Irreplaceable

As a former organ player, I am partial to them and grieve their gradual loss in the churches. They seem to have been replaced by things like guitars (don't get me wrong, I love guitars!), keyboards (them too!), and drums (well..). Because of this, it isn't often that you are invited to an organ concert, but I was, and I jumped at it. The organist for that day's Festival concert was the splendid Michael Hoeg, who lives in Cornwall but has performed around the world: Holland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, America, France , the Czech Republic, Italy and Sinagapore as not only a solo organist, but as a pianist, conductor and accompanist. 

Michael Hoeg, and Frank

As I walked into the St Ia Parish church and was handed a program, I looked up and saw a familiar face; another organist, the man who would turn pages for Michael. This other organist's name is Frank, and I knew him because he once let me play an organ just a block away. A Methodist organ. 

 I don't just go around Cornwall playing people's organs willy-nilly. It happened because my husband, after the church service, walked over to Frank and told him I had been an organist a certain unknown number of years before. 

Frank was immediately interested.

"You did? In High School, you say? I don't meet many high schoolers who play the organ these days." Neither do I.

"Would you like to play this one?"

I was dumbstruck. To play that massive thing (which filled the entire front of the huge church with immense pipes pointing straight up), in front of those who were still finishing their tea and biscuits? Surely not..

But suddenly, "Yes! I would love to play it." There would never be another chance like this one. I played "How Great Thou Art" with my husband and Frank standing nearby, smiling to beat the band.

"This has never happened before," he said. "No one has come here and expressed interest in something so important to me."

It was the sweetest thing.

Bedford Road Methodist

Frank accompanying the Two Brothers, 2017

So here he was again, standing next to another massive organ and chatting with Michael Hoeg about something fascinating to them both.

Then it was time to listen, and from the first notes of the first song, Michael blew us all away. There were five anthems, by people from J.S. Bach to Finlandia, to some Good Friday music from Parsifal (Wagner). It was lovely, stirring, and uplifting. He played as easily as though he'd been doing it since High School, a certain unknown number of years before! And Frank stood to his right, always ready to nip in and turn the next page (there is a knack to page-turning in a concert, and Frank did it brilliantly).

At the end, I applauded until my hands hurt, along with everyone else in there. But for me, the applause was for two men, two organists who had given their lives -  and their years - to something so important to them both. 

That's irreplaceable.

See you along the way!

the SconeLady

Luggar in St Ives Bay