The serious music in Liverpool is on a high

Mar 8 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

Liverpool Cathedral organist Ian Tracey is set to tell the public about his pride in his home city’s 800 years of music-making. Peter Elson reports

LONG ago, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool decided he wanted to hear “his” organ in St George’s Hall, so WT Best, the great impresario and Liverpool city organist, was requested to be ready.

Two hours in advance of the visit, in the bowels of the hall, the city engineers were duly instructed to get steam up in the coal-fuelled bellows machinery that powered the vast organ’s pipework.

Aware of his virtuoso status, Best was also a caustic wit who did not suffer fools gladly. He was not a man to be kept waiting, even by the Lord Mayor in his pomp.

Best opened the keyboard and sat silently waiting to play. Time passed, uninterrupted by the appearance of the Lord Mayor.

After some 20 minutes had ticked by, Best stood up and prepared to leave, when an agitated flunky arrived, beseeching him not to go.

Best replied: “I came as bidden and I am leaving”.

The pleading continued, emphatic that the Lord Mayor wanted to hear his instrument. Best returned to the keyboard and stuck pencils under the organ stops.

Best then left the building as the great beast blasted out random notes.

“So when the Lord Mayor arrived, he heard his organ, but not in the way he had hoped,” chuckles Prof Ian Tracey, who now rejoices in the delicious title of organist titulaire, at Liverpool Cathedral.

This is a worthy elevation from director of music (which encompassed organist and choir master), following the appointment of David Poulter to that post earlier this year.

Doubtless, Ian will muse on Best’s antics as he stands beneath that same organ, which as current city organist he has often played.

However, its voice will be quelled as he speaks on Liverpool’s rich history of music, at Lord Alton’s forthcoming Roscoe Citizenship Lecture, on Wednesday. And who better to give such a lecture?

The view from the front windows of Ian Tracey’s house is dominated by the magnificent bulk of Liverpool Cathedral. It’s an apt image for the huge part this great ecclesiastical building has played – and still plays – in Ian’s life.

Now aged 52, more than half his life has been dedicated to his role as the cathedral’s organist, firstly as assistant organist in 1976 (a mere 10 years after his first lesson) and then as organist from 1980.

Before being appointed as Britain’s youngest cathedral organist, he already enjoyed a spiritual link with the job.

His grandfather held the position at St Paul’s Stoneycroft, West Derby. Both this church and Liverpool Cathedral were designed by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

Born and brought up in West Derby, the son of a jeweller and educational careworker in a family that contained several military bandmasters, Ian can’t think of anywhere he’d rather live and work than Liverpool.

With an international reputation and numerous invitations to play everywhere, he says that “there have been offers to work elsewhere, but my whole life’s here. Very flattering though”.

His suggestion to become organist titulaire has been agreed by Liverpool Cathedral’s chapter (administrators) and this has renewed his commitment to the city.

“I wanted to get away from all the administration and back to music, but I didn’t want to leave and so I’m so gratified that the chapter understand this.”

The Roscoe lecture has also inspired him, as his research delved into 800 years of Liverpool’s music-making.

By coincidence, his Mornington Terrace neighbour, is Hughie Jones, formerly of The Spinners, and so a famous folk element of the city’s music tradition is literally on his doorstep.

“It’s been a real enjoyment poking around and discovering such a rich diversity. I was particularly struck by the number of concert halls and music venues that have long since disappeared,” says Ian.

“Early last century, music halls thrived in the city and the choice of classical music was tremendous. Sir Adrian Boult was conducting in Birkenhead Town Hall and Sir Thomas Beecham conducted at St Helens Town Hall, meantime Malcolm Sergeant was busy at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

“Sir Granville Bantock, one of the great proponents of British music, and his New Brighton Symphony Orchestra were so popular that extra ferries were run for concert goers. Later on, a change of social mood favouring the dance band craze meant the classical concerts were pushed into less popular lunchtime programmes.