Summary
JUST over a century ago, a talented English organist in his early thirties made his way up from London to become organist of St George's Free Church in Edinburgh's Shandwick Place. Under normal circumstances, this might have seemed a strange move for an eminent London-based musician, especially an organist. After all, church music in Scotland was far less the entrenched, stylised institution it was in the Anglican cathedrals. Moreover, organs were still seen in most Presbyterian circles as "instruments of the devil".
But for Alfred Hollins, whose organ music is celebrated in a new Delphian CD released today, these were not normal circumstances. Hollins did not sit comfortably among the po-faced conservatives of the Anglican organ lofts. His natural musical instinct was as a performer and a composer, not someone who could lock himself into an all-consuming, cloistered schedule of daily evensongs and choir rehearsals.See the full content of this document
Extract
Bellowing Tributes to a Great Organist
Nor was the Oxbridge organ-scholar route - the traditional rite of passage for aspirant cathedral organists - a consideration.
Instead, Hollins opted to study as a concert pianist with the eminent Fritz Harvigson, himself a pupil of Franz Liszt. At 15 h...See the full content of this document
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