Christ Church Bath is hosting another Saturday afternoon recital series this autumn and (having missed all of last year’s) I went to the opening concert, given by the strings of the Trowbridge Symphony Orchestra with David Winters on organ and conducted by Philip Draisey.
It began with one of Handel’s organ concertos, pieces that I think of as standard fillers in choral concerts to give the singers a rest. And in fact that is how they started life, as interludes during performances of Messiah, which must have made it very long if there were no cuts!
There followed two elegies, one by Parry and then an Elegie by William Henry Reed, now best known as Elgar’s friend and biographer, but a prolific composer and a local one too, as he came from Frome. He was also involved in the Three Choirs Festival and the Elegie was commissioned by Gloucester Choral Society (despite having no choral element in it).
The concert ended with Respighi’s Suite for Strings and Organ, a more expansive work and like a lot of Respighi employing conscious archaisms, so completing the symmetry of the programme. I sensed that the composer intended it to be played by a rather more powerful organ than we had here.
The concert was very well attended and preceded by home-made refreshments.