Music Chamber

God Save the Queen

 

Percy Whitlock (1903-1946) Plymouth Suite

Allegro Risoluto

 

The composer Percy Whitlock was born in Chatham, Kent. At the age of seven he was given a voice trial at Rochester Cathedral, where he was successful in being accepted as a probationer. This was the beginning of a long association with the organ loft. He was a scholar at the Cathedral Choir School and then the Kings School. He attended the Royal College of Music between 1920 and 1924. There he studied organ with Henry G.Ley and composition with Ralph Vaughan Williams. The Plymouth Suite was composed between August and November of 1937. The first movement Allegro Risoluto was dedicated to the then famous organist Harvey Grace. Harvey Grace was the organist of Chichester Cathedral and had succeeded W.G MacNaught as editor of the Musical Times. He was well known as an adjudicator at music festivals up and down the country. His book on the Organ Music of J.S. Bach enjoyed a vogue. Like much of Whitlock's music this movement is not easy to play. It is a somewhat laid back Allegro Risoluto with pretension to sounding like a theme for a passacaglia. This theme is treated in an extremely competent manner with robust harmonies. The second theme has been influenced by a phrase from the first movement of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony. The two themes are worked quite extensively with the first re-appearing towards the end. The piece concludes with tuba fanfares. The writer Peter Hardwick in his article 'The Organ Music of Percy Whitlock' notices a number of neo-classicist fingerprints leading to some interesting dissonaces. There are polytonal and polymodal parallel triads working in opposition to each other and spare parallel fourths and tritones. The metre is also subject to 'modernism' - there are quick alterations between 5/4 and 3/4 time and 2/4 to 3/4. Hardwick suggests that this is done to suggest the 'changing rhythms and moods of the sea.'

 

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Trio Sonata No. 5

Allegro ~ Largo ~ Allegro

 

The Bach Sonata was likely composed during the 1720s to consolidate his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann’s organ technique. The three-movement format has more in common with the concerto than the sonata, with the ritornello structure of its quicker movements recalling the practices of Vivaldi. Importantly, the second movement contains several distinct elements: a fugal exposition, a ritornello and a da capo, achieved in a dialogue between the oboe and harpsichord’s obbligato part, serve to make this an unusual, though attractive, movement. The final two-part Allegro also defies convention: its fugally-treated melody is a remarkable contrast to the concerto-like opening of the sonata; its florid semiquaver figuration is persistently diverse, rather than deriving specifically from the main theme, and provides a lively, yet continually-varied climax to the work.

 

Jehan Alain (1911-1940) Choral Phrygien

 

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) Fantasia & Toccata

 

James Perkins hails from Wolverhampton where he was educated at St. Peter’s Collegiate School, winning the Parents’ Prize for music. From 2006 - 2010 James was employed with the Royal Artillery Band (Woolwich) and toured Europe, China and North Africa and gained ATCL (Piano). He currently studies the organ with David Graham and the harpsichord with Jane Chapman at the RCM. James is the Organ Scholar of All Saints’ Margaret Street where he enjoys performing and accompanying the ancient liturgy of the church.

 

This concert was kindly organised by Diana Roberts, Professional Engagements Manager at the Royal College of Music.