Interviews Archive 2008- 2009

• Daniel Roth
• Ulrich Walther
• Susan Landale
• Ben van Oosten
• Bine Katrine Bryndorf
• Robert Quinney

 

 

Meet . . . Daniel Roth

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

In my programmes I always like to alternate major and minor pieces, brilliant and meditative works, to choose pieces which will make it possible to show off most of the stops of the organ. A concert programme needs also ‘une pièce de résistance’, a well developed piece (as in a dinner, after the hors d'oeuvre comes the dish with meat and vegetables!!) 

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

I grew up in a suburban of Mulhouse (Alsace): Dornach, in which there is a beautiful great church.  The organ had four manuals, the liturgy was very festive, there was a good choir; all this encouraged me to start to learn to play the organ at twelve or thirteen. I had started the piano at ten. Also, I was inspired very much by the great personality of Albert Schweitzer.

 

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

Madame Marie-Claire Alain; also work with singers. At the Conservatoire de Paris I was accompanist of a ‘Classe de Chant’, and since then I have always had contact with singers . I think that as organists, if we do not try to imitate the human voice our instrument can sound like a dry machine!

What is a typical day in the life of Daniel Roth like?

When I am at home: preparation of the Sunday services in St-Sulpice and of concert progammes and composition. I like to listen to the political news from all over the world, to read and to have some time with our three grand children living in the suburbs of Paris (we have eight, but five are unfortunately not living in Paris).

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

A composition for organ (four hands) for the Festival in Dudelange; the composition of the middle movement of my Triptyque Licht im Dunkel:‘L'Amour’ for Piano, Organ and Orchestra for the dedication of the new Metzler organ in Düren (near Köln)in April 2010 (the 1st movement L'espérance and 3rd movement LaJoie have already been printed by Schott, performed and recorded); the composition of the last movement of my Livre d'orgue pour le Magnificat so that the 2nd volume can be printed (1st volume is already out); organ recitals: a three and a half week USA Tour in March 2009, and at the end of March one with my son François-Xavier and his Orchestra; the dedication of the restored Abbey organ at the Cathedral Chalons en Champagne: Saint-Saëns 3rd Organ Symphony and Poulenc.... recordings, amongst them one with my son Vincent (viola)...

Meet . . . Ulrich Walther

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

I chose the program according to a combination of things. The de Grigny is a particular reference to the French influenced specification of the Collins organ in St.Saviour’s. Some of the stops are just perfect for that French baroque style. The Bach pieces are some of the greatest choral works, which are not played so often. For that reason I also chose the trio sonata in D minor, because more often the big ‘pleno’ works  are played in concerts. This sonata is a good piece to show this aspect of Bach’s chamber music, very elegant and a challenge for the player. Ligeti’s pieces are some of the most interesting works of the 20th century; it is very interesting, how he uses the organ to make unusual sounds, sometimes like a Synthesizer (especially the Etude Coulée with its extremely fast movement in both hands). They are actually not linked to a special type of instrument, so I will play them in St.Saviour’s. I think that modern music is not played as much as it should be. Ritter's Sonata is a good link to German romantic, and it can also be played on quite a baroque organ.

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

First of all I started with the piano at the age of 6. Actually I don't know exactly what made me start playing the organ, but the first time the big power of the organ’s sound impressed me. Until about 16 I played more piano, but later I went over entirely to the organ

 

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

There is no single person; as a teacher surely Ludger Lohmann, because I have spent the most time studying with him. But there are also other musicians who have inspired me a lot; conductors such as Sergiu Celibidache, and also great pianists like Glenn Gould. I really like the combination of jazz with the pianist Friedrich Gulda, because I also like to improvise jazz music. Sometimes you need the ‘Jazzy Groove’ feeling to make Bach' s music sound good . But one can learn from every great musician about interpretation.

What is a typical day in the life of Ulrich Walther like?

At the moment, my life has two parts:  teaching in Graz University from Tuesdays to Thursdays, where I can benefit a lot; the other part is practising and at the moment quite often playing concerts. It is so interesting to get to know so many different instruments. For a concert you often don’t have much time, but you have to try to use and play it, as if you have known it for years. This flexibility of playing technique on different instruments makes a professional organist and it is a big challenge to try to be as good as possible on every instrument.

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

You can find the concert dates on my homepage "www.ulrichwalther.com". Some of the highlights are not fixed yet, but next year there will  be concerts in Birmingham Town Hall and Russia as well as the Priory Cd record in Bremer Dom, Chartres and St.Bavo.

 

Meet . . . Susan Landale

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

The programme is fairly eclectic, firstly as David Titterington suggested it should be so, secondly because St Peter's is a fairly eclectic instrument. So Bach, of course, and perhaps specially the Passacaglia, whose magnificent structure has always fascinated me.

S.S. Wesley is a strong link between Bach and Mendelssohn (as well as a hommage to the English organ repertoire). The Larghetto is a piece I fell in love with in my earliest days in St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, when Dr Robert Head, the cathedral organist and my teacher, used to play it at the end of Evensong. On the Father Willis it sounded sublime!

2009 is the bi-centenary of Mendelssohn's birth and I have been fortunate enough to have the chance to record the Six Sonatas to mark this anniversary.The Third Sonata is one of my favourites; this also goes back to my Edinburgh days, when I first studied it, and brings back memories of cathedral performances of Mendelssohn's ‘Hymn of Praise’ with that wonderful dialogue: ‘Watchman, will the night soon pass?’ whose theme is that of the double fugue in the first movement of the Sonata.

2009 is also an ‘Eben year’; this wonderful composer, who did so much to enrich the organ repertoire, would have been 80 on 22nd January! The ‘Ten Chorale Preludes on Hymns of the Bohemian Brethren’ were written in 1971 in response to a request from the publisher Bärenreiter, for a collection of short and simple preludes, preferably on two staves; Jean Langlais, Hugo Distler, Ernst Krenek and Augustinus Kropfreiter also contributed. Each prelude is introduced by a short ‘intonation’. In fact these were written two years later, the publisher having decided that some of the preludes were too difficult for the organists who, it was hoped, would play them. When I first learned the Chorales, I wrote to Eben saying that I loved Lob Gott getrost but found it was too short. He replied,   ‘You are absolutely right, here are two more bars’!

Tournemire is one of my favourite composers, whose music deserves to be better known and is at last beginning to be recognized for what it is: deeply poetic, full of colour and often dramatic. Tournemire is a true impressionist, a follower of Debussy and a direct contemporary of Ravel. Moreover, he was one of Messiaen's greatest inspirations. The Five Improvisations, from which the Te Deum is taken, were recorded live by Tournemire in Ste Clotilde, Paris, in 1930. But when Duruflé asked if he might transcribe them, Tournemire said no, and Duruflé had to wait for some 25 years before Tournemire's widow finally gave him permission to do so.

Finally, as we are still close to Christmas, I felt that Les Bergers (The Shepherds) and Les Anges (The Angels) from  Messiaen's La Nativité would still be appropriate (as well as being among my favourite pieces).The 6th Meditation is dedicated to the Feast of the Epiphany, headed by the quotation: ‘In the Word was Life  and the Life was the Light of men’. It  uses the Gregorian chants for the Offertory (The Kings of Tharsis and the Isles shall bring presents...), the Gradual (Arise and shine O Jerusalem) and, finally, the Alleluia, with the quotation ‘The Son, resplendent in the glory of the Father’.  Somehow, in this piece, Messiaen manages to transform the chord of C major into something absolutely dazzling!

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

Having decided from the age of about eleven that I wanted to be a cathedral chorister (in those days absolutely unthinkable for girls!) and realizing, as time went on, that there was no hope of ever making this dream come true, I decided that the organ might be the best way of entering the world of cathedral music which, apart from my pony, was my greatest passion. Dr Head, the organist of St Mary's Episcopal cathedral, Edinburgh, accepted me as a pupil at the age of 14.

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

Here I feel I have been incredibly fortunate in having met and worked with three exceptional masters just when I needed them:

Dr Head, of whom I was so terrified that I never managed to tell him that after all I didn't want to learn the organ and that it was all a horrible mistake, and who brought a very dissipated and unruly teenager into line.

André Marchal, my ‘maître’ in Paris, who taught me not only the organ, but Music in its widest sense, as well as how to grapple with the profession of organist, how to keep my feet on the ground, how to pick myself up after falling flat on my face, what are the ethics of a musician, and who was himself the greatest of examples! 

Finally, Petr Eben, again one of music's best-loved and greatest figures, with whom I had the extraordinary luck to be able to work and discover his amazing contribution to music in general and to the organ in particular. Thanks to the hospitality and kindness of him and his wife, I was also privileged to experience firsthand the trials and tribulations of the Communist rule in Prague and Czechoslovakia, and to admire the courage, steadfast faith, humour and enthusiasm of the composer and his family. This has left a very deep and permanent impression on me.

 

What is a typical day in the life of Susan Landale like?

It's a little difficult to pick a ‘typical day’ because each one is different, but all include piano and organ practice, dealing with emails, articles to write or lectures to prepare, telephone calls and cooking . During a week there will also be services to play at Les Invalides, special masses to prepare, teaching at the Royal Academy in London (every other week), possibly private teaching. Then there is work for the Academy André Marchal and recitals or competition juries (often outside France), meetings of various organ commissions in Paris and so on.

 

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

 

Well, the St Albans recital will be one! 2009 will be an ‘Eben year’ so there are recitals to mark this (notably in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Germany ), the release of my Mendelssohn CD with special recitals in Pontoise cathedral and Les Invalides, Paris; the new international organ competition in Lyon in April and a concert and teaching trip to Iceland in August. In October, the 9th Biarritz international organ competition will take place, whose organisation, as president of the Academy André Marchal, I am deeply involved in!

Meet . . . Ben van Oosten

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

I wanted to make a programme of stylistic variety, in which the possibilties of the St Peter's organ can be displayed: Classical French, German Baroque, German Romantic, and 19th/20th century French music. In this Mendelssohn commemoration year I didn't choose one of his well-known organ works, but I decided to play an organ transcription of his great piano work "Variations sérieuses", which sounds excellent on the organ.

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

My father was an amateur organist and he brought me into contact with the organ by listening to recordings and attending concerts with me at a very early age. I was overwhelmed by the sound of the instrument and I immediately tried to play from memory everything that I heard, first on the piano at home and later on the organ in the church. According to what my mother said, I started exploring the piano at the age of three, even before I could speak. I started playing the organ at the age of five. 

 

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

This is hard to say. I have never been aware of some particular influence. I have had many unforgettable musical experiences that will certainly have influenced me as a player (like my first acquaintance with the organs of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll), but they are not all strictly limited to the organ.   

What is a typical day in the life of Ben van Oosten like?

I do a lot of practising in the first place. I am very happy with my house organ, on which I can practice everything in an appropriate way. Besides, I teach and do much research, especially for my CD recordings. Actually I am always busy with music, day and night... 

 

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

 

I feel every concert as a highlight and I want to enjoy every concert I give. Honestly, at the moment I accept much fewer concert invitations as I used to do. I also want to save energy for making recordings, which I like very much. I look forward to the forthcoming completion of my Dupré CD series, and to some new CD projects after that. But now I am looking forward to my concert in St. Albans, and to meeting many dear friends! 

 

Meet . . . Bine Katrine Bryndorf

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

The programme is a birthday programme for J S Bach where I try to include works from different periods of his life, works in different forms and with inspiration from different styles. It has a special focus on Passiontide with the big Sei gegrüsset and O Lamm Gottes and the B minor Prelude & Fugue. The Prelude includes in all its final cadences the famous Es ist vollbracht quotation from St. John's Passion.

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

I am not sure why I wanted to play the organ. I started the piano at the age of seven and was not very enthusiastic about it. But around eight or nine I suddenly wanted to play the organ. I was absolutely sure that it had to be organ though my piano teacher tried to convince me to start an instrument more suitable for playing together with other instruments. But I wanted to play the organ and was finally allowed to start at the age of eleven. Maybe some recordings at home started my interest. A favourite piece of mine is still Saint Saens’ Organ Symphony!

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

Without any doubt my former professor Michael Radulescu from Vienna. I got to know him when at just 13 years old I took part in a master class of his, and I moved to Vienna after finishing high school in Helsingør. I studied with him for four years and became his assistant for another three and a half years. He was extremely inspiring and just the right teacher at the right moment for me.

Before Vienna, I was fortunate to be taught for five years in music theory by a former professor from the Academy in Copenhagen. I visited him at his home once a week, and he started my great interest in musical analysis and harmony. He was maybe the greatest didactic/pedagogical talent I ever met.

What is a typical day in the life of Bine Katrine Bryndorf like?

Up at 6.30, eating breakfast with the family (my husbond and two children, seven and four years old), out of the house at 7.40 taking my son to school, at the Academy at 8.30, practising and later teaching, afterwards practising again, maybe meeting with colleagues, maybe going to gymnastics, later going home again, picking up my son and/or daughter, back home checking e-mails on the computer, practicing the piano with my son, eating all together, reading good-night-stories, putting the children to bed, more e-mail or practising - sleep!!

 

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

 

In April I am playing the harpsichord in three Brandenburg concertos in Odense, Denmark (among them No 5); that will be great fun! Later this autumn I am going to Norway (Stavanger) to teach.  I have had some very nice teaching experiences in Norway so I am really looking forward to that. And we are planning a great Organ Festival in Copenhagen (October 22nd-29th, look on www.dkdm.dk), that will be most interesting indeed. 2010 I am going to Japan for the first time, for two concerts; I am very much looking forward to that too! But most of all: teaching my own students in Copenhagen and playing the organ for concerts like the one in St. Albans is what makes my life as a musician SO wonderful!

 

Meet . . . Robert Quinney

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

The programme reflects the eclectic nature of the organ at St Peter's, and a number of my musical interests. I always include some Bach in my concert programmes, and can't resist performing the trio sonatas, despite their many challenges! I'm beginning with Francis Pott's Toccata, a favourite curtain-raiser, full of energy but also Francis's characteristic lyricism - I'm very fond of his music. I'm also picking up on the Purcell anniversary by including his longest and grandest organ piece, which I've paired with movements from de Grigny's Livre d'orgue because I hear a lot of the French baroque in Purcell's music. The French theme is developed by Dupré's well-known G minor Prelude and Fugue: a delicate but rather sinister scherzando followed by a hell-for-leather Totentanz. And I finish with a transcription of the Varations on a theme [not] by Haydn by Brahms - what a privilege to be able to play such music on the organ.

 

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

I have to admit that it was probably the fact that the organ has more buttons to press than the piano! I was never a particularly good pianist, and when (at the age of 10) my teacher suggested I try the organ I jumped at the chance. I soon fell in love with the repertoire, of course, though I still enjoy pressing the pistons...

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

Early on, the Bach playing of Peter Hurford, on instruments that sounded exotic and very exciting. It's impossible to identify a greatest influence, and I hope I'm as influenced by singers and other instrumentalists as by organists; but I must mention John Butt, who has been an immense influence through his playing, writing, teaching, conducting, and general Butt-ness.

 

What is a typical day in the life of Robert Quinneylike?

I'm usually up early thanks to my two year-old son, who is set to Central European time. By 8.15 I'm often taking a rehearsal of the Abbey choristers or the junior boys, and most days I'm involved in a service at the end of the day. In between, I could be practising (though not until the evening in the Abbey itself) or, more likely, fulfilling one of the various and many administrative tasks (some mundane and some, like planning service repertoire, recordings and concerts, very stimulating) that my colleagues and I undertake to keep the Abbey's music ticking over. But I'm fortunate to be able to do quite a bit of outside work, including playing continuo with a number of period-instrument groups.

 

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

 

I'm looking forward to playing in the Lichfield Festival in July (http://www.lichfieldfestival.org), then in the Abbey's summer recital series (http://www.westminster-abbey.org/music/concerts). Then in September I'm working again with The Sixteen on a new series of the BBC4 Sacred Music programme - that should be an interesting project. And I have plans for a solo recording at the Abbey, though repertoire is not quite in focus yet.

 

top