As a wonderful innovation - what goes on in the organ loft is now screened to the walls either side of the pulpit, allowing us to sit in the normal seats. It's an enormous improvement for we see so much more of the action. In previous years we have sat on the dais by the pulpit looking up to the organ loft where we have only been able to see the player's back - not the fingers at work.
It is unusual to hear organ music written for two players. Brigitte Harris, as the resident Director of Music, introduced the recital and left it to her husband, Michael who has the organ at St Giles', to tell us a bit about what they were to play. He described it as a mixture of good tunes, but rather feared we might see husband and wife scrapping - not just with their hands but feet also. Here they let us down.
The programme described the concert as music for two to play from a country wedding to swinging jazz. Some of the composers well known, others from an organist's repertoire. Each required two players and it was fascinating watching them at work. As Michael Harris had explained there was a period in Europe when an organ either side of the chancel was the norm, each with an organist. Hence there's plenty of music written for two organs.
The centre piece of the hour was A Rural Wedding Feast by Franz Berwald (1796-1868), his only organ piece. We could imagine the strong fanfares announcing the wedding day followed by the festive procession. Soon a hymn was being sung, a Cantilena and then the familiar tune to Now thank we all our God. A walk in the woods was covered by the Pastorale, deliberately slightly chaotic, and then the Folksång describes the celebration after the wedding and ends with the wedding march we heard at the beginning.
The recital really was a treat, the more so because we could see what was happening. The audience loved it.