Reviews

German press

With an international heavyweight, the 31st Rheda organ series ended on Sunday. Dr. Tim Rishton knew how to inspire his audience in St. Clement’s Church. The Brit, who today makes his living in Norway and Germany, shone with works ranging from Vivaldi to Piazzolla.

Rishton serves the guests a delicious music menu.

With a delicious musical menu, the 31st Rheda organ series ended on Sunday. As chief cook of the food sequence, Dr. Tim Rishton thoroughly spoiled the audience with his exquisite playing. "If the concert series can be labelled with the attribute 'international', this also applies to the guest of this evening," said Pastor Thomas Hengstebeck in his welcoming speech.

For Rishton, Hengstebeck continued, comes from the UK but has made his current home in Norway as well as in Germany. And it aroused a certain curiosity among the audience, as it might seem, that a Brit who lives in Norway is concerned with the music of an Italian who has been edited by a German. This is precisely the case in Vivaldi's "Concerto in Minor," edited by Bach.

Free from ballast of the past, Rishton presented his version of Vivaldi / Bach: bright and friendly with a lot of Italian sunshine. The introductory "processional march" by William Mathias had already shown a swinging step in this direction. As a true master of restraint, Rishton proved himself in Bach's "Trio Sonata in C major" (BWV529). With a minimal registration, he achieved an optimal sound effect for this piece. Less is sometimes more.

Who, when hearing the name Astor Piazzolla, does not think first of the new Argentinian Tango? With an intimate "Ave Maria" performance, the audience in the Clemenskirche encountered the South American from a little-known side. The variations on "Å, hvor salig det skal blive" by Bjarne Sløgedal - magical miniatures - had already met approval. Ralph Vaughan Williams is well known and appreciated in the UK. From him the Welsh hymn "Rhosymedre" was heard in a quiet, flowing manner.

With the chorale toccata "Kjærlighet er lysets kilde" ("Love is the source of light") by Egil Hovland, Dr. Tim Rishton served the last course of his menu. It offered a greeting to Widor - but without wanting to make the organ collapse. That pleased the delightedly applauding audience.

Bernd Heumüller
Die Glocke, 03.10.17
Original text (PDF - in German)


Rishton dives into the organ "Aquarium"

Havelberg: The Norwegian organist Prof. Dr. Tim Rishton was the first to play in the benefit concert series "Cathedral helps City church organ". Tim Rishton is particularly in demand as an interpreter German Baroque music. In addition to his teaching at various universities, he also plays concerts in smaller towns because he considers music in the community to be extremely important.

The beginning of the concert featured a composition by the Spaniard Jesús Guridi. His works are influenced by Wagner and the late Romantic period. J. Guridi's work is also rooted in Basque folklore. In the opening work "Itsasoa Jaino dago" (Fog over the sea) the Basque influence came significantly to the fore. After the organist introduced his programme, five pieces from the "Eleven Chorale Preludes Op. 122" by Johannes Brahms were heard. The selection ranged from quiet, well-known pieces like "Herzliebster Jesu" and "O Welt, ich muss dich lassen"to the more lively «Herzlich tut mich erfreuen".

Unfamiliar sounds
Then the Havelberger cathedral was filled with unusual sounds. Memories suddenly arose of American musicals and film scores as well as jazz music. Tim Rishton played here compositions of the German church musician and composer Andreas Willscher, born in 1955. In the "Nine organ pieces – Aquarium", a variety of marine life was presented on the organ. When the majestic "Ray" was gliding by, the floating music could be felt. In contrast, the active "Seahorses" danced to the music in the Cathedral. The "Purple Rose" showed the seriousness of the colour purple, which was worn by Roman senators, emperors and Catholic cardinals, in unexcited, laid-back tones. The "burbot" resounded with echoes of cheerful American jazz.

Tim Rishton managed to allow the numerous listeners to dive into the "Aquarium" and to conjure up the sounds of a total of nine sea creatures, with his perfect playing on the Scholtze organ.

Back to the classics
At the end of the concert we went back to the 19th century and one of the most important musicians of Romanticism. The Sonata no. IV in B flat major by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy allowed us to recognize how wonderfully the organ and the cathedral interior are harmonised. The response from the public was very positive despite some unusual music, as the unstoppable applause and the numerous personal congratulations to Tim Rishton bore witness to.

In the combination of cathedral and organ, Havelberg has a musical treasure which will be further increased by the restoration of the city church organ.

Friedrich Egberink / Volksstimme / 08/14/2015
Original text (in German)


Virtuoso playing:
The Bocholt Organ Festival kicks off with Tim Rishton

Summer outdoor temperatures, a cool room and an organist who tossed sheets of music around: the start of the Bocholt Organ Festival in St.Paul's Church was original. Tim Rishton ... shone with virtuoso artistry and received long applause. "Trio Sonata No. 5 in C major" ... of Johann Sebastian Bach ... Rishton played the first movement, a lively Allegro, in a pleasantly-liquid manner ... succeeded ravishingly in the technically-demanding third movement. He had a stunning diversity of voices and woowed with his solemn impetus. ... Andreas Willscher's work "Aquarium", in which he excellently portrays and sets to music marine life and its surroundings, is full of pictures as well as witty. Rishton was spot on in his portrayal of the characters with their different ways of moving and the changing moods: with powerful chords he depicted an "organ coral" before a Ray glided leisurely past in floating harmonies. A burbot danced in jazzy syncopation, swinging seahorses called out a greeting, while the gurnard just had "the blues" and the sea dragons arrived to suggestions of the ubiquitous Bach Toccata . Rishton's playing was so inspiring that visitors clapped for minutes on end. ... Felix Mendelssohn's "Sonata IV in B-flat major" was presented by the organist at times splendidly and majestically and at times graceful and floating, ending up with ravishing sound paintings. In Vivaldi's "Concerto" he did not throw any sheet music aside, and with this piece a great organ evening came to an end.

Michael Stukowski
Bocholter-Borkener Volksblatt
9 June 2015


A very sure-footed and technically able performer

Rishton went on with his program, producing a convincing interpretation. He knew how to use the available tonal colours of the Silbermann organ in the room. So the concert produced an entertaining and versatile impression. And a high point was reached with the Sonata in Bb major, Op 65 No 4 by Mendelssohn Bartholdy. But also in an often harmonically exuberant style, the Norwegian compositions made a convincing impression. One could almost have assumed they were tailor-made for the Silbermann organ. Rishton concluded the concert with a brilliant work of Egil Hovland, which betrays origins in the late-Romantic French Toccata.

Felix Friedrich / 25.07.14 / Ostthüringer Zeitung


Discoveries in the Swallow's Nest
Ruhr Organ-Festival at St. Marien's

For the small swallow's nest organ by Gustav Steinmann from 1967, the concert on Sunday evening formed a premiere at the Ruhr Organ Festival. And the Norwegian organist Tim Rishton would have been grateful for this small, but excellent alternative to the desolate Walcker organ in St Reinoldi. As always at the Organ Festival, a live film of the organist was shown on a video screen in the chancel.

This Professor from Wales is a very structurally thoughtful artist. An organist who does not experiment a great deal with novel registrations, but who brings out the lines and architecture of works in sharp relief. And he had built in provision for distinctive registrations and stops in his varied, eclectic program.

Variety of ornaments
The preludes of Homilius and Buxtehude, and above all the C major Sonata by Bach sounded very clear on this instrument, which has 34 stops. Rishton played the slow movement in a very singing and laid-back manner. Excitement is also available; the Norwegian introduced many different ornaments into the final movement.

One discovery was the "postlude" by William Mathias, a Welsh composer who in 1981 composed the Anthem "Let the People Praise" for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. This little postlude received a lively registration with a wide assortment of colourful timbres.

A gentle Piazzolla
Piazzolla's "Ave Maria" also sounded completely different than what one otherwise knows from the tango composer: very gentle, very ingratiating and rhythmically restrained. In Jesús Guridi's variations at the end of the concert, the Norwegian demonstrated yet again how beautiful and colourful the small Marien organ can sound. Unfortunately this instrument is much too rarely played in concerts.

JG / Ruhr Nachrichten / 30 July 2013
Original text (in German)


The music says a big “yes”:
Tim Rishton plays in the Erlöserkirche [Potsdam]

The British Royals always commissioned the best composers from their empire to write melodious or serious music for the church ceremonies in connection with coronations or weddings: Ralph Vaughan Williams for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and William Mathias for the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana.

From these British composers, the Welsh organist Tim Rishton selected for his concert in the Erlöserkirche a processional march and the prelude over the hymn "Rhosymedre", two works which, in their celebratory / hymn-like solemnity could well and gladly form part of national celebrations. In addition, Rishton played folk- song preludes or hymn preludes by the Norwegian composers Bjarne Sløgedal and Egil Hovland, music that spoke through its simple romantic melodiousness and its skilful approach – especially Hovland’s rhythmic entertaining Toccata. The church musician and university professor, who lives and works in England and in Norway, knew how best to use the tonal possibilities of the Schuke organ in regard to the demands of the respective works.

In this concert, which was arranged jointly by the International Organ Summer series and the Potsdam Bach Festival, one would gladly have heard some more serious works from Great Britain and Norway. So the special interest remained with the evening’s music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV 564, from his Weimar period, is in large format. Energetically and with a directness of expression, the Toccata cleared itself the way. In Rishton’s reading, it was like a large portal, through which one entered powerfully into the abundance of a sublimely-equipped world. The Adagio was full of confident calm breathing, significantly understated; undisturbed even during the wildly-chromatic final minutes. The fugue unfolded with self-confident basic assumption: pure positiveness: the music says a big “yes”.

Vivaldi and Bach: this is also a broad field. The Saxon [Bach] transcribed for the organ the Concerto in A minor by the Venetian composer. Rishton played it in the Erlöserkirche. The Adagio was particularly captivating and sensitively managed, then flowing into the lively Allegro. The fresh and uncluttered playing style of the organist was then revealed again in the Trio Sonata in C major, BWV 526. Whether in the dance-like, happy Vivace, in the tonally exquisitely balanced and floating Largo or in the concluding Allegro with its compact, fresh and lively flirtatiousness: everyone was happy, enjoying the sometimes slow, sometimes cheerfully swelling music, along with the silvery colours in which it was bathed. Warm applause for Tim Rishton.

Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, 11.09.2009
As PDF of original (in German)


BACH FESTIVAL: Masterly Interpretation
Virtuoso organ concert by the Bach expert Tim Rishton from Bradford in the Erlöserkirche

POTSDAM / BRANDENBURG SUBURB - it is established tradition that the international organ summer in Potsdam International Organ Summer in Potsdam joins the Potsdam Bach Festival for two concerts. Organ and Bach form an inseparable unit. At the many workplaces of the great Baroque composer, right up to his last position as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, Bach was always connected with the "King of instruments", to which his many organ works also bear eloquent testimony.

The guest at the Erlöserkirche on Wednesday evening was a proven expert in the organ works of Buxtehude and Bach, Tim Rishton from the English town of Bradford. The focal point of the programme was three exemplary works of the native of Thüringen, Bach. The "Toccata, Adagio and Fugue" of 1709 is a vital sparkling Opus. A long, sporty pedal solo in the Toccata turns into an adagio with catchy and constant pedal accompaniment, ending up in a boisterous fugue. This virtuoso masterpiece of the young Bach was exemplarily interpreted.

The arranging of Concerto grossi and solo concertos by contemporary composers also had an important place in the production of Bach's keyboard and organ works. Rishton selected for his concert one of "six concertos by various masters" BWV 593. The source of this arrangement is the Concerto for Two Violins and Strings in A minor by Antonio Vivaldi. In this work the final allegro is an especially rousing hit, offering interesting display possibilities on the organ in terms of imitating the Violin sound.

The third serious contribution consisted of the Trio Sonata no. 5 in C major. The six Trio sonatas were composed by Bach to serve as practice works for the pedal harpsichord for his oldest son Wilhelm Friedemann; today they represent the "high art" for every good organist. In Rishton, this three-movement work had found its master. In addition to Bach, this musician living in Norway played works by William Mathias, Ralf Vaughan Williams, Bjarne Sløgedal and Egil Hovland; each of these composers had been inspired by Bach.

(By Matthias Müller)
Märkische Allgemeine 11.09.2009
As PDF of original (in German)


Tim Rishton perfectly masters the organ

Pleasant treat for visitors in Ponitz
Ponitz (OTZ/Dr Felix Friedrich).

This year the parish of Ponitz once again invites visitors to the interesting concert series on its Silbermann organ. The attractiveness of this valuable and wonderful-sounding organ is undiminished, and the pleasant concert last Saturday once again provided proof of this.

But also the well-known guest organist Tim Rishton, who had been engaged to give the evening's recital, contributed to the very great attraction. Tim Rishton commutes back and forth between his home lands of England and Norway as a professor.

"His specialist field is performance practice", announced the Ponitz church musician Christoph Beyrer in his introductory greeting. And this was evident in Tim Rishton's concert. His immaculate playing was perfectly adapted to the action and playing style of the Ponitz organ, which he controlled from the very first note; while he did not use Silbermann's original organ bench, strict performance practice was produced from upon it. The tonal rendition of the individual compositions in the programme reflected above all the wonderful Principals and foundation stops of the Silbermann organ.

This naturally benefited from the outset the character of the second Organ Sonate in C minor by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. From the opening clearly-delineated declamatory passages to the lovingly long concluding chords many details were brought out with a certain English detatchment. From his English homeland he had included only one piece in the program, namely four movements from the Water Music by the adoptive Englishman Georg Friedrich Händel, originally composed for a royal boat trip on the Thames. These four movements acquitted themselves very distinctively on the Silbermann organ, above all the beautifully-played Air using the strong flute voices. The well-known Hornpipe also lost none of its effect, but could nevertheless have coped with a brisker speed.

Rishton then impressively played the "Resurrection of Jesus" by Justin Heinrich Knecht. This Easter tone painting for the organ, as the work's subtitle notes, demands a colourful interpretation. There was the dreadful quiet of the grave, with the quietest voices of the Silbermann organ, the quaking of the earth, depicted with very gloomy rumbling stops, and in the end the triumph song of the angels, in which Tim Rishton allowed the joyful galant music style to emerge.

This was stylishly and impressively followed by Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in B minor and three intimate hymn prologues from the op. 122 of Johannes Brahms. Here Tim Rishton showed that he is just as knowledgeable in the style of the 18th century as in that of the 19th. He avoided the too-often heard excessively overtone-rich sound in the Vivaldi and strongly emphasised the foundation stops of the Silbermann organ in the Brahmsian miniatures. One may have wished for the opportunity to hear the large plenum including the trombone in the pedal, perhaps in the emotional ascending Coda to the Prelude and the following, not less intensive, Fugue in F minor BWV 534 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Tim Rishton declined to do so. Perhaps this abstinence was deliberately chosen. In Lent, in which we presently find ourselves, the loud sounds of jubilation are not necessarily appropriate.

Nevertheless Rishton with his concert left behind a very good impression, not least through his skilled treatment of the not easy to play Ponitz Silbermann organ.

31.03.2009

Ostthüringer Zeitung 01.04.2009
As PDF of original (in German)


Norwegian press

John Stanley

"In his engaging, informative and humoristic manner, he spoke about Stanley and the music by him and around him. It was an enjoyable hour, with new information about English music and Stanley's voluntaries beautifully performed on the Grønlund organ".
Edgar Hansen in Norsk Kirkemusikk 2013 i, page 33, regarding the lecture-recital during the Norwegian Organ Festival 2012.
Original here as PDF (in Norwegian).

Entertaining organist (5 star)


SPJELKAVIK. The well-known organist Tim Rishton had the honour of heading up the Autumn concert series in Spjelkavik Church. He gives concerts in an international arena and is in addition an extremely entertaining speaker.
Bach's six trio sonatas ... demand intense concentration from the start to keep control over the wealth of dialogue between the voices. Tim Rishton has in addition a well-grounded and relaxed musicality that allows the music to flow freely and unhampered.
Johann Gottfried Walther's ... arrangement of Vivaldi's Concerto in B minor ... was fresh and clear.
Ralph Vaughan Williams's chorale prelude "Rhosymedre" is a well-formed work with lovely melodic lines which in Rishton's performance was a beautiful experience.
Those who came got a lot for their money.
Sunnmørsposten
As PDF of original (in Norwegian)

"a brilliant organist"
"en fremragende orgelspiller"
Gudbrandsdalen og Lillehammer Tilskuer

"During the opening number by John Parry, you could close your eyes and dream of the eighteenth century. Bach's C-minor Passacaglia danced with strength and fullness in its music"
"Under åpningsnummeret av John Parry kunne en lukke øynene og drømme seg til syttenhundretallet. Bachs Passacaglia i c-moll [var] en dans med kraft og fylde i musikken"
Finnmark Dagblad

"Organ music of the highest class"
"Orgelmusikk av ypperste klasse"
Sør-Varanger Avis

"We hope that this organist will return to Harstad for we really want to hear him again"
"Organisten vonar vi legg turen innom Harstad ein annan gong for han høyrer vi gjerne igjen"
Harstad Tidende

"For an hour and a half the church was filled with the music of Vivaldi, Brahms, Bach and Mendelssohn, performed by Dr Tim Rishton ... and every single face was lit up by happy smiles"
"I halvannen time ble kirkerommet fylt med verker av Vivaldi, Brahms, Bach og Mendelssohn, framført av dr. Tim Rishton ... og salige smil strålte i hvert eneste ansikt"
Framtid i Nord

"Astoundingly good ... a world-class organist"
"Helt utrolig flott ... organist i verdensklasse"
Romsdals Budstikke

"The concert consisted of shorter pieces of music by well-known composers including Bach, Brahms and Vivaldi, linked by Rishton's humorous stories ... By combining beautiful music with pleasant humour, Rishton gave his public an atmospheric concert experience"
"Konserten besto av mindre musikkstykker av kjente komponister som blant andre Bach, Brahms og Vivaldi, og ble bundet sammen av Rishtons humorisiske fortellinger ... Ved å kombinere vakker musikk med lun humor, ga Rishton sitt publikum en stemningsfull konsertopplevelse"
Rana Blad

"Fabulous organ playing ... was greatly enjoyed"
"Glimrande orgelspel ... vekte stor begeistring"
Sogn Dagblad


Reviews of Joyful Noise

Review of course for church organists

"On Saturday 9 November [2002], All Saints [Burton in Lonsdale] was host for a group of organists from the Deanery and surrounding region who met together for the day with Professor Tim Rishton from Kelbrook - including our own organists from Thornton and Burton. The meeting was organised by Anthony Smith, organist at St Margaret's Church, High Bentham.

The sessions comprised both discussion and practical work on the organ. Dr Rishton has a particular ministry in guiding and encouraging organists and after the session grateful comments could be heard for his skilled guidance, for his friendly style of teaching and for getting the level right for those participating. He seeks to bring together clear Christian faith and professional expertise in the worship of our Lord.

This was the first of these meetings in the Diocese and it is now planned for similar meetings to be held in other deaneries, and for further possible workships here in Ewecross. We look forward to that."

     Ewecross Deanery News, December 2002

Biographical articles

Romsdals Budstikke 19 August 1995 (Large PDF file - 18MB)
Åndalsnes Avis 5 February 1994 (Large PDF file - 19MB)
Wikipedia article