Grand Gothic in West Kensington

A trip to London one hot July afternoon, to play for that high art form, the service of Choral Evensong, with Wyndcliffe Voices and Philip Drew.
St John, Holland Road was the destination, invited by the church's organist, Paul Joslin. I had visited the church about 30 years ago and knew it as the last stone-vaulted building to be built in London. Built from 1885 to 1910 the website is worth a look, and explains some interesting little oddities, like the floor-level.

 Walking in, the immediate impression is "wow". We arrived after another service had finished and incense was still lingering. In the history of this church, that was nothing new!

 An estate agent's blurb about a flat for sale next door: "Holland Road is close to the green open spaces of Holland Park and the Shepherd's Bush's Westfield shopping centre" which made me smile.
The organ has no case, and is almost unphotographable, being 50' above floor-level.

 The original console was up there. The replacement, when the organ was rebuilt and enlarged by Henry Willis III in 1928, was also positioned with the pipework. Only after WWII was it removed to ground level in the South Transept. This gives the organist a chance of a) hearing anything other than the organ and b) a chance of balancing organ against choir or congregation. Suberbly comfortable to play, but one has to avoid the stops and couplers marked with a red spot, which don't work. And despite the best efforts of the organ-tuners, middle g on the Swell refuses to work. Caused me a moment of confusion when I played an E flat major chord...
The service went nicely (Weelkes canticles and Byrd anthem) with a couple of hymns and a psalm to Anglican chant. The church has on loan a small mid-19th century chamber organ and it was suggested I might like to accompany the service setting on that. In the end, I felt more happy playing the bigger organ. The hunt was on for suitable stops to use. After playing the Great 8+4 flutes against the Swell, my eye fell on the Solo Orchestral Flute 8 and Flûte Triangulaire 4. As it turned out, they were just what the choir director wanted. Quality tells. Playing slightly ahead to beat the acoustic delay was probably the most tricky thing to do, but Philip's beat is beautifully clear and I have followed it for many a year.
Rehearsal

 Altogether, a very happy afternoon. The rail journey back home to Worthing was less so, thanks to Southern Rail...

 All photographs copyright (c) Philip Bailey 2016.
Location: Holland Rd, Kensington, London W14 8AH, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Too long

Image
I can't believe how long it has taken for bookings to start coming in again after the 2020 lock-up of every church in the Kingdom. However, at long last I got  asked to play somewhere other than Brighton. OK, I have played here before, but it's still a change of scene. I played at Heene Church   on Sunday last. Heene is  a part of Worthing that predates Worthing. The word apparently means "high", it is the site of the old windmill (long gone) and is on the only high ground for some distance around. About 30' above sea-level, since you ask. The organ is still working, still uncleaned (last work was done in 1966, so it's a bit dusty in there), but the electronic "concert organ" has been taken out of service, and there seem to be no plans to plug it in again. (Just a couple of photoes to entertain. The organ facade was redesigned in 1966 to allow maximum sound to percolate from the chamber to the nave, as there is almost no egress from the west side. Al
Read more

Wombling free

Image
Well, not quite free, but playing at a church again. After 4 months, I finally got my little fingers on the keyboard of a real organ. And it was the lovely Bevingdon of St Mary, Kemptown . I've been attending services, but only via the internet. Not the same. Better than nothing, but not the same. I've posted photoes of St Mary's before, but this time I took some pictures during the service (still only virtual for the congregation) as I was able to wander around without disturbing anyone. So here's a small selection. And, just to show we're an inclusive church, the 'concelebrant', Magnus, who's a sweety, and very good in church.
Read more

Schney, Bavaria and North End, Portsmouth

Image
Today I was back in Findon for Trinity Sunday (45 years a church organist today liturgically), which coincidentally was the visit of residents of Schney in Bavaria, who are twinned with Findon. It was also an all-age service. The Vicar had, since it was Trinity Sunday, put down St Patrick's Breastplate which is theologically wonderful but crap for congregations to sing. It wasn't helped by the Mayhew book omitting a few verses and the vicar omitting a couple more, so we had the first verse, Christ within me and the last verse with its utterly unhelpful organ accompaniment (pinched from AMR which, since it's Stanford (d.1924), is out of copyright). Sitting by the organ console there were two people who knew it, as did the vicar. I couldn't hear much coming from the rest of the church... The readings and sermon were in English and German. I just about caught one word in 10 of the latter. During communion I played the Walton Elegy  (from music written for Richard III ),
Read more