From the Concert Hall, Broadcasting
House
C. H. TREVOR (organ)
ARTHUR CATTERALL (violin)
C. H. TREVOR PROBABLY the avenue of approach for the listener who has a genuine desire to know something of organ music is by means of music of the chamber combination type,' says Mr. C. H. Trevor, by whom the notes on this concert have been written. Bach wrote six Trio-Sonatas for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. Their aim was primarily technical, but they contain such a wealth of beauty that it is hard to believe that they were, and in many cases still are, regarded as purely educational. Their texture is in the main polyphonic. The organ is the only instrument on which three strands of different colour can be under the control of one performer. (Bach wrote a number of Choral Preludes in trio style and several detached pieces, such as the Trio in C minor and Aria in F.) Two of the movements from these
Sonatas are well-known to Promenade audiences through Sir Henry Wood's arrangements for orchestra. One of them is the Andante from the E minor
Sonata. These Sonatas may be described as chamber music for the organ. They are always a surprise to those who have hitherto regarded ' Bach ' and ' Fugue ' as synonymous terms, or who are under the impression that all organ music is loud. COMPARATIVELY little has been written for the organ in combination with other instruments by modern composers.
Handel and several of the early English composers wrote Concertos for organ and orchestra, but, singularly little of the chamber-music type has been written at any period. Rheinberger's Suite (Op. 166), for Violin and Organ, is one of the very few works written for this combination. Although Rheinberger wrote much in other fields, he is chiefly remembered, at all events in this country, as a writer for the organ, and as such may be numbered among the great. It may be difficult to realise that a composer may be accounted great even though he chooses the organ as his chief means of expression. Rheinberger is more concerned with the music than the medium, a fact which is proved by his having arranged nineteen of the organ sonatas (he wrote twenty) for piano duet. As Harvey Grace has pointed out, his organ music is so purely musical that most of it can be played effectively on an organ of one manual and a few stops, or a pedal-pianoforte.
The Suite for Violin and Organ has the fine qualities of the organ works. The first movement shows the composer's ability to write a fine, spacious tune. MAX REGER has made little headway in this country, and with the exception of a mere handful of organ works and songs his music is, in the main, practically unknown. He wrote just over two hundred pieces for the organ.
This, in the light of his activity in other fields of composition, is an astonishihg output. Some of the works are long, complex, and difficult to grip even after several hearings. There are numerous essays of moderate length, however, which cannot fail to make an appeal even at the first hearing. In this connection, two works may be cited. The ' Moment Musical ' (Op. 69, No. 4) has a long, serene tune, and the ' Praeludium ' (Op. 59, No. i) is characteristic of Reger's elemental strength and sturdiness.