THOMAS
TROTTER 40TH ANNIVERSARY RECITAL
Symphony
Hall *****
Though Thomas Trotter still has four years to ago before he
catches up with James Stimpson’s amazingly long tenure as Birmingham City
Organist, the celebration of his own forty years in the post was a joyous
occasion indeed.
Assisted by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire’s Colin Maitlis, B:music’s
latest Organ Scholar, Trotter shared with us an enthralling exploration of the
capabilities of Symphony Hall’s Klais organ he has nurtured since its
installation over twenty years ago, playing at the front of the stage on the
portable console (how on earth does it communicate with all those mighty pipes
looming down from aloft?).
Bach’s G minor Fantasia and Fugue, well-coloured, began with
an appropriately improvisatory feel, moving into a fugue characterised by
Trotter’s neat gift for rhythmic clarity (and has anyone ever pointed out how
much a submotif in the Fugue influences the scherzo of Mendelssohn’s Octet?).
After a warm-toned Schumann Study in A-flat we heard the
premiere of the B:music commission Celebration Fantasia: Rhapsody on the name
of Thomas Trotter by Cheryl Frances-Hoad. How she gets such a striking motto
out of such unpromising letters defeats me, but it formed the basis for a
strikingly resourceful, vividly imagined survey of Birmingham developments
during Trotter’s forty-year tenure.
One of Trotter’s party-pieces, Lemare’s transcription of the
Overture to Wagner’s marathon opera Rienzi, began persuasively, moving
eventually into a rollicking peroration, but doesn’t the ear tire of the
conclusion’s barnstorming!
Finally came Liszt’s massive, imposing Fantasia and Fugue on
‘Ad nos’, a huge, potentially sprawling structure which under Trotter’s grip
emerged all of a piece, with plenty of drama along the way. He drew arresting
registrations from the organ (the first time he has put it through this
monolith of the repertoire), creating an atmospheric transition into the Fugue,
and incidentally revealing how much stamina he possesses as he unleashed the
triumph of the pedals.
Two encores followed, a soothing Schumann Traumerei, and
then a riproaring Widor Toccata.
Thomas Trotter has a responsibility borne by none of his
predecessors as City Organist: he has to curate two wonderful organs, not only
that at Symphony Hall but also the instrument whose installation Mendelssohn
supervised at Birmingham Town Hall. It is that instrument which is the vehicle
for a recent CD released on the Regent label of a range of Trotter’s favourite
pieces in a variety of styles, and which is much recommended.
Christopher Morley