Organ club and Westminster

The organ club visited St Andrew's. I did a demonstration of the organ using Flor Peeters Ciacona and some short baroque pieces to show off the solo stops. The 4 foot flute on the Great has a slight chiff which works well in Buxtehude. The oboe and clarinet sound good although the organ is a little out of tune thanks to the church heating. For the first time in 3 years I went into the organ chamber! There were 40 present including several friends so I felt less nervous. They included the organ builder Eric Shephard who knows Francis Jackson well, Ian Tompsett and Joan Hadley(?) who used to work at Balham music library. I certainly played better today as a result. They are a bit like anoraks taking photos of everything. They had a coach which was as well as the traffic was horrendous - the rail bridge was closed! I joined them at Coulsdon Methodist church - a dark interior but quite a nice organ. I then drove to Westminster Abbey for 3 p.m. evensong. Stanford in B flat ( a little too fast) and Jonathan Dove He that maketh the seven stars. Durufle Scherzo and a Mendelssohn motet. The diction in the chanting was not good. I met Vivienne and Joanne from the Understanding Islam course and they had been at the Abbey all day praying and at workshops on icons and Taize - I would have enjoyed that!
To tea at Marks and met Liz there - she had been taking confirmation class. At Mass we had 5 youngsters who did well. The King Charles singers sang Victoria and Durufle superbly. They mostly come from Tunbridge Wells. I reported on Understanding Islam and Mgr Mark was pleased.