“Readers of OR will, I’m sure, be familiar with the choral music of David Bednall that has been recorded by a variety of labels. Regent/Gary Cole now add a disc of his organ music which, in the words of the composer ‘spans my compositional career to date’. Bednall is an organist of considerable distinction himself, so his writing for the instrument is splendidly idiomatic. The French organist/composers such as Messiaen, Duruflé et al have influenced him, as has the French flair for improvisation, and he says that Howells and Leighton have also brought influence to bear on his work. The main work on this disc is Triptych in Honour of Herbert Howells and it was written for Paul Walton who premiered it in Bristol Cathedral in 2016. Howells’s music is never quoted, but his shadow hovers brilliantly over the music – a significant and welcome addition to the repertoire. The remaining, shorter, pieces on this CD show every aspect of Bednall’s compositional skill, from a meditation on the Passion Chorale, through a Toccata (a Cochereau- esque sortie) on the hymn-tune Aberystwyth, via an extraordinary (in a good way!) Berceuse where a hymn-tune by John Stainer meets Louis Vierne, to an extended piece that evokes the atmosphere of the Jesse window in Wells Cathedral using the Advent plainsong antiphon O Radix Jesse – a piece full of colour and imaginatively conceived. This is music that Paul Walton obviously loves, and his playing is wonderfully assured – the music sings and dances by turns. He is splendidly partnered by the great organ of Blackburn Cathedral, and Gary Cole has worked his usual magic with the recording. Altogether a really fine disc.”
Roger Judd, Organists’ Review, March 2018
“With six CDs available devoted to Bednall’s choral music, it is good to see Regent spotlight his organ works. The works span Bednall’s compositional career to date, from the romantic idyll Adagio for Organ to a 23–minute Triptych in Honour of Herbert Howells especially written for the recording. Bednall’s style is a highly successful fusion of the English school of Howells and Leighton with the mysticism and drama of French organists of the 20th century. The Blackburn Cathedral organ is the perfect vehicel for this mélange and, in the hands of Paul Walton and recording engineer Gary Cole, Bednall’s music really sings and dances. Walton revels in this music, from the boisterous and extrovert drama of several toccatas to some sublime meditations.”
Rupert Gough, Choir and Organ January/February 2018 (Star Review)
“Howells, Messiaen and Eben all inform Bednall’s thrilling, richly layered music. Paul Walton does him proud on Blackburn Cathedral’s Walker instrument.”
BBC Music, January 2018 (4 stars)
“David Bednall’s Magna voce cane et magno cum jubilo is rhythmically complex, as vital as Leighton, but without his sparseness. Within a full and generous texture, there’s a strong thematic integrity in which the augmented fourth is a pervading, somewhat darkening presence, enlivened by wild tuba exclamations. There’s a clear sense of Howells in assertive, agitated mode, yet Bednall has one foot very firmly in the Parisian organ loft too, with a harmonic flair that owes something to the French master organists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. [Luke] Bond deftly throws the organ’s considerable weight around to create a brilliant showstopper.”
International Record Review, December 2013
