Richard Moore (Organ) & Ellie Lovegrove (Trumpet) World Première of Pipe Dream by Roderick Elms Wednesday 7 November 2018 – 1:00-1:50 pm We were delighted to welcome Richard Moore & Ellie Lovegrove, seen here with Roderick Elms (right), composer of Pipe Dream, a piece for organ and trumpet which was given its world première in the Cathedral today. Richard and Ellie began their programme with extracts from Handel’s musical fireworks, appropriate for early November, and Charpentier’s Te Deum; and while theoretically the one was clearly secular and the other religious in inspiration, both pieces displayed a similar baroque sentiment with bright and lively notes. Then Richard calmed the atmosphere somewhat as he played Purcell’s Voluntary on the Old 100th, with gentle and thoughtfully expressed sounds, after which he and Ellie joined forces again with the exciting Hornpipe from the Water Music. The Cathedral’s acoustic resonance matched the trumpet sounds perfectly, while the organ provided warm harmonic backing.
Having completed the ‘Suite from the Baroque’, Richard then returned with a solo organ piece based on a Lutheran Hymn by Bach, BVW 654, which has been translated as ‘Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness’. Here we were treated to a restfully melodic tune with long and beautifully expressed notes, after which Ellie again joined Richard to play the Trois Prières Sans Paroles by Dumase.
These three modern wordless prayers began with low, brooding notes from the organ while the trumpet expressed long sad phrases in slow waltz time, feeling in this sad centenary month of November, almost like a military last post. If the second Prière then seemed to be a sort of reveille, there was nothing strident or harsh about it. And in the third of the prayers a lively amost dancing sound rang about the Cathedral while the organ kept quietly in the background.
The organ then played the ‘The Peace May Be Exchanged from Rubrics’ by Dan Locklair, before Richard and Ellie came together again to play the world première of Pipe Dream by Richard Elms, who was present in the audience. The opening of the piece was very grand, almost like a royal acclamation, with the trumpet soaring above the organ, and then softening into dancing syncopated tones in which the jazz-like sounds were accentuated by the use of the mute. The trumpet’s wistful pleading made one think of a wandering soul, and then all was reolved into a trumphant finale to great applause from the large audience. Programme A Suite from the Baroque, comprising:
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Refreshments were served in the SONG SCHOOL afterwards Admission is free, but there will be a retiring collection to help to fund these recitals. If you use Gift Aid this will increase the value of your donation by 25% at no extra cost Photos – Graham Hillman |