Stephen Farr organ
Resonus RES10385
David Maw is an academic at Oxford with research interests in historical musicology, music theory and analysis. Projects have included English chamber music of the first half of the twentieth century, French polyphonic compositions of the 13th and 14th centuries, and early Beethoven. He is also an organist and won the grand prix André Marchal for organ improvisation in 2013.
With such a background and wide sympathies his compositions for organ should command attention, as indeed they do. The first work on the disc is La Vie de Jean Baptiste. The composer says that the work began as an improvisation from which developed a three-movement suite which takes the main elements in the saint’s story; the annunciation of John’s birth, his testimony that he was ‘a voice crying in the wilderness’ and his subsequent baptism of Jesus and his imprisonment by Herod leading to his execution and burial.
The composer also makes some use of the plainsong hymn dedicated to John the Baptist, Ut queant laxis. As the composer says in his note, there is an overtly programmatic element in the music. The idiom is strongly rhythmic, somewhat dissonant, but never quite departs from tonality. In places I was reminded of Messiaen, possibly because of the religious nature of the work, something I feel sure he would have recognised.
The work which gives the disc its title is the earliest, Accende lumen sensibus, which translated means ‘kindle light in the senses’. This is taken from the fourth verse of one of the great Christian hymns Veni creator spiritus. The composer says that the melody is used both as a whole and in individual phrases.
The work takes the form of an organ Mass, ‘its movements embodying functions from a liturgical rite – extrovert processionals at the outside, contemplative actions within. They do not represent these functions, nor do they offer a soundtrack for them. Rather, the functions afford spiritual occasion that the music manifests.’ (From the composer’s note.)
Space does not permit discussion of the other pieces on the disc. Stephen Farr is at his most committed and persuasive in this music and negotiates the virtuosic writing with aplomb. The organ of Norwich Cathedral, after having been thoroughly reworked by Harrison & Harrison, sounds magnificent. T
The recording is everything one could hope for, given the huge dynamic range involved. Detail, atmosphere and the glow contributed by the building are all palpably present. An outstanding release.
Review by Martyn Strachan