Jonathan Bielby: Huddersfield Town Hall Fr Willis-Harrison organ - video 1

Festival Toccata (Percy Fletcher 1879-1932)
Triumphal March (Alfred Hollins 1865-1942) @ 6' 45"

Jonathan Bielby MBE FRCO was the Huddersfield Borough Organist at the time of this recording (1982/1983) and supervised the restoration of the magnificent Fr Willis concert organ of Huddersfield Town Hall by Harrison & Harrison of Durham during 1980-1981. He read music at St John's College Cambridge and served as organ scholar. Bielby's first appointment was assistant organist at Manchester Cathedral. This was followed by forty years as Organist and Master of the Choristers at Wakefield Cathedral from where he retired in 2010. At that point he was the longest serving director of music in the country. He has made a distinguished contribution to church music with his many compositions for choir and for organ.

The Huddersfield Fr Willis organ was transferred to the Town Hall in 1860 from the Albert Hall in Newport, then over the years various improvements and additions were made by Conachers, and by Henry Willis III in 1956. The Choir organ was redesigned with a more Classical specification in 1980-1981 when Harrisons completely restored the instrument. All the original Willis pipework was retained. The result is a concert organ of the most versatile and impressive kind which continues to be a leading attraction for musical life in the area. The organ has four manuals and sixty six registers.

The recordings made by Jonathan Bielby in 1982-1983 display the many musical and tonal possibilities of the instrument, in compositions from the era of popular organ concerts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From delicate orchestral textures to the splendour of the full organ's blazing chorus and solo reeds we can fully appreciate the musical legacy of these virtuoso organ builders, and the composers who knew how to engage their audiences with quality music making.

Huddersfield Willis specification: https://www.gordonstewart.org/informa...

Please see the two other videos played by Jonathan Bielby from these Huddersfield recordings. Also in further videos he plays the John Compton organ of Wakefield Cathedral (one of their largest instruments).