Storming performance from the 'Pavarotti of the organ' and Hurst's great Chapel Choir

Acclaimed international concert organist Carlo Curley and Hurst's wonderful Chapel Choir wowed more than 300 music lovers in Hurstpierpoint College Chapel this weekend with a compelling combination of virtuosity interspersed with light-hearted technical explanations of the organ’s intricacies as an instrument.

Carlo, who is one of only a few artists in the world to give classical organ concerts and recitals unsupported by a teaching or church appointment, played a wide variety of music from Bach, Handel and Buxtehude to contemporary works by Swedish composer Stefan Linblad. He surprised many, too, by utilising some of the more unconventional sounds on his digital touring organ, installed in Hurst’s Chapel especially for the concert. Particularly memorable were pieces by John Stanley which included extensive birdsong and Carlo’s own arrangement of The Old Refrain, a traditional Viennese melody which included bells.

Carlo accompanied Hurst’s 90-strong choir in an outstanding performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah and, as part of a rousing finale to the Concert, he played alongside the College’s fine organ in two pieces, Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Widor’s famous Toccata; it was a remarkable treat for the audience to witness Carlo on the touring organ and Hurst’s director of Music, Neil Matthews, on the College organ ‘battling it out’ for supremacy!

The audience went away whistling tunes and probably nursing their ears from the extreme volume of the concluding Toccata. “It was” said Hurst’s Headmaster Tim Manly “a privilege to be host to one of the world’s finest exponents of the organ; he and his fellow performers provided a unique and quite wonderful evening’s entertainment’.