It was very bold of the BBC to bring Cameron Carpenter to the console of the Royal Albert Hall organ for not one but two concerts over the same weekend. It was obvious from the start that his approach to Bach would divide organ enthusiasts. If I was thrown by his approach to the F major Toccata and Fugue, his playing later in the programme convinced me that, whatever we heard, it was on the basis of clear understanding of the originals and a phenomenal technique.

At the heart of his first programme he played the A major Prelude & Fugue BWV536. In interview he said he did not find this a profound work, but more a highly enjoyable one. What he gave us was both as here was highly sensitive playing, wonderful musicality and a profound joy in the music itself. His approach to Nun freunt euch, lieben Christen BWV 734 was staggeringly fast, based as it was on Busoni’s piano transcription which requires endless arpeggios to keep the music moving. His right hand and feet did not stop for a second.

He followed this with an improvisation on BACH. Having sat through too many numbing performances of both the Liszt and Reger BACHs I was prepared for the worst but found myself caught up in an American musical overture, somewhere between Gershwin and Bernstein. Not a gloomy note in sight, and yet the BACH motive was there throughout. What a joy to hear improvisation which so easily appealed to a far wider range of listeners than that which we too often encounter.

He concluded the afternoon with a reading of the D minor Toccata and Fugue BWV565 which took into account both Henry Wood’s and Busoni’s arrangements. If there were distinct hints of Fantasia here we have to recall that Stokowsky was himself wishing to expand the audience for serious music. Carpenter’s registration was about as wide as I can every recall on the RAH Willis, sometimes almost shockingly so. Almost obtusely, he started the Fugue at pp with great delicacy, but built it to a shattering climax.

His encore was an improvisation for the Jubilee and the Olympics, mixing God Save the Queen with London Pride, Rule Brittania and Chariots of Fire. It delighted the packed audience and sent us all out wanting more.

Where, over the years, too many organ recitals at the proms have been worthy but dull, this was as exciting as they come and musically satisfying. And that opening Toccata & Fugue in F major? I was dumbfounded. I had never heard Bach played this way before. It took some getting used to as he attacked the organ to make it work for him. If any reader does not like his approach, then, like Shakespeare, we have the benefit that Bach is always there and will have as many interpreters as there are musicians to perform him. A breath of fresh air may feel like a tornado to some, but we should welcome the challenge.

My colleague Stephen Page went to the second concert. BH

Having listened on the radio to Cameron Carpenter’s earlier prom  I was unsure how much I would enjoy this further performance. I have to admit to liking Bach organ performances of the “no frills” variety but I am also very fond of good theatre / concert organ arrangements of almost any variety. I need not have worried. From the opening notes of the Fantasia & Fugue in G minor (BWV 542) – begun almost as soon as CC was in position at the console – I was entranced.

Cameron’s performances were masterful examples of how to present music on the organ. He obviously knows the original material in depth and has a phenomenal technique enabling him to exploit the full resources of the Royal Albert Hall organ in a way I have not heard before.

Some may criticise such a performer as being showy but for me he proved to be highly successful in presenting music using the organ, as he said in his brief conversation with Christopher Cook, as a vehicle, not an end in itself.

The performance of his own Etude-Fantasy for Pedals on the Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 in G major, BWV 1007 left no-one in the audience in any doubt about his virtuosic pedal technique. It went much further than that, however, highlighting his ability as an arranger and composer to draw on a number of influences including those from the worlds of popular and jazz music to create a piece that was true to the original, highly creative and satisfying as a whole.

He then demonstrated in a very engaging way the art of the improviser. His Improvisation on the Bouree from Bach’s Cello Suite No 3 in C major, BWV 1009 showed clearly how he can use a well-known Bach excerpt as the springboard for something that is fresh and exciting, travelling through a number of different styles and treatments incorporating the light and the virtuosic, the “straight” and the less so! A beautifully brief and cheeky re-statement of the original theme brought the improvisation to its conclusion.

The longest item in the programme was the performer’s own Syncretic Prelude & Fugue in D major, a pairing of arrangements of Bach’s Chaconne from the Solo Violin Partita No 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 and the last movement of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. As in the previous day’s recital Cameron Carpenter drew on Busoni’s own re-working of the Bach. This was a tour de force. I just enjoyed it as a piece in its own right, luxuriating in the highly skilled, musical employment of the orchestra of the organ. Cameron’s ability to play with the colours in such a controlled way was phenomenal. I marvelled at the frequency of stop changes and was very interested to observe the way that he played up and down the combinations to achieve very smooth and effective crescendos and diminuendos. We heard wonderful solo stops playing against each other as well as magnificent choruses.

The large audience was very appreciative and Cameron responded with a well received encore.

This was music to appeal to lovers of organ music but also to those who just like good music, whatever the vehicle. I would love to see a CD of Cameron Carpenter at the RAH organ in the future.SP

A rather “heavy” looking programme was a delightful experience. The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, under the baton of Riccardo Chailly, were in good form.

The opening of Messiaen’s Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum really did sound from “out of the depths”. The percussionists and wind players together created a wonderfully moving experience.

The restated chant-like wind passages, with rasping brass and the sometimes frantic, other times static percussion produced a mesmerising sound world.  Messiaen’s desire to portray something of the meeting between the human and divine elements of life and death was certainly achieved. A neighbouring member of the audience remarked to me afterwards that he felt almost the whole hall had been in a meditative state. Anyone who says that Messiaen’s music cannot touch the soul should have experienced this performance.

The longer part of the evening was given over to Mahler’s  Symphony No 6 in A minor.

This four movement symphony showed the full orchestra in all its glory.  The symphony demands large resources which were all deployed well at different times throughout the piece, the two harpists adding an ethereal element, not unlike the mysterious cowbells heard at points away from the main body of the orchestra. Mahler makes precise technical demands of many of the instrumentalists, widening his already large palette of individual colours. I am afraid I found the view of one of the percussionists climbing a step at the back of the staging to deliver the two enormous hammerblows demanded towards the end of the final movement rather comic.  I know that was not Mahler’s intention and I am sure it was not the intention of the musicians either but do wonder about the placing of the instrument in such a strategic position!

Throughout the symphony there was drama, pathos, doom and uplift. A superb performance was given by an outstanding group of musicians. My only criticism is that I would have liked the concert to have ended with the Messiaen rather than the Mahler. SP

 Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly

An all Mendelssohn programme brought nothing but delight and a sense of joy throughout. If the open textured lightness of the Overture Ruy Blas seemed almost too genial for Victor Hugo’s dour play it set the tone for an evening of constant enchantment.

The violin concerto was sweet toned throughout. If the soloist Nikolaj Znaider was mercifully short on histrionics he was blessed with a magnificent technique and mellifluous lyricism. His discrete Bach encore, so beautifully structured, only added to our understanding of his musicianship.

After the interval came two less familiar works, given in new versions by Christopher Hogwood, which restore the composer’s original intentions. The Overture The Fair Melusine was Mendelssohn’s answer to a somewhat second-rate response from Conradin Kreutzer. He writes in a style reminiscent of the Hebrides Overture with storms and heroic blasts carrying us to a safe conclusion.

The composer’s Reformation symphony is numbered as his fifth but is actually his second, though hidden away because of an unfavourable reception. It is certainly more demanding on the ear than the other symphonic works but none the less impressive. The earlier version includes an extended solo flute passage to link the Andante to the final setting of Ein feste Burg and this works so well it seems strange that Mendelssohn changed it.

As an encore we heard the wedding march from the incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream – and all went home happy. BH

It was difficult to believe that Herbert Howells’ deeply felt and moving tribute to not only his own lost son but to all lost children has taken so long to get its first performance at the Proms. The richly romantic setting and the cumulative sense of joy which it brings are immensely appealing and were very warmly received by an unexpectedly full hall.

Just for second, the opening feels like the start of Gerontius but soon we are in more challenging country with the tension of Requiem aeternam only gradually giving way to the warmth of luceat eis.  It is light which holds the key to the work and light which gives birth to the ecstatic outpourings of the solo soprano, Miah Persson, who soared radiantly above the large chorus and orchestra.

The work frequently refers to the English pastoral setting as an image for peace and harmony, not just in the choice of text but in the eloquence and understatement of the musical line. Only the tenor Andrew Kennedy’s I heard a voice darkens the mood again as the work moves towards its close in another burst of shimmering light.

If there are clear influences of Vaughan Williams and Walton, Howells voice is very much his own and deserves to be more widely known.

The combined forces of the BBC Symphony Chorus and London Philharmonic Choir brought a weight and authority to the setting which is not available to the The Choirs, and the acoustic did little to soften the impact of the text.

The large orchestra was laid out somewhat unconventionally allowing the woodwind to speak with greater clarity. The organ, played by Malcolm Hicks, is a vital part of the setting. All was well until the final pedal note sounded as if a bird was stuck down the pipe.

The second half of the evening brought Elgar’s First Symphony. Where Martyn Brabbins had found romantic weight in the Howells, he seemed to discover an extra lightness and modernity in the Elgar. The shifting moods and tonal intensities were sharply contrasted. The second movement seemed almost tongue-in-cheek at times in its skittishness, allowing the third movement to blossom with near Mahlerian intensity. If the final movement opened cautiously it soon developed a sense of bite and edge which was held through to a thrilling conclusion. What could have seemed a rather conservative programme on paper was anything but. BH