Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Organist at Liverpool Cathedral, known for becoming one of the youngest cathedral organists at age 25.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:09Are you a Liverpudlian by birth?
Yes, I was born and bred in Liverpool.
Presenter asks
2:01From which of those two masters did you learn more?
Well, I I learned quite a lot from both of them, but I enjoyed my time in Italy with Giamani very much because it felt as if one had a a knife in one's back for the whole of the lesson and we had a lesson every day we practised every day so one felt fighting fit musically so to speak.
Presenter asks
3:42How big is it [the Liverpool Cathedral organ] in technical terms? How many pipes? How many stops?
Well, it has something like nine thousand seven hundred and four pipes and five manuals, one hundred and forty five speaking stuffs, which which sounds absolutely amazing, but the the console is so compact it's it's very comfortable to manipulate.
Presenter asks
4:00The keepsakes
The luxury
Is an organ, a cathedral organ, designed in collaboration with the architect, placing it to be acoustically right?
Yes, I think largely when a building is in progress, it's a matter of a dialogue between the architect and the organ builder. And if this is a happy association, well then the organ is successful.
Presenter asks
8:15Which is the finest organ you ever played on, which has given you most pleasure and satisfaction?
Well, I've been abroad many times and played all over England. I'm always glad to get back to my own organist Liverpool Cathedral.
Presenter asks
8:29Which is the worst organ you've ever played on?
Well, that shall be nameless, but it was in the north of England when I spent as much time picking up notes and pushing up notes as putting them down.
“I remember the first time I played in front of Giumani and I sat on the organ and played through a a large scale bark ... Prelude and fugue, which I thought rather brilliantly. and he let me play it without any interruptions whatsoever. And um then there was a silence at the end of it. and he said absolutely nothing about the work, And the first thing he said was 'We must learn to look pretty at the console. We must sit up straight, head straight.' This was, you know, General deportment. Nothing about the work at all, and it was a very humbling experience, and he was he was quite right.”
“We were both brought up in the cathedral, so we think alike, and musically we think alike, and we rarely have a joke between us. If there is any dichotomy, the organist can always blot it out, which I say I always win.”
“David plays the piano and violin, and sometimes it sounds like a musical academy when I get home at night.”
“I went on, set my combinations on the organ, and put the first corps down, and absolutely nothing happened. So I turned to my assistant, and out of the corner of my mouth I said, 'Will you switch the organ on, please?' and, as you know, the some organs have switches rather like the ignition switches on cars. And he turned round to me and said, 'I'm sorry, there is no key.' So we both, you know, not speaking any Russian, could hardly turn round and say, 'I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, we cannot start the organ because there is no ignition key.' So we sort of did a mime and walked off and we found the organ builder uh drinking wine in the basement and he had the keys in his pocket, so we started all over again.”