D’Arcy Trinkwon plays the Viscount Organ of Selby
Abbey
rec. 2015, Selby Abbey
Audio PCM Stereo: PAL
VISCOUNT CLASSICAL DVD SADVD001 [88:10]
This filmed recital at Selby Abbey spins a surprise. The famous Hill organ requires restoration and the Organ Appeal, a most worthy cause, is looking for donations large and small. Thus, instead of the Hill on which Fernando Germani made his still-famous LPs in the 1960s, D’Arcy Trinkwon plays the Viscount 356 Organ. Built by the Galanti family in Italy, elements are added by Viscount in England, and the result offers the expected electronic organ using sampled sound but with the advantage of a ‘live’ model. It means that, as the notes make clear, ‘each pipe note changes very subtly depending upon how many notes are being played and how many stops are drawn…’ In this sense it sounds like authentic pipe organs. The sophistication of the organ is most interesting to read about but there is also the business of the recital to consider.
Trinkwon’s sartorial flamboyance – rather like Eileen Joyce and her coloured dresses, Trinkwon changes his get-up three times - is almost determinedly at odds with his demeanour when playing; he is focused, facially undemonstrative, and utterly commanding. For Stanley’s Trumpet Voluntary he wears a red velvet jacket – and the chunky watch on his left hand seems not to impair him at all. The Festing Variations are always associated with George Thalben-Ball and one can but admire how Trinkwon coaxes the most refined qualities and textures from the organ.
There are a number of revealing camera angles of Trinkwon from advantageous angles, not forgetting those shots of his pedaling, where from the waist up he resembles a serene aquatic bird whilst from the waist down he pedals with exceptional rapidity. There are numerous shots of the Abbey throughout the performances, and of its most monumental and beautiful features such as buttressing and the stained-glass windows.
The programme appeals both to the heart and to the spirit. It divides into periods and national schools and reflects Trinkwon’s enthusiasms and specialisms. Above all it offers variety to the watcher and listener and offers renewed opportunities to appreciate the virtuosity and musicality Trinkwon possesses. The Bach Prelude and Fugue and Couperin’s Messe – the playing evokes the exquisite nature of the writing – preface Liszt’s Prelude and Fugue on BACH. ‘Liszt is the reason I became a musician’ the organist says in one of the brief spoken interludes and he proves an admirable exponent of the grandiloquent writing as much as its more refined gestures; for this performance he wears a sober, though shiny black number. He has also changed the ring on his little finger. It’s frankly unavoidable noting things sartorial when discussing a filmed Trinkwon performance, given that it is very much a feature of his appearances. There are shots of gargoyles during the music’s most coruscating passages; something of an audio-visual feast.
French repertoire is a core specialty of the organist as shown by the sheer refinement of the Widor, the drama of the Guilmant and the will-o the wisp articulation of the Vierne - as well as its more elusive elements. Samuel Rousseau, who was a little-known Paris-based composer, is represented by his charming and light Scherzo of 1894 whilst in Enrico Bossi’s Etude Symphonique Twinkwon’s Fred Astaire footwork is very much on show; athletic and aerobic too. In florid white brocade-like get-up we enter the final furlong of the recital with four pieces to engage and excite. There’s Jehan Alain’s Litanies, the English composer John Cook’s Fanfare, the Prelude O Waly, Waly by American Joyce Jones – full of bells - and ending with Jeremy Filsell’s arrangement of Pierre Cochereau’s gripping Boston Toccata – the final movement of his Symphony.
The booklet is attractively laid out, with full programme notes and plenty of colour photographs. The recording is excellent, up to the best Selby standards, and DVD navigation unproblematic.
As noted, interspersed in the recital are a few brief direct-to-camera thoughts from the organist. He has constructed a valuable, creative and imaginative recital, fit for purpose. Somewhat melodramatically, perhaps, but not inappropriately things end with the Trinkwon walking slowly down the nave, his footsteps echoing in the near-empty abbey.
Jonathan Woolf
Contents
John STANLEY: Trumpet Voluntary transc. Henry Coleman [3:25]
Michael Christen FESTING: Festing Variations transc. G Thalban-Ball [5:20]
Johann Sebastian BACH: Prelude and Fugue in D major [9:17]
François COUPERIN: Messe pour les Couvents: Benedictus – Tierce en taille [3:23]
Franz LISZT: Prelude and Fugue on Bach arr. Jean Guillou [12:52]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS: Fantasie in E flat [5:08]
Charles-Marie WIDOR: Andante cantabile, from Symphonie No.4 in F minor [6:01]
Alexandre GUILMANT: March upon Handel’s ‘Lift Up Your Heads’, Op.15 No.2 [4:42]
Louis VIERNE: Impromptu Op 54 No.3 [3:13]
Samuel ROUSSEAU: Scherzo [3:58]
Enrico BOSSI: Étude Symphonique, Op.78 [4:48]
Jehan ALAIN: Litanies [4:12]
John COOK: Fanfare [4:51[
Joyce JONES: Prelude, ‘O Waly, Waly’ [6:06]
Pierre COCHEREAU: Symphony; Boston Toccata arr. Jeremy Filsell [5:41]
