Meet the Artist 2011- 2012

• James O'Donnell
• Samuel Liégeon
• Joonho Park
• Thierry Escaich
• Jane Parker-Smith
• Stephen Disley
• Yuka Ishimaru
• Gerard Brooks

Meet . . . Samuel Liégeon

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

My program is based on two ideas: the variation (which is a form of music wide spread) and organ music concert (which does not deal with religious subjects). I was also inspired to build this program by the composition of the organ and its characteristics

  

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

I started the organ at the age of 10 years in the small village where I was born. I started music by the piano and the organ much later (around 16). I was fortunate to know some very fine organs in my area and I was always amazed by this instrument.

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

I am much influenced by French music in particular.

What is a typical day in the life of Samuel Liégeon like?

I have no typical day in my life. Every day is new! I attach great place to work for the instrument, to my classes at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris and I need to provide offices in a large church of Paris. The days are busy!

Meet . . . Joonho Park

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

I consider that a music recital is very alike with a story, a recited story. The story could be led into a concrete terms or or into an abstract terms. I could say that this programme is quite abstract and consists of various styles of music. 

The first work, Sinfonia of Cantata No. 29 by J. S. Bach is originally composed for orchestra. J. S. Bach had arranged this work for violin solo -Partita No.3 and also  it was transcribed for organ solo by M. Dupre. This sinfonia is certainly brimful of energy so that it's very good concert piece to begin with.
The second son of J. S. Bach, Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach composed a number of organ sonatas as for the concert music, not for the church music. His ideas about the organ had seemed to be totally different from his father's. His sonatas are plenty of emotional expressions indeed, very easy to understand and much popular at the public at his age.
Widor's last two symphonies for organ are greatly different from his previous works. They are more introverted and having mysterious atmosphere compared to his other organ symphonies up to No.8. Those two symphonies are based on Gregorian chants - the ninth; Puer natus est nobis, the tenth: Haec dies-. With those musical materials, Widor had tried to find his new musical words and it had been very much successful, I think.
The plain song 'Puer natus est nobis' for "Symphonie gothique" is for the Christmas day. The fourth movement is a variation work in which we could hear the melody of plain song continually throughout the work in diverted arts of composition.
Especially, I am very fond of Franck's Cantabile.  My first encounter for this cantabile was at the age of 17. At that moment, I was immediately fascinated with this music. I could see the other field of organ sound through this piece, anyhow it was great impression to me.  It starts with quite meditative atmosphere and develops to the canon. With the canons, the music has been ascended and descended and eventually it flows to a calm and peaceful part and connects to the end.
Jehen Alain's Trois danses presents his distinguished musical talent well. Actually his musical word is very unique comparison to his contemporaries. He has composed this work for organ at first and later  the two another versions came out  for the orchestra and for the two-pianos.  Trois danses consists of three movements as you could notice.  The first movement t, "Joies-Joys" is very much extroverted work and there are lots of sudden changes. We can hear jazzy rhythms extensively throughout the whole piece. Following movement, "Deuils-Mourning" was composed to pay a tribute to the memory of his sister. It describes a deep sorrow and also I had a furious emotions for that privately.  At the last movement "Luttes-Confrontations", all the motives of first and second movement are presented and confronted each other.

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

When I was a child, there was a very small pipe organ, perhaps lesser than 12 stops in my church. Mostly it was very rare situation at that time that a church has a 'real' pipe organ in Korea, not an electronic organ. I could be quite intimated at organ as I heard its sound continually. Although it is hard to say that the organ had attracted me, but it could be only a sort of recognition.
I remember that the first experience that I was fascinated with the sound of organ was when I was 11 years old. Jean Boyer had given a concert in Seoul and his great performance was strongly impressed on my memory, especially Grand pièce symphonique by Franck. I still remember even small details and how I felt.

I started playing organ academically at the age of 16 in the pre-college programme of the Korea national university of arts in Seoul, Korea and also have an experience as an assistant of Mr. Yokota, Munetaka who is one of greatest organ builders of our time. When he built an organ in the concert hall of the university, I could have opportunity to help him. It was lovely experience to me indeed. As I worked with him, I could understand the organ much better than before and learned a lot about the various sound of organ. The organ has the style of Schnitger's late period, it was very much interesting project.

I am also specially fond of Cavaillé-Coll organ's sound. Its sound has various colours, thus it could be 'visible' sound to me.

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

On the organ playing, there are two teachers who had given great influences on me. At first, Prof. Ja-kyung Oh who had taught me until I finished my BA  in Korea. She specially knows well about the early music and works hard to advance the music of early period as an outstanding organist in Korea. I'd had chance to learn the interpreting music with reasonable expressions from her. Also she had suggested me to have a thorough knowledge of music. For Prof. Jon Laukvik, he always shows me a lot of ways of expression with the music. He makes me to have my own music and  eventually I could interpret the music more clearly.

I love the musics of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Martha Argerich and Kyunghwa Chung and the others.

What is a typical day in the life of Joonho Park like?

I normally practice for lessons and recitals during weekdays and I prepare the music for Sunday service on weekend. It's an apparent description of my ordinary life. Dealing with emails, drafting and trying to play varieties of organ work for concert programmes and for the church. When I am given spare time, I usually spend for reading  books, taking a walk or meeting friends.

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

Since I am studying now, I need to take three exams for graduation next year from February to July. I will have a solo recital in Stuttgart on March and also I am planning to visit Ireland for two recitals at the Kilkenny summer music festival and the Galway cathedral.

Meet . . . Jane Parker-Smith

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

Arild Edvin Sandvold is without doubt one of the most significant church musicians Norway has ever had. Educated at the Music Conservatoire in Oslo, he also made two study visits, in 1921 and 1927, to the Conservatoire in Leipzig. It was here that he met Karl Straube, who at the time was an outstanding representative of the German late romantic organ school, and his name will always be linked to the art of Max Reger. Thus Straube and Reger became foremost sources of inspiration to the young Sandvold, as both organist and composer.

The powerful Introduction and Passacaglia was written in 1927 and from the outset we can see and hear the influence of Reger's compositional style. Cesar Franck's Prière is the fifth of a set of six organ pieces published by Franck in 1862, and, perhaps, the most beautiful and elusive of them all. It also happens to be one of my favourite organ works

Mephisto Waltz No. 1, The Dance in the Village Inn by Franz Liszt  is a highly original work of thrilling, diabolical decadence. It was composed in 1856-1861, and Liszt made an orchestral version immediately after the completion of the original piano solo. The following note appears in the printed score of the Mephisto Waltz No. 1: There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music, dancing and carousing. Mephistopheles and Faust pass by, and Mephistopheles induces Faust to enter and take part in the festivities. Mephistopheles snatches the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating strains. The amorous Faust whirls about with a full-blooded village beauty in a wild dance; they waltz in mad abandon out of the room, into the open, away into the woods. The sounds of the fiddle grow softer and softer, and the nightingale warbles his love-laden song.

Born in Concepcion, Chile on July 15, 1884, Enrique Soro composed the Andante Appassionato Opus 2 at the age of 17 years when he was a student in Europe. The work has a rather curious history. It was written primarily for cello and organ and was played by himself in 1901 at the Conservatory of Milan with resounding success, according to the Italian chronicles. In 1909 he wrote a piano version, which was published by Schirmer in New York. In 1924 he composed another version for small string orchestra which was also recorded by RCA Victor. The final version was written for piano solo in 1954, shortly before his death. This arrangement for organ by the American musician Edward Shippen Barnes and was published by Schirmer in 1918.

While his colleague Widor wrote 'Symphonies' for solo organ, Alexandre Guilmant preferred the more conventional title of 'Sonata' for his major organ works, and he wrote eight altogether. One of Guilmant’s greatest gifts was his ability to write a good tune, and the D minor Sonata is full of them The first version of the splendid First Sonata dates from 1874, but he later revised it, adding some imaginative new touches, like the dramatic chords for the Bombarde division on the first page of the first movement. In 1878 he rewrote the whole work in an alternative version for organ and full orchestra. In this expanded form, he decided that the Sonata really deserved to be called a Symphony after all and he changed the title accordingly.

What first attracted you to the organ as an instrument and how old were you when you started playing?
My introduction to the organ came relatively late in life at the age of 19. I started piano lessons when I was four years old and by the age of nine I was already performing on stage and had set my sights on becoming a concert pianist. But all this was to dramatically change. At the age of seventeen I went to the Royal College of Music studying piano, cello and harpsichord, but the switch from piano to organ happened almost accidentally during my second year at the College. One day, as I was walking past the concert hall, I could hear a student practising on the organ and as I had a little free time, I decided to creep in and listen for a short while. I was just bowled over by the sheer majesty, power and beauty of the instrument. I was bursting with enthusiasm and immediately started taking organ lessons. I totally fell in love with it and have never looked back.

Who (or what) has had the greatest influence on you as a player?
Without a doubt, my two very eminent organ teachers - Nicolas Kynaston and Jean Langlais. In the early days of my career I regularly attended the organ recital series at the Royal Festival Hall, Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey and was privileged to hear such wonderful organists as Jean Guillou, Marcel Dupré, Fernando Germani, Sir George Thalben-Ball, Ralph Downes, Dame Gillian Weir, Marie-Claire Alain and, of course, my aforementioned teachers. Other influences have been great conductors, singers and instrumentalists such as Sir Simon Rattle, Jessye Norman, Placido Domingo, Maurice André, Claudio Arrau, Martha Argerich and Joshua Bell.

What is a typical day in the life of Jane Parker-Smith like?
If I am not travelling or on concert tour I usually tackle the Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword first thing in the morning. I'm an addict! Then it's time to catch up on all my correspondence and phone calls for a couple of hours followed by four or five hours organ practice. I like to relax in the evenings with my husband and/or friends.

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?
A concert tour of South Africa, other concerts in the UK, Germany and the Far East and two concerts during the 2012 American Guild of Organists National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Meet . . . Gerard Brooks

Please tell us a little about your concert programme.

I planned the preparation of international competitions and two masters (improvisation on organ and piano and composition) at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris

 
 

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

I started piano lessons at the age of seven, but it was my father's lifelong interest in listening to the organ that started me off, and I began having lesson at the age of thirteen.

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

 I was very fortunate in having John Webster as my first teacher. He was organist at University College, Oxford, and a very gifted teacher, particularly of beginners like me. To this day, I still often meet fellow students of his who remember him fondly. The two years I spent at Strasbourg Conservatoire as a student of Daniel Roth also had a big influence on my development as a player.
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What is a typical day in the life of Gerard Brooks like?

My work as Director of Music at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster involves me in a lot of planning, particularly at the moment as the major rebuilding of the organ approaches completion. I also teach the organ regularly for the RCO/St.Giles Organ School, Latymer Upper school and the Royal Academy of Music. I also try and make sure that I reserve time each day to practise, but I'm also very careful to keep time aside to spend with my family.

What are the highlights of your forthcoming schedule?

As well as organising the opening season of concerts at Central Hall, I have the honour of playing concerts at Saint Sulpice, Paris and St, Ouen, Rouen as part of the celebrations of the bicentenary of the organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, as well as helping to produce a new documentary on his life and work with Fugue State Films.

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