What the press says

ANIMAL PARADE REVIEWS

Cathedral Music Magazine May 2011

William Saunders offers an enterprising programme in which he plays to the strengths of the recently refurbished organ of Brentwood Cathedral. The Mathias and Rutter pieces are standard fare and both are delivered in fine style. Sparkling performances characterise the five movements of Christopher Steel’s Changing Moods and John Gardner’s Five Dances. Dobrinka Tabakova’s Diptych was written at the suggestion of William Saunders who gives its world premiere recording here. The eponymous Animal Parade is a delightful set of twelve pieces, ten of which portray a variety of animals (carefully avoiding Saint-Saens’ choice in his Carnival of the Animals, although neither composer can resist a sideswipe at music critics!). The wit shines through the entertainment thanks to the player’s effortless techniques and choice of registrations. Animal Parade is already attracting the attention of concert organists and this performance of the complete work is another world premiere recording (four of the movements were recorded by Christopher Herrick some nine months earlier). To add to the fun, the accompanying booklet prints a set of poems by Ester Eidinow for optional narration. These are much more successful than the rather embarrassing verses Ogden Nash wrote to accompany the Saint-Saens Carnival some years ago. A most engaging CD, well recorded and beautifully played. Highly recommended.

Alan Spedding

***** = Highly recommended

In his third CD for Regent, William Saunders again demonstrates his flair for programming unusal and ear-catching British music. Saunders never shirks a rhythmic challenge: the intricacies of Christopher Steel’s Changing Moods suite, John Gardner’s Five Dances, Mathias’s Recessional and Rutter’s Toccata in Seven are negotiated with consummate ease. Saunders extracts the maximum amount of colour from Brentwood Cathedral’s III/48 Hunter/HN&B/Percy Daniel organ, not least in the two recorded premieres: Diptych, a gentle and evocative exploration of organ sonority commissioned from the Anglo-Bulgarian Dobrinka Tabakova: and Iain Farrington’s enchanting 12 – movement bestiary, Animal Parade, inspired by the poems of Ester Eidinow.

Graeme Kay

Organists’ Review February 2011

There is some unusual repertoire on this disc, all of it composed in the last 40 years or so. The title composition is a suite by Iain Farrington from 2007 very much in the manner of Saint-Saen’s Carnival of the Animals, comprising 12 brief descriptive, humorous, quasi-improvisatory movements, which explore some of the more unusual sonorities at the organist’s disposal. Examples range from the cabaret-style humour of the Barrel Organ monkey through the rich sonorities of the Blue Whale and sparkling, twittering (in the old sense) Sparrows to some spooky Piranhas with their sudden bursts of ‘frenzied feeding’ and some decidedly louche Alley Cats. There is even a set of children’s poems, one for each movement, and a striking jungle picture by Jo Burke for the front cover.

The rest of William Saunders’ programme is mostly in the same idiom, where he clearly feels at home. The music is urbane and light-hearted and the performances apparently effortless. My particular favourites are the Jig and Lament, two movements of the 1988 composition, Five Dances for Organ by John Gardner. The former is huge fun, with Irish and jazz influences. After a monophonic start – as it were a lone fiddler – a ‘pizzicato’ bass and a second melodic voice join to form a sort of jazz trio, and some ripe registrations take over for the central sections, all done very much with tongue in cheek. The Lament is a very effective, haunting bagpipe dirge with obvious Scottish influence.

Marcus Huxley

New music, played on a new organ in a new cathedral, is a delight

How many who pass by Brentwood in Essex on their daily commute to London know that it boasts a cathedral, I wonder? True, it’s only been there since 1991 and hardly dominates the town; but not only is it a lovely building, combining the Italian Renaissance with Wren’s Classical lines, it also boasts a fine organ by PRecy Daniel of Clevedon which William Saunders here displays in an interesting programme of music composed within the last half a century.

Perhaps the building’s generous acoustic rather muddies the clean lines of Christopher Steel’s jolly suite and blunts the rhythmic vigour of Rutter’s lightweight Toccata but this is more than compensated for by the bright, perky and crisp voicing of the organ itself – most vividly displayed in the sparkling open of Gardner’s Dances and the sprightly marching tread of Mathais’s Recessional – and Saunders’s rhythmically vital and athletically inclined playing. The recording feels a little distant but the whole thing exudes bright cheer and happiness; and you can’t say that about every organ recording.

Not exactly a “world premiere recording” as claimed in the booklet (Hyperion got there first, but with just three of the 12 movements), Iain Farrington’s Animal Parade gives the disc its title (even if the cover image depicts two animals which don’t appear musically). Despite a superficial nod towards Saint-Saens’s Carnival, this is very much an original work. Not uniformly successful and possibly in need of the optional narrations to break it up, Saunders nevertheless communicates the wit and humour admirably, and while I can’t accept Farrington’s impudent inclusion of “Critics” in his zoological catalogue, my resentment is easily assuaged by this delightfully happy and unaffected playing.

Marc Rochester

Organ recital discs often feature works and composers unfamiliar to those who are not aficionados of the organ loft, but this one still stands out for its enterprise. Six works by British – or British/Bulgarian in the case of Dobrinka Tabakova – composers, all still living apart from William Mathias. Only two of the individual movements exceed five minutes – and even then only just – so that there is no opportunity for boredom to set in; indeed the variety of musical character is one of the best features of the disc.

By some way the work which impressed me most was John Gardner’s Five Dances. Their titles, including Lavolta, Pavin and Jig, might suggest that these would be some form of pastiche. In fact although they certainly do have the general mood that their titles might suggest they do have real character of their own and the work as a whole is succinct, imaginative and full of musical interest. It is hard to understand why it has not claimed its deserved place in organ recitals – the disc would be worth having for it alone.

The Diptych by Dobrinka Tabakova, written for William Saunders, although clearly related to the composer’s Bulgarian roots, transforms them into something very individual but idiomatic for the organ. It is well worth hearing, but the other real discovery for me on the disc was the Animal Parade by Ian Farrington, himself a noted organist as well as pianist. It is a kind of organ equivalent of “The Carnival of the Animals”, each of the twelve short movements being inspired by verses by Esther Eidinow. The composer suggests that these can be read before each item but here they are printed in the booklet. This is sensible as whilst it is interesting and moderately amusing to read them once I cannot imagine wanting to hear them read every time I listen to the music. And I am sure that I will want to do the latter again. This Suite has energy and imagination and shows off the varied capabilities of the organ very well although surprisingly the composer’s website indicates the availability of a piano version. The movements include the hippopotamus, the barrel organ monkey and piranhas. All are succinctly but vividly characterised. Animal Parade is surely likely to be a regular part of many organists’ Bank Holiday recitals.

The Mathias Recessional is well known and well played here. The Suite by Christopher Steel is in five movements with descriptive titles (Genial March, Pensive Ground and so on) after the manner of Britten’s Simple Symphony. However whereas the Britten goes well beyond the scope of the titles this does not. It is a series of pleasant but to me uncompelling pieces of light music.

All in all this is a very welcome and enjoyable recital of music off the beaten track but worth exploring. The booklet includes full notes on the music and a history and specification of the organ.

John Sheppard

Cross Rhythms 2010

The title track is a world premiere recording of a suite by Iain Farrington with 10 miniatures describing 10 species, each with an accompanying poem by Esther Eidnow. The poems are not recorded but they are printed in the CD booklet so you can chant along, a la ‘Façade’, if the fancy takes you. All are worth hearing and one is worth quoting: “Critics”. “Look, a pack of critics on the prowl/Swaggering, they’ve no fear of a fight/Watch them: will they laugh or scowl?/A thousand futures rest on what they write.” Golly. Well, your intrepid reviewer can say, without fear or favour, that he has not enjoyed an organ recital as much as this one in many a long year. William Saunders plays beautifully and the organ in Brentwood Cathedral sounds splendid. The music is varied, starting with the aptly named “Changing Moods” by Christopher Steel and followed by “Five Dances For Organ” by John Gardner all of which gives the organist and his instrument every opportunity to shine. Then we move into what can be described as contemporary takes on traditional church organ music with a Recessional by William Mathias, a Diptych by Dobrinka Tabakova (another world premiere recording) and then the ever-reliable John Rutter’s “Toccata In Seven”. I can see myself using the “Animal Parade” sequence in a school assembly or church family service and any church that has an adventurous organist may hear Mathias’s Recessional but really this is a CD to play and enjoy.

9/10

Launch Concert at Brentwood Cathedral review

While Iain Farrington’s Animal Parade provided the fun and fireworks of this extraordinary recital at Brentwood Cathedral there is no doubt that it was the world premiere of Dobrinka Tabakova’a Diptych that stole the show.

This beautifully crafted piece was commissioned by the organist William Saunders from the young British/Bulgarian composer and written especially with Brentwood Cathedral’s restored Hunter organ in mind. The two movements, Pastoral and Choral, were simple in structure but rich in sonority and harmony and were done full justice by Saunders. The Choral particularly caught the ear with its emotional intensity and sensuous, shifting harmonies. It is not hard to imagine this quickly establishing itself in the organ repertoire.
Elsewhere in this modern all British programme – put on to launch Saunders’ third CD Animal Parade (Regent Records) – the emphasis was on the colourful and spectacular, giving Saunders ample opportunity to demonstrate his well-honed, but never flashy, technique and his wonderful ear for registration. He used the strongly programmatic works in the recital to seduce the very appreciative audience with an extraordinary variety of sounds. Christopher Steel’s Changing Moods with which he opened the recital encapsulated that skill – a kaleidoscope of emotions and musical colour which set the evening up perfectly.

John Gardiner’s Five Dances for organ showed why he is a composer that deserves to be heard more. The haunting Lament in particular stood out. This was followed by a confident performance of William Matthias’s Recessional no 4.

The main work of the evening, from which the CD takes its title, was Farrington’s Animal Parade. Its twelve movements must constitute one of the strangest pieces ever written for the organ and it is probably best described as a cousin for Saint-Saens’ hugely popular Carnival of the Animals, of which there were echoes in some of the slower movements describing the Hippopotamus and Blue Whale. It would be easy for music like this to slip into a sort of comic pastiche but, while it had its comic moments, Saunders never allowed this to happen because he lent it a feeling of artistic integrity that confidently drew the listener into the composer’s rather strange sound world.
For anyone who is a devotee of British organ music William Saunders CD containing all this music and more is well worth an investment.

TOWER POWER REVIEWS

American Guild of Organists Jan 2010

William Saunders currently holds positions as assistant director of music at Ipswich School and St. Maryle-Tower Civic Church in Ipswich. He here presents a lively, colorful program, mostly transcriptions of English repertoire. These include the Capriol Suite of Peter Warlock, Symphony No. 4 by William Boyce, “Antiphon” from Five Mystical Songs and “Alia Sarabanda” from Phantasy Quintet for Strings by Vaughan Williams, Percy Grainger’s perky Handel in the Strand, Country Gardens, and Irish Tune from County Deny, Gerald Finzi’s elegiac Prelude, and an abridged arrangement of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance No. 1. Abrief, polytonal Prelude on Dominus Regit Me was composed by Michael Nicholas (who also wrote the program notes) for William Saunders, particularly for this recording. Arthur Wills’s Etheldreda Rag, composed in the style of Scott Joplin, is based on a plainsong for St. Etheldreda. It provides a moment of humorous levity. Michael Nicholas joins Mr. Saunders in a brilliant, exciting performance of Rutter’s Variations on an Easter Theme. The program opens with a work only loosely connected to England: Guilmant’s March upon Handel’s Lift Up Your Heads. Saunders is a strong, technically proficient player whose performances are distinguished by a fine sense of style, lithe rhythmic gestures, and well-defined phrasing and articulation. The instrument, located in a generous acoustical environment, is voiced boldly, though its ensembles sometimes seeming rather strident. These energized, musically gratifying performances of appealing repertoire will delight the listener.

Organists’ Review May 2009

I have to admit to a moment of musical snobbery – when I first saw the programme of this CD, I dismissed it as lightweight with lots of arrangements. Then I looked again, and listened to the CD, and promptly corrected my opinion. True, this is not a programme for the organ highbrow, but it is an admirable advertisement for the organ as a musical instrument and for the player as a communicator. The Guilmant March is taken at about metronome 120 – a proper quick march tempo – and is played with precision and élan. The arrangement of the Capriol Suite is transcribed by the recitalist from the piano version by Maurice Jacobson: it combines all the charm of the original with imaginative use of the organ. The Boyce symphonies sit well on the organ and Arthur Hutchings’ arrangement preserves the bright idiom of the three movements, Allegro, Vivace ma non troppo and Gavot. The next eight tracks alternate between cheerful and thoughtful, then comes John Rutter’s set of seven variations on the Easter hymn O filii et filiae for organ duet, unfamiliar to me until now but an enjoyable showpiece for two organists. The recital ends with William McVicker’s transcription of the Land of Hope and Glory march, somewhat abbreviated, but a rousing finish to what Michael Nicholas aptly describes in his programme notes as an “unusually colourful and varied programme”.

The organ is a comprehensive three-manual, its history given in the booklet. William Saunders’ playing is excellent and the whole disc does what it sets out to do – give pleasure. I can think of few recitals which would more readily persuade the sceptic that listening to the organ can be really enjoyable.

Richard Popple

Choir and Organ March/April 2009

**** – Very good
The organ acquired its present character in 1964, under Henry Willis IV. One hopes that this engaging combination of colourful instrument and brilliant performer will soon be heard again, but in a programme of mainstream organ music. Most of the numbers are transcriptions (one by Saunders himself) of 20th-century English music (Elgar, Finzi, Grainger, Vaughan Williams and Warlock), Boyce’s Symphony in F being the delightful odd man out. Of the original works, the one by Michael Nicholas, a prelude on “Dominus regit me,” is the most arresting: it whets one’s appetite for a suite of such things.

Relf Clark

DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE REVIEWS

Organists’ Review Editors Choice May 2008 – full review

This is a superlative CD that should be on every organ music lover’s shelf. William’s playing is quite astounding: musicality, flawless technique and mindboggling organ management come together in a diverse programme that shows both the dignity and impudence of composer, performer and the Redcliffe organ. Registrations are imaginative, often unusual, but always highly effective. He even managed to find something akin to the Kinura (theatre-organ speak)! The playing is inspired and inspiring and the literature both known and unknown. I suspect many of us will be searching out Lynnwood Farnham’s Toccata (Theodore Presser, $7.95, available from all good music shops (MDS)). The Steel Six Pieces of 1967 (dedicated to Basil Ramsey) were published by Novello in 1975 and have immediate appeal, harmonically, melodically and rhythmically. Intrada is an essay in sumptuous chords (he was a pupil of Hindemith), the catchy Flourish is based on syncopated rhythms and ‘blue’ notes, Nocturne echoes slow movements of Langlais, Dance is rich with chord shifts and false relations (a sort of 20th-century Purcell) and Postlude pure Malcolm Arnold! Perhaps less satisfying for me is a rather ‘ordinary’ Meditation. Hollins’s Maytime Gavotte is a definite ‘must’ for those of us who like ‘immediate appeal’ (i.e. ‘tacky’) encores – all those pieces we weren’t supposed to like or play when I was a lad. The Intermezzo in D flat is attractive but less significant. My love of Whitlock’s music is no secret, and it’s a great joy to have such a fine account of the Four Transcriptions by Malcolm Riley (Banks). While the pieces stand on their own, the opening five bars of Fanfare also introduce the emotive March ‘Dignity and Impudence’ which uses Pomp & Circumstance No.4 as its model (hence Dignity and Impudence!). These enclose the poignant song To Phoebe (shades of Elgar 2) and the moving “Elegy” from the Symphony in G minor. The Harwood First Sonata is very clean (especially impressive are those tricky broken chord flourishes in the first movement), though perhaps a little four-square for my tastes, and I was aching for the Great Reeds some time before they made their appearance in the coda of the third movement, but this is a minor quibble alongside the glories that abound! Congratulations, William, on a very fine and persuasive performance! Congratulations also to Gary Cole who has created a very integrated sound and produced a most readable and informative booklet.

“It is great to hear the organ in St Mary’s Redcliffe. A complete history of the instrument and its specification are given in the CD booklet. William Saunders playing complements this fine instrument and the impressive ecclesiastical setting.This is a great CD that explores some little known repertoire.”

Andrew Fletcher

RSCM Church Music Quarterly June 2008

“William Saunders performs with fiery relish….clearly he is a young man with the drive and talent to go a long way.”

Association of Anglican Musicians Feb 2008

“Here is an absolutely delightful recital of genuine rarities…The very wide dynamic range is expertly captured by the always-reliable Gary Cole with never a trace of distortion.”