Rainbow Toccatas – Bach, Beatles, and a birthday tribute, from Paul Ayres

‘By far my most successful organ piece, so far, is my Toccata on the Beatles’ All you need is love,‘ says Paul Ayres, in the booklet accompanying his Rainbow Toccatas CD.  It’s one of the tracks on the CD, along with some of his other ‘classicised’ versions of Beatles favourites.  These are not just straight transcriptions, but the tunes cleverly hidden, and recast, inspired by a variety of traditions of organ playing, from the French Baroque to Mendelssohn and Franck.

The Toccata on All you need is love was written back in 2007, when someone suggested to Paul, then Assistant Organist at St George’s, Hanover Square, that an organ voluntary based on this melody might fit the bill for a particular concert.  He realised that the combination of innocence and sophistication that characterises the Beatles’ wonderful songs, combined with classical instrumental forms of composition, might be a creative seam worth exploring.  So nine Beatles pieces appear on this disk, along with his Fantasy-Sonata Over the Rainbow which was commissioned by a church in Illinois, in celebration of its 75th birthday.  He found so much wonderful material in Harold Arlen’s melody that the 6-8 minute commission became a five-movement 18-minute symphonic sonata.

Paul Ayres’ credits as an original composer as well as arranger are impressive, with competition prizes and commissions from around the world. ‘Competitions are a great incentive,’ he says, ‘to complete half-sketched-out pieces, and develop ideas that have been in the back of my mind.’  When the Seattle Chapter of the American Guild of Organists held a ‘Bach to the Future’ contest, Paul started playing around with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, cutting one semiquaver in each string of eight semiquavers just for fun.  He found that the new 3+2+2 Latin/Cuban-cum-Hungarian Gypsy vibe for the piece seemed to work rather well, resulting in Mostly Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor – awarded second prize by the Seattle AGO.

The CD opens with four movements from a suite commissioned as a birthday gift for organist Eric Tyson by his wife – the dazzling opening Toccata, in the French symphonic organ tradition, won the Harrison & Harrison 150th anniversary composing competition.

All the tracks were recorded on the Hill & Son organ at St Barnabas, Ealing in London – an instrument that started its life as a 2-manual instrument by Gerard Smith at St Jude’s Church, Southsea, but rebuilt and enlarged to 3 manuals by Hill & Son in 1877.  It moved to St Barnabas in 2011.  This CD is enjoyable not just for the content, but for the excellence of the recording –  Priory Records again demonstrating their expertise in capturing both the clarity and richness of sound of this fine example of the English Romantic organ.  But not to be overlooked is Paul’s own virtuosity at the instrument – an organist who successfully adds shades of pop, rock and theatre organ to an effortless classical technique.

RAINBOW TOCCATAS: Paul Ayres plays the organ of St Barnabas Ealing, London

All music written or arranged by Paul Ayres

PRIORY RECORDS PRCD1159

Available direct from Paul Ayres or from PRIORY RECORDS

£11.99 online price

Sheet music of many of the pieces on this CD (including the Beatles numbers) are available as individually licensed pdfs direct from Paul’s website:  www.paulayres.co.uk

And I caught up with Paul during the COVID-19 lockdown for an interview: Five questions for…Paul Ayres