A couple of years ago a was kicking myself for missing a recital by Jane Watts in London. This time round I’m going to get it right. Jane will give the recital that ends the Bloomsbury Organ Day on 31st January in London and I intend to be there. (NB this post first published in 2015.) Jane’s international career continues to take her all over the world, and she is a popular choice for the opening recital in a celebrity series – in 2011 she was invited to give the opening recital of the first International Organ Series in the Frits-Philips Concert Hall in Eindhoven, Holland, and later this year she will open the St John’s Smith Square recital series here in the UK. “Seldom do you hear an instrumentalist so confident and capable as Jane Watts; she demonstrated total self-possession, in addition to ample musical knowledge” said the New York papers during one of her frequent visits to the USA. You are instantly struck by that self-possession the moment you listen to one of her many recordings. She has recorded exclusively for Priory Records since 1988 – on the organs of Westminster Abbey, Chartres Cathedral, Sydney Town Hall and Wellington Cathedral – with a recital in St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, to be issued this year.
Details of that Bloomsbury recital are at the end of this post: first are Jane’s answers to my five questions:
Which piece of music are you studying at the moment and why?
I have begun working again on the Second Symphony of Marcel Dupré, which I used often to include in recitals many years ago, as I intend to programme this in the Autumn of 2015.
What has been your best experience as an organist?
This is a difficult question to answer, because I have been fortunate enough to have had a number of very happy occasions during more than 30 years of performing and recording. 1986 was very special because I made my Royal Festival Hall recital debut and also became the first Royal College of Organists’ ‘Performer of the Year’. My debut at the Proms is something I shall never forget, as is the recording in the Ulster Hall of the two organ concertos written by Richard Popplewell – my Professor at the Royal College of Music – with the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Sir David Willcocks: both Richard and David have been two great examples in my life to whom I owe so much. A few years ago it was lovely to be able to build a short break around a recital I was invited to give in New York, thereby giving our son his first chance to visit the USA – (even though he did say to my husband ‘Do I really have to go to Mummy’s concert?’ I think he would have far preferred to be in Madison Square Garden the previous night, listening to Bon Jovi!)
What has been your worst experience as an organist?
Two stand out! The first was during a recording I was making in France when a tuner who had been booked, at great expense, failed to arrive until well into the first of three sessions (and when he did, we all wondered whether he just might have recently enjoyed a little of the local liquid produce). The second – although this eventually turned out to be one of the best experiences – was when I was invited with many months’ notice to give the world premiere of Alun Hoddinott’s Symphony for Organ and Orchestra with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Richard Hickox, to be broadcast live on Radio 3. Dear Alun did not complete the work until less than 24 hours before the first orchestral rehearsal, and even when I arrived at that rehearsal, I was told by a member of the orchestra that none of the parts had yet reached them. It had been agreed that we would keep the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony ‘up our sleeves’ in case there was not enough time to work on Alun’s piece, but in the end everything turned out well – just!
What’s the best piece of advice you were given by an organ teacher? (and who was it?)
In my postgraduate year of College, I was additionally given the opportunity of flying to Paris once a month to study with Marie-Claire Alain. She helped me in so many ways, invariably adhering to one rule which was: ‘Whatever else happens, play musically.’
What would be your own best piece of advice for student organists?
Do not begin to learn the organ at too young an age. Try to ensure you have a good piano technique before you even embark on learning the instrument.
BLOOMSBURY CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8EP
Saturday 31 January 2015
6pm
JANE WATTS Celebrity Recital
Programme to include:
Lloyd Webber: Chorale, Cantilena and Finale
Mathias: Variations on a Hymn Tune
Parry: Fantasy and Fugue in G
Admission £5
This recital is the final event in the Bloomsbury Organ Day 2015 – an afternoon and evening of recitals, displays and presentations on the theme of the Organs and Music of the British Isles – organised by Music at Bloomsbury and Organists Online. For more details click here
Jane Watts’ own website is here. Spotify has available her Great European Organs and Great Australasian Organs series of recordings, and you can find her Pedals and Pumps recital at Trinity Wall Street in 2008 on YouTube here.
