Herald AV Publications

HAVPCD366 – English Fayre

	Disk Title	English Fayre
		The Organ of Winchester Cathedral
	Soloists	Simon Bell – Organ
	Location	St Giles-in-the-Fields Church, London
	Date Recorded	21-23 July 2009
	Audio Tracks	17

This recording takes the listener on a tour of late nineteenth and twentieth century English organ music, as befits the instrument found in Winchester Cathedral. The programme opens with the first of the two cornerstones of the organ repertoire featured on this recording, Willan’s Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E flat minor.

Healey Willan (1880-1968) was born in England, and after beginning his career in London, emigrated to Toronto in 1913. The Introduction Passacaglia & Fugue was written three years later, and was dedicated to Sir Walter Alcock the then organist of Salisbury Cathedral. Clearly written with the Salisbury Father Willis organ in mind, the mysterious nature of the opening four bars is rudely interrupted by the dramatic fantasia, that forms the Introduction. This in turn leads to the extraordinarily colourful and resourceful Passacaglia, which takes the listener on a tour of many wonderful textures and colours. The Fugue takes up the first five notes of the Passacaglia’s theme, and builds to a mighty climax on full organ, finally resolving into the major key.

Reginald Goss-Custard’s Chelsea Fayre dates from 1913. Goss-Custard (1877-1956) was organist of St Margaret’s Westminster and then later Alexandra Palace. He toured extensively in North America, where he was known for his recitals of Richard Wagner’s music.

The personality of this delightful gavotte possesses a sentimentality that evokes the England of another era.

Simon Bell has been Assistant Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral since September 2008, where his post involves accompanying the choir in services, television and radio broadcasts and tours, and directing the choirs on a regular basis. A graduate of Leeds University and the Royal College of Music, he previously held posts at Southwell Minster, Westminster Abbey and St Albans Cathedral.

During his time at Southwell, Simon founded the Minster Girls’ Choir, and also directed the Cathedral’s voluntary choir, the Minster Chorale. He also worked extensively with amateur choral ensembles; he was Musical Director of Grantham Choral Society and the Lincoln Chorale and also Accompanist to Nottingham Harmonic Society. He is currently accompanist to the Waynflete Singers in Winchester, and teaches the organ for Southampton University and Winchester College.

Simon was a prizewinner at the coveted St Albans International Organ Festival in 2001 and 2005, and also won the Limpus Prize in the FRCO examinations in 1997. He is a former holder of the W T Best memorial Organ Scholarship, awarded by the Worshipful Company of Musicians, and studied the organ with Gordon Stewart, Margaret Phillips and Ben van Oosten. He maintains a busy schedule of solo organ recitals and his playing can be heard on recordings of Winchester Cathedral Choir on the Regent and Hyperion labels.