The Organs of Edinburgh: McEwan Hall

Music by Hollins, Flagler, Whitlock, Ireland, Wagner and Bizet
PerformerThomas Trotter
Venue McEwan Hall
Address Bristo Square, Edinburgh
Reviewer Philip Sawyer

I suspect that for many of the audience the visit to the interior of the McEwan Hall was an experience that they will not forget; it is an extraordinary building with an extraordinary acoustic.

Thomas Trotter

The organ in the McEwan Hall has undergone several modifications since it was built in the last years of the 19th century. This is a pity; it would have been endlessly fascinating to have the original Hope-Jones instrument of the McEwan Hall next door to the severely classical organ by Ahrend in the Reid Concert Hall. However, times and tastes change and affect some organs more than others; the McEwan Hall now has what is essentially a 'town hall' type instrument. Because of this, Thomas Trotter, the city organist of Birmingham, found himself almost at home for the fourth of his 'Organs of Edinburgh' recitals. He certainly put the organ through its paces in a programme consisting of original works for the organ and some spectacular transcriptions by Edwin Lemare of music by Wagner and Bizet. I confess to finding most of the original organ pieces rather uninspiring, although the variations by Flagler (an American) and John Irelands Capriccio provided some dazzling displays of Trotter's fine and effortless technique.

The recital moved into a higher gear with the transcriptions. Here, the 'holy trinity' of music, transcriber and performer provided the audience with first-rate music (Wagner's Overture to Rienzi, the Pilgrim's Chorus from Tannhäuser plus a suite from Bizet's Carmen), transcribed by a musician (Lemare) who understood both the original music and the instrument for which he was transcribing and performed by an organist who knows his job, understands the music and has the technique to deal with it. It was worth the wait.

It is a pity that the McEwan Hall has such a noisy wind supply and rather intrusive action on at least one of its manuals. For once, the instrument at en EIF recital made more noise when at rest that the audience!

As John Kitchen pointed out in his helpful introductory remarks, the photographs and organ specifications in the programme booklet were unhelpful at best and inaccurate and misleading at worst. The names of the many composers whose music is played in Thomas Trotter's series of recitals had the benefit of neither Christian names nor of dates of birth and death.

© Philip Sawyer. 23 August 2001