26/06/2024
ORGAN RECITAL at the New Main Street PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, KIMBERLEY, this day 22 JUNE in 1921.
(text & photo selection: Robert Hart)
On 22 June 1921 an organ recital took place in the Presbyterian Church. The event was to showcase the instrument following its renovation. Frank Proudman, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, was the soloist. It was his first performance in Kimberley since his return from Durban where he had been borough organist for many years.
Amongst the solo organ pieces were Charles Marie Widor’s Grand Toccata in F, J.S. Bach’s Giant Fugue, G.F. Handel’s Cuckoo and Nightingale concerto, F. Chopin’s Nocturne in E Flat and Spring Song by William Hollis. The latter composer had once played this, his own piece, on the same organ in the Presbyterian Church. The final solo was The Storm by Belgian organist, music teacher and composer Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, described as an ‘imposing descriptive fantasia’. Proudman’s playing was, said the Diamond Fields Advertiser, marked by ‘extreme delicacy and complete mastery of technique’.
There were several vocal pieces for which the organ provided accompaniment. Mrs John Tough sang several items including the air ‘From Mighty Kings’ from Judas Maccabaeus by Handel and Beyond the Dawn by Wilfrid Sanderson. The choir sang two pieces one of which was ‘How lovely are thy dwellings fair’ from the Requiem by Johannes Brahms.
Picture: Interior of the church showing the organ