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Over the years worshippers and visitors to St. Mary’s have been accustomed to the majestic sounds of sacred music emerging serenely from the organ loft, both as solo and as accompaniment to the choir, helping to sustain the devotional tone of the church service. What a contrast, then, for the audience at the lunchtime concert to hear the jolly notes of ‘let’s call the whole thing off’ and ‘when I’m sixty-four’ singing out from our revered instrument – rather suggestive, perhaps, of the Bishop of York enjoying an incognito weekend break on the front at Blackpool. And why not? The undeniable fact is that the light music played by organist Christopher Thompson sounded not the least bit out of place – it was almost as though our organ was saying to us ‘thanks for this opportunity to let off steam – and don’t worry; I won’t go over the top.’ This makes a valid point: Chris is as dedicated to his work as a church organist in Manchester as to his ‘gigs’ throughout the country as a theatre organist. He stresses that technically there is little difference between a church organ and a theatre or cinema organ, so perhaps, in parallel, one should not distinguish too rigidly between sacred and secular music. A feature of Anglican church ritual is its glorious music; should we therefore be surprised if it can sing Stanford and the Beatles equally happily?
Chris Thompson’s programme was definitely of the theatre, just the sort of mix one might have experienced at the Dome, Brighton, the Odeon Leicester Square, the Gaumont Kilburn and many other like venues on any day of the week in a previous generation. And what a medley of Golden Oldies he entertained us with! We heard Paul McCartney’s poignant ‘Yesterday’, ‘Blue Moon’, ‘When I Grow Too Old To Dream’, Cliff Richard’s ‘Summer Holiday’, Gershwin’s ‘They Can’t Take That Away From Me’ – and others; they couldn’t half write memorable tunes in those days! Those of us of a certain age might have heard again the happy music of Sandy McPherson and Reginald Foort coming to us over the radio waves, and down the arches of the years.
As a graceful gesture Chris rounded off his recital with ‘The Bells Of St. Mary’s’ as popularised in the film of that name by Bing Crosby of happy memory, and dedicated to our church.
At the end this gifted musician was kind enough to sing the praises of St. Mary’s organ. Let’s hope this will act as an incentive for a return visit soon.
