DANIEL writes:

I have just returned from a very enjoyable tour of Australia, visiting Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Melbourne Town Hall is home to a heroic-scaled, orchestral-style organ: the largest instrument in the southern hemisphere. The City of Melbourne promotes the instrument admirably, with well-attended concerts and events.  My popular programme included Bach’s (in)famous BWV 565 (the d minor Toccata & Fuga), Lemare’s arrangement of Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre and jazz and minimalist inspired works (by Fitkin, Koomans and Farrington). The concert was made all the more accessible for the (mostly non-specialist) audience by a cameraman projecting images of my hands and feet on to two large tv screens for all to see.  The mobile console was also very close to the audience on the ground floor, lending  the event  extra excitement and intimacy rarely enjoyed by us organists. 

This concert followed a well-received organ outreach event earlier in the day, where over 300 Melbourne school children heard music from 1400 to the present day, handled and blew organ pipes at close quarters and learnt something about the basic concepts of musical composition.  This was all accompanied by a lively script with plenty of opportunities for interaction, lighting effects and the chance for the children to walk through the organ chambers and watch  me demonstrate the  mobile console at close  quarters.  All in all, a very rewarding day!

In Sydney, my itinerary was yet wider-ranging. My first concert was at St Andrew's Cathedral, a lunchtime eclectic programme of Mendelssohn’s Third Sonata, J.S Bach’s d minor Praeludium & “fiddle” Fuga (BWV 539) and Duruflé’s Toccata. At Sydney Church of England Grammar School (known as “Shore”), I stayed in an apartment with an amazing panoramic view of Sydney harbour, opera house and business district! The school was the venue for the Sydney Organ Music Society’s A.G.M, after which I screened (in the school’s impressive new lecture theatre) the premiere of my new DVD. Entitled The Elusive English Organ, it is a fifty minute documentary which accompanies my latest CD, to be launched shortly. To continue the story after Napoleon (where the film finishes), we adjourned to the chapel where I gave a concert of music from Elgar to Leighton on the school’s sonorous 1923 organ. Before I left Sydney, it was a pleasure to give an assembly on the organ to the preparatory department, complete with demonstrations on a large screen.  Later on, a handful of promising pianists then had a short, hands-on introductory session on the chapel organ.

And finally to St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane.  The renowned 1909 organ is being lovingly rebuilt by Australian organ builders Pierce, so that it will return closer to its original state after controversial changes made in the 1970s.  It was a privilege for me to play as part of the Cathedral’s International Organ Series to celebrate the ongoing rebuilding of this powerful organ in a stunning building, and the work done so far on the instrument is clearly very impressive.  My programme was conceived along the lines of a “town hall” programme, so popular in both Australia and the U.K when the cathedral organ was originally installed.

I look forward to returning to perform and teach in this vibrant and colourful land.