"PRAGUE SPRING" - ORGAN RECITAL BY KEVIN DUGGAN
10th July 2006 1pm United Reformed Church Code: 1004 Author: Ann Burgess
It was a great pleasure to be present at Kevin Duggan's fascinating organ recital on Monday. “Prague Spring” consisted of an imaginative selection of Czech music, very seldom, if ever, heard in this country, plus two Russian pieces, which began and ended the recital.
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is well known in both orchestral and piano versions, but it transfers most effectively to the organ in Arthur Wills' transcription. Kevin Duggan played the Promenade and The Old Castle and his skilful registration made for an atmospheric opening to the programme.
The well-maintained organ in the United Reformed Church is small but lovely, and was used to stylish effect in Mozart's Strahovska Improvisation. Mr Duggan introduced the music in an entertaining and informative manner. This improvisation, created by Mozart, while living in Prague , had been partially written out by someone unknown, and two hundred years later, the contemporary Czech organist, Jiri Ropek completed it. Despite the execution of a multitude of deft trills, Mr Duggan managed to raise his hand to let the audience know at what point the pure Mozart ceased and the Ropek began.
Mr Duggan next introduced his listeners to an obscure eighteenth-century Czech composer, Jan Zach, whose fine, chromatic Fugue in A minor
displayed the influence of J S Bach.
Two pieces by Janacek followed, first the serene, early Adagio in A flat
and then the granite, elemental, Postludium , from the Glagolitic Mass. This playing had a raw urgency, which showed the commitment of the organist to his chosen music.
Kevin Duggan is a passionate exponent of new music, and the twentieth-century pieces that formed the latter part of his recital were given wonderful performances, full of understanding and love for the music. Jiri Ropek's beautifully crafted and harmonically astringent Variations on “Victimae Paschali” showed off the delightful timbres available on this instrument, as well as the player's impressively assured technique.
Petr Eben's Laudes 2 , the most modernist music in this recital, with extremes of register, combined with a double pedal part, very complex rhythms and colourful roulades, took us to the limit.
The recital ended most cheerfully with Georgi Mushel's Toccata.
Ann Burgess
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