Listen & tracks

1 of 16 tracks have a preview · 11 works · 77:48

1 Toccata di Concerto, Op. 59 Edwin Henry Lemare 9:23
2 Sonata in D, KV 144 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 3:19
3 Romance in G William N. McKie 3:48
4 Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542 Johann Sebastian Bach 12:53
5 Colonial Song Percy Grainger 8:28
6 Concert Fantasia on a Welsh March William Thomas Best 12:03
7 Tuba Tune Norman Cocker 4:21
8 A Song of Sunshine Roland Diggle 2:55
9 Elegy George Thalben-Ball 7:00
10 Coronation March: "Orb and Sceptre" William Walton 9:43
11 Home, Sweet Home Henry Bishop 3:55

The programme ranges from Lemare’s brilliant Toccata di Concerto and Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor to Grainger’s Colonial Song, Best’s Concert Fantasia on a Welsh March, Cocker’s humorous Tuba Tune, Thalben-Ball’s Elegy, Walton’s coronation march Orb and Sceptre, and Lemare’s encore paraphrase of Home, Sweet Home. McKie’s Romance in G and Diggle’s A Song of Sunshine supply quieter colour along the way.

Made in June 1992, the sessions were the first major commercial recording of the vast 1929 Hill, Norman and Beard instrument. Its string, woodwind and brass stops suit the late concert-organ tradition of showpieces and orchestral transcriptions. A comprehensive 24-page colour booklet covers the music, the composers, the hall, the organ and its full specification.

Reviews

Thomas Heywood plays the works with great drive and youthful zest ... the quality of the recording sound, the balance and the overall ambience are uniformly excellent.

— Organ Historical Trust of Australia

the CD is worth having ... [Thomas] shows off this huge organ effectively ... [and] is an excellent performer ...

— The Delian, USA

Heywood's playing is in the venerable tradition of Town Hall recitalists and includes a certain amount of bravura necessary to bring off the many Edwardian and Victorian works on the program

— The Age - Green Guide

Artists

Thomas Heywood

organ

Thomas Heywood is one of Australia’s most sought-after concert organists, with an enviable reputation as a leading interpreter of the large-scale romantic and transcription repertoire on grand historic instruments.

Johann Sebastian Bach

composer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.

William Thomas Best

composer

William Thomas Best's organ scores favour the grand recital manner: a Sonata in D minor, Concert Fantasia on a Welsh March, variations on national airs, wedding marches and transcriptions that turn the console into a one-player orchestra.

Percy Grainger

composer

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882–1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. A brilliant folk-song collector and arranger, he was also a restless experimenter whose work ranged from tuneful percussion to Free Music machines that foreshadowed electronic synthesis.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He wrote over 600 works, many of them pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music, and remains among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

William Walton

composer

William Walton wrote across film, opera and the concert hall. His catalogue includes Belshazzar's Feast, the Viola Concerto, coronation marches such as Orb and Sceptre, and the light, demanding Five Bagatelles for guitar.

Henry Bishop

composer

Norman Cocker

composer

Roland Diggle

composer

Leonard Fullard

composer

Edwin Henry Lemare

composer

Edwin Lemare wrote and transcribed for the late-Romantic concert organ: display pieces and orchestral arrangements built to show the colour, weight and theatre of the great town-hall instruments. His Toccata di Concerto and Concertstück still light up grand-organ programmes.

H.G. Ley

composer

William N. McKie

composer

William N. McKie (1901–1984) was an Australian organist, conductor and composer. Born in Melbourne, he served as City Organist there before becoming Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey.