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A Celebration of the Life and Music of Percy Whitlock (1903-1946)
On Saturday 9th May, we were delighted to welcome renowned Whitlock scholar, Malcolm Riley to give an illustrated talk about Percy Whitlock at Waltham Abbey Church. The talk was attended by members of the EOA, members of neighbouring Organists’ Associations and even attracted some non-members.
Malcolm gave a fascinating talk with plenty of insights into Whitlock’s life and music. We learnt about those who influenced Whitlock and helped him develop his own distinctive, idiomatic style, which combined elements of his teacher at London’s Royal College of Music, Vaughan Williams, elements from Elgar, Stanford and Rachmaninov, the influence of folksongs and traces of the lush harmonic style of Gershwin and other popular composers of the 1920s. The audience was particularly interested to learn about all the links and connections between musicians at that time.
Malcolm talked in some detail about Whitlock’s life, illustrated by many interesting photographs from his childhood, from his time at Rochester Cathedral, St Stephen’s Church in Bournemouth and as Bournemouth’s borough organist, playing at the Pavillion Theatre, regularly working with the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra.
We heard several musical examples, including the only known recording of Whitlock playing his own music, a tiny 16 second fragment of him playing the Scherzetto from the Organ Sonata, recorded in October 1945 on the Compton organ of St Osmund’s Parkstone.
After a break for refreshments, Jonathan Lilley, Director of Music at Waltham Abbey Church, gave a brilliant rendition of Whitlock’s Sonata in C minor. This was a truly breath-taking and magical performance, on a magnificent organ perfectly suited to Whitlock’s music. Everybody appreciated the variety of colours in Jonathan’s registrations, which really helped communicate the structure and form of this epic work, from the brassy four-note theme in the first movement, through the lyrical, wistful Elgarian motifs, the sombre chorale sections, the melodies on the solo clarinet to the grand fanfares and flourishes.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative event.