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 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
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
Myles Hartley (organ, Harris Manchester College, Oxford) 
