Organ Duets for Two to Play, St Andrew’s and St George’s West, Review

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Rating (out of 5)
4
Show info
Company
St Andrew’s and St George’s West at Festival Time
Production
Handel, Intro and Fugue in C; Bonelli, Toccata Athalante; Hesse, Phantasie in C minor; Samuel Wesley, Two Duets for Eliza; Rutter, Variations on an Easter Theme; Kunkel, The Right Combination; Tchaikovsky, From Nutcracker Suite.
Performers
Michael and Brigitte Harris (organ)
Running time
55mins

Michael Harris has been Organist and Master of the Music of St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh since 1996 whilst his wife, Brigitte, is Director of Music at St Andrew’s and St George’s West. It was on her organ that we heard them play a selection of duets.

Whilst Brigitte introduced the recital, she left it to Michael to give us a brief description of what they were to play. We then watched them at work as it was relayed onto the wall in front of us. In olden times we would have been sitting on the stage and looking up.

After the opening work by Handel, we heard a work by Bonelli intended for the two organs that were often across from one another in Italian churches. After Hesse's Phantasie in C minor we heard Two Duets for Eliza by Samuel Wesley, written for his daughter called Eliza. Perhaps the longest work was from John Rutter who rarely writes for the organ alone. It was his Variations on an Easter Theme; my first hearing and interesting. Meditation and The Right Combination came from Liselotte Kunzel, born in 1975, with a jazz expertise. And to finish, some good fun as Michael Harris had told us, familiar sections from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite.

Performance: Thursday 25th August 2016 at 12:30pm