'Praise the Lord with Drums and Cymbals' (Festliche Musik alla Handel) by Sigfrid Karg Elert, organ

Details

Description

Paul Broadhurst plays the historic organ of Christ Church, Birkenhead, UK - built in 1888 by the Victorian genius, "Father" Henry Willis, and still in its glorious original condition. This organ is listed Grade 1 in its own right as an instrument of national importance. The coherence to its sound, and the quality of its many different tone colours, really make this organ stand out.

Sigfrid Karg Elert (1877-1933) wrote a wonderful body of organ music - late romantic in style using often wonderfully lush harmonies and dipping his toe into impressionism. This piece, evoking Handel, is harmonically more straight-laced than his main body of work but certainly shows Karg Elert's wonderful joie-de-vivre. I don't have drums or cymbals at my disposal (you need a Wurlitzer for that sort of thing!) but I do take the opportunity to jump around using many of the lovely contrasting sounds of this fabulous organ (flutes, trumpets, diapasons) on the different keyboards before ending on the Full Organ sound.

Sigfrid died tragically early (aged just 55) and, partly as a result of the German cultural situation in the 1930s, his music fell out of favour. However, there was a rightful renaissance of interest in his music from the 1970s onwards.

Technical details about this organ are available at https://npor.org.uk [index no. R01983] and a brief history is available on the church website at http://christchurchbirkenhead.net