This year we’re celebrating the organ in our programming, and we are very excited that our Assistant Conductor and professional organist Philip Scriven will be the one playing it at our upcoming concerts. As you’ll read more about below, he has toured the world with his playing and has played some of the world’s best organs – so when we wanted to talk about the organ we could think of no-one better to call.
In this interview, caught up to talk about his first memories of the organ, his favourite organ in the world to play and his favourite piece for the instrument…
Our interview
TBC: What are your first memories of the organ?
PS: My earliest memories were of turning pages for my father, who was the organist at our local parish church in Somerset. I was captivated by the sound and majesty of the instrument, and remember desperately wanting to learn the opening pages of the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor to play on it!
TBC: How did it feel the first time you played the organ?
PS: I remember the excitement of feeling as if I had an orchestra at my fingertips. Being able to start with the hushed strings, and then gradually work my way up through all of the various different tonal possibilities to the full organ, was exhilarating. In my final year as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, my (by then) broken voice meant that, instead of singing in the choir, I assisted the organists in the organ loft, and just before Evensong I used to turn the organ on and play the lowest note of the quietest stop on the organ, just so that I could tell my parents very excitedly that I had played the organ of Westminster Abbey!
TBC: Your professional career has taken you to France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America! What’s your favourite organ that you’ve played on in the world?
PS: For playing Bach and other music of the baroque period, the organ in the Martinikerk in Groningen, Holland is hard to beat, and the memory of playing an organ duet concert of Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with Martin Baker on the fabulous Willis organ in Westminster Cathedral will stay with me forever. But without hesitation I would say that my favourite organ in the world has got to be that of Notre-Dame de Paris. I had the privilege of playing a recital there back in 2016, performing the Symphony No.2 of Louis Vierne (a former organist of Notre-Dame) and the immense power and sheer beauty of that amazing instrument blew my socks off (almost literally!).
TBC: Why do you think that the choir and the organ are so closely linked?
PS: Well, obviously there is a big connection through the church. Most organs throughout the world are located in churches (not always a good thing!), and were built to support and accompany the singing of both choirs and congregations. Perhaps the “breath” of the organ, being a woodwind instrument, is particularly suitable for that purpose. And there is no other place in the world where the organ and the choir are so inextricably linked as in our own country, with its magnificent choral tradition going back many centuries.
TBC: What’s your favourite thing about playing the organ?
PS: I love the variety and versatility of the instrument and its repertoire. The organ repertoire is by far the most extensive of any instrument except perhaps the piano, and covers the whole gamut of styles and emotions. There is also a huge variety in the instruments themselves, ranging from small chamber organs with one manual and just a few stops, to the largest organ in the world, the enormous seven-manual monster with about 450 stops in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I also love the variety of my job as an organist, one day playing for a small service at my local church, the next day preparing some of my Eton pupils for their Oxbridge organ scholarship auditions, and then playing the Langlais Messe Solenelle in concert with The Bach Choir!
TBC: Favourite organ piece?
PS: That’s a really difficult one! Barry Rose always used to say that your favourite piece should always be the one you are currently working on, and there is certainly an element of truth in that. The Duruflé “Suite” is definitely on my list of favourites, as is Vierne’s Symphony No.3 and Combat de la Mort et de la Vie by Olivier Messiaen. But it probably won’t come as a surprise that, for me, J.S. Bach towers head and shoulders above all other composers. His Prelude and Fugue in E minor (also known as The Wedge) is a thrilling piece of music, but I think top of my list comes the Chorale Partita on “Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig” (BWV 768) – especially the exquisite penultimate variation, which chokes me up every time I play or hear it. Do have a listen!