Writes Samuel Hill, Music Administrator
Last Wednesday, together with Mrs Stubbs, Mr Tonks, and Mr Hill, four of the school’s young organists travelled into London to attend an organ recital at the Freemasons’ Hall.
Arriving uncharacteristically early, we were able to explore a little of the magnificent building, feeling rather at home in another splendid Art Deco masterpiece. Seeing the lists of Lodges on the walls around us, we decided that it would be interesting to have a photo beside the name of the OMT Lodge, the Sir Thomas White Lodge, No 1820.
We were then ushered into the Grand Temple, a rather unusually shaped room with a magnificent organ at the east end. The recital was being given to celebrate ten years since the organ’s refurbishment and rebuild, and was given by the same organist, Thomas Trotter, who gave the inaugural recital a decade before. For the benefit of the audience, a screen was placed in front of various thrones displaying what was going on at the console.
The recital, which lasted about an hour and a quarter, included a variety of music from the familiar (BWV 541) to the unknown (Bonnal’s Paysages Euskariens). The recital displayed the whole tonal range of the organ, particularly in the delightful Five Short Pieces by Percy Whitlock. After the recital, we retired to a nearby Wagamama and thence to school.
