Christopher Herrick plays Litanies in St Paul's Cathedral

Jehan Alain's Litanies played by Christopher Herrick on the Willis organ of St Paul's Cathedral in 1969. The LP was released by Vista records VPS 1001, a highly regarded label with recordings recorded and produced by engineer Michael Smythe. He produced countless fine LPs, many of which have been re-released by Priory Records. This recording is for me by far the best interpretation of this piece, the organ, acoustic and player all come together to produce an epic result.

Jehan Alain (1911 - 1940) was born the Saint-Germain-en-Laye, his father Albert was an organist and of course, his sister Marie-Claire, became a pupil of Dupré and went on to have a stellar career. Alain studied at the Paris Conservatoire where his teachers were, Paul Dukas, Roger Ducasse and Marcel Dupré and he gained Premier Prix in each discipline. Litanies was written in August 1937 and first performed by the composer in Ste Trinite, Paris. Alain saw active service during WWII and was killed on the 20th June 1940 whilst defending the French town of Saumur. He was a devout Catholic and prefaced the work with these words...
'When the Christian souls in it's distress finds no new words with which to impore God's mercy, it repeats unceasingly and with vehement faith with the same invocation. Reason having attained its zenith, only Faith continues its ascent.'

Christopher Herrick was just 27 years old when he recorded this LP, certainly for me one of the great organ records ever made on this extraordinary instrument. He was previously a chorister at St Pauls and had been Assistant sub-organist since 1967, but understood the instrument so well, despite that awkward acoustical setting. The organ was by the time of this recording starting to show its age, it had been completely rebuilt in the nave during WWII in an effort to reduce damage from the blitz, and had been unceasingly altered by Willis III for many years. The LP sleeve notes state that the microphones suspended between the 2 dome quarter galleries, where in the Dome Diapson chorus (of old TC Lewis pipes) was in the SE quarter dome and the pedal and tubas in the NE quarter. The fabulous swell sounds amazing despite only have 12 stops. But my memories of this piece consist mainly of the mighty 32' Contra Bomabrde (installed horizontally) firing off directly into the dome. With its characteristic firey tone and those searing tubas, and the dome chorus, the effect is breathtaking.