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CHRISTOPHER HERRICK - INTERNATIONAL CONCERT ORGANIST
:. Choir & Organ [May*/June 2002]
In conversation with Christopher Herrick who turned 60 this* month, Malcolm Bruno discovers a maverick who has never been afraid to take risks...
The Right Man
'Well... I suppose it might be just possible to be an organist giving concerts, with no permanent church appointment - but even Thalben-Ball has a city church.'
These were the sceptical, if amiable, words of Sir John Dykes Bower, then organist of St Paul's Cathedral, London, to his young protégé, Christopher Herrick in the
mid-1950s. Herrick, in his early teens, had been a chorister at St Paul's and in his
last year had assisted Dykes Bower at the keyboard. 'It was that experience, like a religious conversion, that convinced me that I had to devote my life to mastering
such an incredible instrument. Until then I had been a lazy young pianist, but the taste of 'being in the cockpit' was a transformation for a 13-year-old boy, especially at
St Paul's.'
'There were some amazing events. Not only the normal services, but even a coronation in 1953. And later that year a three-month tour of America. In those days, of course, it wasn't a quick flight, but crossing on the Queen Elizabeth and then
ten weeks of Greyhound buses zig-zagging across the eastern USA and Canada.
We didn't get much work done academically, but America itself, after post-war England, was an education. A packed Carnegie Hall in New York, breaking all
local box office records, was thrilling, but so was a private concert in the
White House and a meeting with President Eisenhower.' As the thrill of Fifties America comes into his voice, one can see how the stage was set in his early years for the energy required of a touring virtuoso.
Oxford
Herrick's 'madness' for the keyboard continued throughout his school days, and
his vigilance landed him an organ scholarship at Exeter College, Oxford. 'There was no performance element at all in the music degree in those days, so I had to learn
on the hoof. During term I did as much playing and practice as I could, as well as coping with men's and boys' services - which I did instinctively. But in the breaks,
I crammed in all the academic work.
'I remember being completely taken by Monteverdi, who was then to most performers a non-existent composer. The more I studied his music, the more it seemed so incredible. And during 1959-60 Sir Jack Westrup was giving a series of lectures about Monteverdi's operas. At each lecture the numbers of the initial 50-strong audience dropped exponentially until it was just the two of us. But his style remained as formal as for a room full of students. And I remember asking him at the end of the series,
"do you think these wonderful operas will ever be performed again, by opera companies?" to which his reply was "oh no, certainly not!"'
Royal College of Music
By the conclusion of his Oxford degree, Christopher was certain that he needed practical musical training, so he enrolled with a Boult scholarship at the Royal College of Music in London. 'The harpsichord had also fascinated me, and Millicent Silver (a total Landowska devotee if ever there was one) became my professor.
From a historical point of view, of course, everything about her approach was wrong. And so was the instrument, a massive Goble complete with a crescendo pedal.
But the experience of working with her gave me a vivid taste of an unknown world. And she was such a fine, instinctive musician.'
It was at this stage that Herrick approached Geraint Jones for private organ lessons.
'Like Millicent, he really cared and he could play!' It was very exciting to be his student at the time he was discovering the German mechanical instruments with their straight pedal boards, which forced him to develop a technique and phrasing that departed from the endless legato of Dupré's Romantic world.
'Conducting also came into my study at the RCM. While at Oxford I had found myself halfway through a Brahms Requiem with choir and orchestra and it dawned on me that I hadn't ever been taught any stick technique! In the intimate world of Anglican musicianship, directing emerges organically - imperceptibly - especially
for a keyboard player.' And so Herrick's three years at the RCM included
conducting study with Sir Adrian Boult as well.
St Paul's Cathedral & Westminster Abbey
After leaving the College, Christopher found himself to have Malcolm Russell, one of London's principal suppliers of harpsichords, as a neighbour. 'And quite effortlessly
I acquired a Dulcken on permanent loan. It sat in my sitting room next to my Blüthner, which led quite effortlessly to the Taskin trio (violin, gamba, harpsichord). In the mid-Sixties, Seventies and even into the Eighties, baroque music on period instruments was pioneering music, which suited my temperament perfectly.
But an opening at St Paul's as assistant organist did as well, to complement my
early music activities.'
Herrick's effortless musical pedigree seems equally matched to his high musical metabolism, for St Paul's led straight on to a decade (1974-84) as an organist at Westminster Abbey. 'Beyond all the routine services, I've counted that I gave some 200 solo recitals at the Abbey alone in that period!' And looking back he remembers great musical events, such as the funerals of William Walton and Herbert Howells,
as well as the celebration of Walton's 80th birthday when all the composer's sacred music was performed, though he remembers Lord Mountbatten's funeral as the most moving event of his tenure.
Hyperion Records
The longer Herrick speaks, not only are his enviable energy and staggering achievement striking, but his 'maverick' propensity to take risks, deliberately to be the right man in the right place at the right time. In 1984 as he was about to leave
the Abbey, one of these calculated 'non-accidents' happened. Christopher met
Ted Perry, now better known as the owner-director of Hyperion (though in those
days, his little-known three-year-old label seemed a last resort for many artists).
The idea of organ music was totally unappealing, as was the name Christopher
Herrick. But 'Westminster Abbey' was a different matter. Herrick shrewdly proposed an album of virtuosic repertory, taking the Abbey's Harrison & Harrison to its limits,
and called Fireworks. Perry agreed cautiously. It was a success and slowly further recordings followed.
'He asked for Bach this time, but sternly warned me absolutely not to think of a series of complete works. Just the Trio Sonatas, perhaps.' From this humble beginning has come the most amazing sequence of recordings with 30 CDs for Hyperion to date:
the organ Fireworks have now reached their ninth album and taken Herrick as far
as Wellington, and the new Rieger in Hong Kong, to Reykjavik, Turku, St Bart's in New York and Berner Münster! And to complement the display of his instrument's immensity and power, has come a further series of organ Dreams with a third CD just completed. Like its extrovert sibling, organ Dreams are also eclectic. And then there are other one-off projects, like a CD of Daquin Noëls, or the album including Rheinberger's Suite for Organ, Violin and Cello.
BBC
'Perhaps the most memorable of several recordings I made for the BBC was of
Liszt and Mendelssohn organ works on the historic 1855 Ladegast organ in Merseberg Cathedral. It was in the Eighties before the end of Communism in
East Germany. The church, after much arrangement, was offered, but even to get
the organ tuned was a huge event. And it was cold. I remember that an ancient stove was placed between the organ bench and the Rückpositiv. But it was fantastic to record Liszt on this instrument.
'In fact, my life has been dedicated to playing this curious keyboard giant, of
which no two are the same. And no two acoustics are the same. As a regular
concert organist, you must accept that your life will not be like a pianist touring
with or ordering the Steinway of your choice. If you can't cope with being versatile, you miss what the organ is about: in its physical nature (in the buildings and design), in its construction (from trackers to electro-pneumatics and back again), in its repertory. I love the challenge of making the most of the instrument and its ethos and all the music for it.'
Complete Bach in New York
Given the amazing list of Herrick's recitals and recordings, growing without pause from the mid-1980s, it's hard to imagine that anything but more of the same could
top this. But there are always surprises. 'Well past midnight in early January 1998
my wife heard the fax machine go in my study downstairs. She went to retrieve it
and said "stop relaxing!" And I certainly didn't get any sleep that night. It was my American agent offering an invitation from the Lincoln Center Festival in New York to play Bach - the complete organ works over the course of a 14-day festival. It was a dizzying thought, just to find the stamina to do it physically. But how could I refuse?'
The collected Beethoven sonatas represent a feat of performance, but the complete Bach organ works, some 16 hours of music, top Beethoven's output for piano. It is neither just the length, nor the matter of big fugue after big fugue, two hands and two feet. There is registration: the Kuhn in New York's Alice Tully Hall was not capable of storing registrations. 'Looking back', Herrick reflects, 'I should have cancelled more activities in the period immediately preceding. The preparation was huge.
I remember waking up one night about 3 am. I knew I wouldn't be able to get back
to sleep, my brain was already practising. So I got up and went down to Kingston Parish Church, which is near my home, and was at its Frobenius just after 4.'
The reviews of the series were exceptional, even more so coming from that bastion of early and sacred music scepticism The New York Times: 'Mr Herrick was at the peak of his considerable form, combining precision with panache, interpretive freedom with sheer joy in virtuosity. The playing was, in a word, triumphant.' Back at home Ted Perry at Hyperion celebrated with the promise of a box set (that complete-organ-works set that he had assured Herrick he never wanted to record), which comes out this year.
Sweelinck
And from here? A pick of recitals from churches throughout Europe and America flow in. Beyond his well-established Fireworks and Dreams series, what will be next on disc? Another commission has come through from Ted Perry: '"What", he asked me "about the complete works of Sweelinck?" I answered, "what about the best?", which is what we'll have, two and a half hours of selected music, spread over two CDs played on a faithful copy of the 17th-century organ of Stockholm's German church, which is now in Norrfjärden in northern Sweden.'
Conducting
Besides his insatiable affair with the keyboard, Herrick still finds time for conducting the Twickenham Choral Society. 'This still is so important to me, I've been doing it for nearly 30 years. We've just done Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers, and we have Britten's War Requiem and Tippett's Child of our Time planned for next season. Working with singers and orchestra always keeps me in touch with what all organ playing should be about: because the organ is the most dangerous instrument of all: it's the most mechanical. It's the easiest of all to produce sound, and a lot of it. But it's also the most difficult to bring to life, to make it rhythmical and melodic:
to make it sing and breathe!'.
:. The Wall Street Journal ... Personal Journal ... Time Off / Backstage ... Christopher Herrick [29 October 2004]
ONE OF EUROPE'S most acclaimed organists is 62-year-old Christopher Herrick. Formerly of Westminster Abbey, Mr. Herrick now performs all over the world, his playing universally praised for its clarity, brilliance and apparent ease. He has recorded for a number of labels, including Decca, Virgin Classics and Hyperion -- for which has made more than 30 CDs, including the complete works of Bach and the popular 10-CD Organ Fireworks series. These prize-winning discs have been recorded on some of the greatest organs in the whole world. ...more
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