If you have any interest at all in organ music…and let’s face it, who doesn’t…
Rob Stove is an old acquaintance – author, aesthete, ascetic, with a PhD in musicology but in his heart a musician. And a world-class organist – I’m not talking grannie's Hammond organ, I’m talking these big guys. I don’t think Rob has played St Ouen, but he’s played the one in Birmingham, and Freiberg Cathedral.
He’s progressively released a series of recordings of organ & choral work, with the latest (released in 2022) being Undertones Of War (British Organ & Vocal Music after 1918). It’s recorded in a church in Melbourne, with the organ described thus:
“The organ of Camberwell Basilica is an early-20th-century instrument manufactured in, of all places, Ireland and shipped out here early in Archbishop Mannix's reign. I love playing it and I love hearing it. For my money there's no better organ in Melbourne, although there are a handful of organs in the city that are as good.”
This isn’t my daily listen, but I find it ethereal and beautiful, and something entirely different. Very relaxing and contemplative, too – which is kinda the intent of most church-based organ & choral music, so “big tick” there.