John STANLEY (1713-1786)
Six Organ Concertos, Op.10
No. 1 in E [8.24]; No. 2 in D [7.48]; No. 3 in B flat [9.05]; No. 4 in C
minor [11.45]; No. 5 in A [6.58]; No. 6 in C [8.25]
Northern Sinfonia Orchestra/Gerald Gifford (organ)
rec. Hexham Abbey, Northumberland; no date given
CRD 3365 [53:50]
This, so far as I am aware, is the only recording that has
ever been made of these concertos from John Stanley’s final years. Although
the composer is fairly well known for his organ music, these concertos were
published in 1775 for “organ, harpsichord or fortepiano” and –
notwithstanding the obvious wish to appeal to the widest possible market –
appear to have sold so badly that only one set of orchestral parts is now
known to exist. These parts, in the library of the Marquis of Exeter at Burghley
House, Stamford, were used as the basis for this recording, and the cadenzas,
Gerald Gifford informs us in his booklet note, were improvised during performance
in the proper eighteenth century tradition.
John Stanley was blinded in an accident at the age of two, but still managed
to pursue a successful musical career and actually succeeded William Boyce
as Master of the King’s Band of Music in 1779. Although these concertos
were published late in Stanley’s life, Gifford speculates that they
may have been written considerably earlier and cites the wide disparity of
styles as evidence for this. The first two concertos, in two movements only
(there may possibly have been an improvisation intended between them, in the
manner of Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto) fall under the
influence of baroque models and are positively Handelian in effect. The later
concertos in three movements are more classically orientated and look forward
to the music of Haydn which so delighted English audiences when the latter
visited London towards the end of the century. The Fourth Concerto,
over ten minutes long, is a very impressive piece of writing indeed; and one
can imagine it being played on a fortepiano to exciting effect, especially
the virtuoso Presto finale. This is also the only concerto of the
set in the minor key.
Quite apart from the fact that Gifford has presented us with such unfamiliar
music which is otherwise unavailable, the performances themselves are excellent
both in manner and recording. Ensemble cannot have been easy with the strings
being directed from the organ console, but it is clean and crisp enough to
provide much pleasure. Separate tracks are provided for individual movements
except in the Fifth Concerto. The recording was originally issued
on LP in 1980 and its reissue is most welcome.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
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