Released for St Patrick’s Day, Stuart Nicholson and friends invite us to a transatlantic celebration of popular classical and film music from twentieth-century America, in virtuoso arrangements demonstrating the versatility of the historic Willis organ in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. In some of the items, Nicholson – Director of Music at the Cathedral – is joined by his organ duet partner, Harry Meehan, Victoria Green on alto sax and flute, Áine Balfe on flute and piccolo, and in the first and last items Richard O’Donnell, Bernard Rielly, and Dylan Quinn on percussion, adding a kaleidoscope of additional colours.

The recording opens with Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man – the repeated fortissimo pounding from the percussion resounding dramatically in the Cathedral’s acoustic. The dazzling organ duet arrangements of the Overture to Leonard Bernstein’s colourful operetta, Candide, and John Philip Sousa’s rousing The Stars and Stripes Forever, bring some virtuoso fireworks to the proceedings, and the end titles of David Arnold’s Independence Day film score which close the recording unleashes the full range and power of the St Patrick’s organ and percussion.

Interspersed throughout the programme are more reflective organ solos, including Barber’s famous Adagio, and Homage to Fritz Kreisler – a wistful arrangement of the Londonderry Air – together with lyrical organ duets and arrangements featuring alto sax, flute, and piccolo of well-known hits from George Gershwin, Henri Mancini, Elmer Bernstein (Ghostbusters), and John Williams (Star Wars). The finale from British composer, Paul Ayres’s Fantasy-Sonata ‘Over the Rainbow’, based on the famous song from The Wizard of Oz, offers a quirky and jaw-droppingly pyrotechnic interlude!

In 1902 a new organ was built for St Patrick’s Cathedral by Henry Willis and Sons incorporating some of the pipework from an earlier instrument. The organ had been planned by ‘Father’ Henry Willis – the foremost organ builder of the Victorian age – in consultation with Sir George Martin, organist of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, where there is an earlier ‘Father’ Willis instrument. Willis didn’t live to see the fruits of his design and the instrument was completed by his son – also named Henry – who distinguished himself in his treatment of the powerful reed stops heard to advantage in this recording.