or working on a composition.

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

 I'm playing Michael Berkeley's Organ Concerto on 22nd May in Cardiff (also on Radio 3)  http://www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk/ and a recital during the Bath Festival http://www.bathmusicfest.org.uk/    in Bath Abbey on 7th June. Looking further ahead I'm teaching both on the Oundle for Organists week, and also on the Eton Choral Course for Organists (July 22-30th) http://www.etonchoralcourses.co.uk/  which promises to be as stimulating as ever!

Meet . . . Emmanuel Hocdé

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

I have choosen my program according to my favourite pieces rather than the organ. Bach's Prélude and Triple Fugue in E flat major is a fabulous composition.

The Final of the 4th Symphony by August Fauchard is named "Procession". This piece is not edited. I play with a copy of the manuscript and it's a complete discovery for the listeners. Auguste Fauchard was organist in Laval's cathedral until 1954 (Cavaillé-Coll). He studied composititon with Louis Vierne.

I am playing the Suite of Maurice Duruflé op.5 because it's a very coloured and very intensive "fresque" (portrait). I think it will sound nice at St Peter's Church in St Albans.

What first attracted you to the organ as an instrument and how old were you when you started playing?

What attracted me to the organ was the stops and registrations one can make. I like the complexity of the instrument, the music repertory and the accoustic of churces. I started playing the organ when I was 11 years old.

 

Who (or what) has had the greatest influence on you as a player?

My teachers had the greatest influence on me: Gaston Litaize, Michel Chapuis, Olivier Latry, Louis Robilliard for interpretation and Loïc Mallié for improvisation.

What is a typical day in the life of Emmanuel Hocdé like?

I spend my days rehearsing at the organ, teaching the organ, accompanying other instruments and playing the church Offices.

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

My next concert will be in St Sulpice, St Gervais, Paris. Then in August: Mimizan, Bagnolles-de-l'Orne, Lassay-les-Châteaux, France.

 

top