Date 4 August 2005 at 8pm Venue Christ Church Cathedral

Reviewer John Jane

Festival Vancouver 2005

Festival Vancouver and illustrious organ builder, Kenneth Jones could not have chosen better than British organist Wayne Marshall to perform the first public recital on the newly installed Tracker Action Organ at Christ Church Cathedral.

The swashbuckling organmeister literally blew the sawdust through the pipes in a powerhouse performance of Marcel Dupré's Deuxieme Symphonie. Half-way through the third movement, the brand new organ retaliated to the musician's “pounding,” when a piece of sawdust lodged in a valve causing it to stick open, resulting in a continuous drone. Jones and his technician duly corrected the mechanical problem, and Marshall continued unfazed, re-starting the Toccata from the beginning.

Dupré's organ music is not for the faint-hearted. But Wayne Marshall, it should be noted, is also an accomplished solo pianist and has performed this work many times, handling the technical and musical demands with aplomb. This was a performance that had to be heard to be believed.

Marshall 's recital began with his own Intrada, an improvised fanfare hardly more than a couple minutes long. He then seamlessly moved to an entirely different scale with Franz Schmidt's Romany-styled, Prelude and Fugue in D. The piece is perhaps better known as its subtitle, Hallelujah, because of its signature theme appearing in Das Buch sung by God.

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The Manchester virtuoso is never content to allow his audience the idle luxury of “just listening.” Participation was called for with the singing of “Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer” from the hymn book, Common Praise, provided in the pews.

The recital's second half showcased Charles-Marie Widor's Symphony No. 5. Widor served as resident organist at St-Sulpice in Paris for sixty years, where he composed no less than ten symphonies. His fifth symphony is by far the most famous, mainly due to the popularity of the celebrated Toccata, often played at weddings, as the new bride and groom walk out at the end of the service. Aside from the audible mechanical clacking of the pedals, Marshall 's imposing interpretation of the complete five movements was fluid and faultless.

Wayne Marshall

The final piece was under-represented in the programme, listing it as 'Improvisation on an English Folk Tune.' In fact, Marshall demonstrated his amazing skill as a jazz improvisor, weaving a medley of easily recognizable, British tunes that included "Irish Tune from County Derry," "An English Country Garden," and "God Save the Queen."

This was a stunning performance on a magnificent organ in a beautiful refurbished church. Wayne Marshall's French Romantic selection was an ideal introduction for those in the audience attending an organ recital for the first time.

© 2005 John Jane