Notes and Editorial Reviews
Inventive and melodic, expressive and thoughtful.
A few firsts on this latest addition to Priory Records' bulky, splendid catalogue: a first recording of the Nicholson organ at Oxford University's Harris Manchester College, the complete works for organ of John Ireland and first recordings of Grayston Ives's three pieces.
Most of Ireland's original organ works date from the same period: indeed, the exuberantly triumphal
Alla Marcia, the smiling, gentle
Sursum Corda and the
Capriccio, a saucy postcard of a piece, were all written in 1911. Coming almost a decade earlier, the
Elegiac Romance is Ireland's earliest work for organ, and an "emotional tour de
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force" in the words of Richard Moore, who supplies the informative liner notes. It certainly is beautiful, virtuosic and loud - let no one be fooled by the quiet opening! Priory have in fact recorded this work twice before, with Peter King at Bath Abbey (PRCD335) and with Jonathan Bielby on the Binns organ in the slightly less uplifting surroundings of Rochdale Town Hall (PRCD298).
The comparatively light-hearted, witty
Miniature Suite is another early work, although Ireland revised it four decades later. His last organ piece, the
Meditation on John Keble's Rogationtide Hymn, is anything but light-hearted and witty, being instead both introspective and retrospective, composed when Ireland was very old and nearly blind. Its numinous quality saves it from gloominess.
The pieces by Grayston Ives add up to a mere ten minutes, hardly enough to reveal very much about the composer, but that is all he has written for the organ to date, according to the notes, which describe his harmonic language as "imbued with a deep sense of irony". That may well be the case, but the key thing surely is what the music sounds like, and Ives's sounds pretty good, from the grandeur of the
Intrada written for Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee, to the gentleness of the
Lullaby and finally the humorous march and pomp of the
Processional.
There are two arrangements by other hands of Ireland's music, and two by Ireland himself. The Christmassy
Holy Boy is one of his best loved works, and seems as well suited to the organ as to the original piano. The same may be said of the not dissimilar
Elegy, extracted by Alec Rowley from Ireland's famous
A Dowland Suite. The
Cavatina, however, originally for violin and piano, is something of a revelation on the organ, and the
Epic March, which Ireland wrote during the Second World War, clearly with William Walton's recent
Crown Imperial still going round in his head, is deliciously arranged by Robert Gower - coincidentally a scholar of both Ireland and Walton! - and brings the recital to a stirring close.
Myles Hartley also has a connection to Gower, as a former organ pupil. Hartley is now Director of Music at Harris Manchester, and his familiarity with the organ - which dates back to 1893, was largely rebuilt in 1930, restored in 2008 and possessing a very decent sound - not to mention a fine technique, ensures a top quality listening experience, enhanced further by good quality sound.
Besides the front-cover close-up of one of the College's celebrated stained glass windows, the CD booklet sports an attractive full-page colour drawing of the College by Rod Warbrick.
John Ireland's organ music may not be his most important, but it is, like much of his corpus, of high quality nevertheless, inventive and melodic, expressive and thoughtful in equal measure, and this CD is a simple, attractive way to gain permanent access to it, not to mention a taster of Grayston Ives's.
-- Byzantion, MusicWeb International
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Works on This Recording
1.
Intrada, for organ by Grayston Ives
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Contemporary
Length: 3 Minutes 29 Secs.
2.
Lullaby, for organ by Grayston Ives
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Contemporary
Written: 1976
Length: 3 Minutes 9 Secs.
3.
Processional, for organ by Grayston Ives
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Contemporary
Written: 1976
Length: 3 Minutes 57 Secs.
4.
Alla Marcia, for organ by John Ireland
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Modern
Written: 1911
Length: 3 Minutes 1 Secs.
5.
Sursum Corda, for organ by John Ireland
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Modern
Written: 1911
Length: 4 Minutes 41 Secs.
6.
Elegaic Romance, for organ by John Ireland
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Modern
Written: 1902
Length: 9 Minutes 52 Secs.
8.
Capriccio, for organ by John Ireland
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Modern
Written: 1911
Length: 5 Minutes 19 Secs.
10.
A Downland Suite: Elegy by John Ireland
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Modern
Written: 1932
Length: 3 Minutes 52 Secs.
13.
Epic March, for orchestra by John Ireland
Performer:
Myles Hartley (Organ)
Period: Modern
Written: 1941-1942; United Kingdom
Length: 7 Minutes 5 Secs.
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