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Pulling out all the stops, blowing all the fuses

Christopher Tinker

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Organ stops

Listener and organist Christopher Tinker was present for a dramatic Royal Festival Hall organ premiere in 1971.

It was splendid to hear Gillian Weir this morning on the original RFH organ, and I eagerly anticipate Olivier Latry’s recital tonight. As a pupil of Ralph Downes I frequently turned pages for the organists he invited to the regular Wednesday 5.55 series of years past. On one occasion in March 1971, many critics were present to hear the first (I think) British performance of Ligeti’s ‘Volumina’.

During the morning I had assisted Xavier Darasse, professor at the Conservatory in Toulouse, and was astonished at the range of sounds that emitted from the organ, not least of which was the opening of the work which requires the organist to ‘pull out all the stops’! At the opening, the performer and his assistant are instructed to depress as many keys and pedal notes as possible, and then to turn the organ on. The gradual crescendo of sound was magnificent, although I noticed Ralph Downes looking less than happy, indeed rather alarmed.

We came to the 5.55pm recital. First some Bach, during which Darasse made many slips, causing some hisses from the audience. However, many of them were there to hear ‘Volumina’. Thus to the Ligeti: we pulled out all the stops, depressed the keys, I turned on the motor, the vast crescendo began and for just two seconds the audience was treated to this massive sound! And then, silence.

We pulled and pushed stops, repeatedly pressed the switch, gazed at the organ in astonishment at its silence, but nothing. Eventually the designer and curator, Ralph Downes (not a man for public speaking) addressed the audience, apologised and was most embarrassed to admit that all the fuses had blown and the recital was over. Never to be forgotten, and the season’s title 'Pull Out All the Stops' is a particularly relevant reminder for me.

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