Images
Anna Lapwood (organ)
rec. 4-6 January 2021, Ely Cathedral, UK
Reviewed as a digital download with pdf booklet from
hyperion-records.co.uk.
SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD688
[68:22]
This is the debut solo album from the new doyenne of the organ world and a
formidable achievement it is! The programme is made up of transcriptions,
several by Lapwood herself, combined with a number of more recent original
compositions by up-and-coming composers. If there is a theme to the
recording, it is probably the way it reflects the quieter, subtler and more
colourful end of organ music.
She chooses to open the album with a delectable account of the opening
prelude of Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, a work that underwent transcription
by the composer himself. The arrangement here by Erwin Wiersinga is
exemplary, drawing out the echoes in Ravel’s writing of older keyboard
music, but this time in the organ loft rather than at the harpsichord.
Lapwood plays three movements in this work and it was only in the third of
them, the Rigaudon, that I felt the registration on the organ was a little
heavy handed.
Gowers’ Voluntary seems to me as occasional as its title suggests –
undoubtedly an effective enough piece but I found it pretty unmemorable,
even if Lapwood delivers it with maximum aplomb. Briggs’ Light in Darkness
I found more diverting in its mysterious hushed tones but again little
really stayed with me even after repeated listening. I found that Parks’
Images, which gives its name to the whole collection, had a little more
substance to it, but ultimately it too is a fairly minor piece. Which is
pretty much how I feel about the older Boulanger piece included. I can
imagine these pieces being a handy addition to any church organist’s
repertoire and they make agreeable fillers in the context of the prevailing
mood of after-hours in a big cathedral.
The heart and soul of this recital lies in the diaphanous rendition of the
slow movement of the Debussy String Quartet. I was transported to some
cavernous, candlelit Parisian church at midnight, all thought of the
original banished. Not all of this is as fanciful as it might sound as, in
her liner notes, Lapwood tells us that the album was recorded in the dead
of night and that she particularly enjoys playing at that time. It shows,
as this performance is gorgeous.
The other big piece in this programme is Lapwood’s own transcription of the
Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. I was a little sceptical beforehand as to
how much would be lost of Britten’s fabulous orchestration but I needn’t
have feared. Dawn is eerily effective. The best transcriptions take us
somewhere removed from the originals and here I felt I was in a different
kind of Britten world – that of the later Church Parables when Britten’s
sound world had been refined to bare essentials. Lapwood’s choice of
registration, always subtle and responsive, captures the pale, bleached
Suffolk early light better than even the young Britten’s lusher
orchestration. The sound of the organ is similarly effective in bringing
Sunday Morning before our eyes, complete with the additional clanging
bells. I did miss the gentle surge of the sea at night, so astonishingly
painted by the composer’s dazzling score in the third movement, but what we
get instead is a still, intense nocturnal meditation which again seems to
connect with an important dimension of Britten. It builds to a climax of
austere beauty.
The transcription I was least convinced by was the last, which never
succeeds in taking me beyond the organ loft. Lapwood plays with brilliance
but, unlike the previous three pictures, she never quite gets me to forget
the original. There is a murkiness to the sound picture, presumably
deliberate, which to my ears was messy rather than evocative. More seriously,
Lapwood sounds like she is making heavy weather of it (if you will pardon
the pun!). The hushed middle section, however, has a real tang of sea water
in the air. The lead back to the more violent opening music is very
exciting and the registration on the final chord is little short of
inspired.
Strangely, one of the more conventional pieces on this disc is one of the
most recent – Frances-Hoad’s Taking Your Leave. It is a well-made piece but
sounds rather ordinary after all the dazzling colours that precede it. I
felt it closes the programme in a somewhat flat manner. This impression
isn’t helped by its being preceded by Lapwood’s own arrangement of early
Messiaen in full mystical mood. Its delicate rainbow hues are another
example of what’s best about this recording – changing our perception of
the organ from just the roar of the big Victorian beasts.
This is hugely enjoyable disc. The programme is imaginative and challenging
and vividly showcases an enormous talent.
David McDade
Contents
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937) arr Erwin WIERSINGA
Le Tombeau de Couperin:
I Prelude [3:55]
III Forlane [6:23]
IV Rigaudon [3:49]
Patrick GOWERS (1936-2014)
An Occasional Trumpet Voluntary [3:43]
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918) arr. Alexandre GUILMANT
Andantino, doucement expressif: from String Quartet in G minor L.85 [8:16]
Kerensa BRIGGS (b.1991)
Light in Darkness [4:33]
Nadia BOULANGER (1887-1979)
III Improvisation from Trois Improvisations [3:20]
Owain PARK (b.1993)
Images [7:07]
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976) arr. Anna LAPWOOD
Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes Op.33a:
I Dawn [3:36]
II Sunday Morning [4:11]
III Moonlight [5:15]
IV Storm [5:06]
Olivier MESSIAEN (1908-1992) arr. Anna LAPWOOD
Vocalise-Étude [4:35]
Cheryl FRANCES-HOAD (b.1980)
Taking Your Leave [4:24]
