ASO PROM CONCERTS – THE TALE OF AN IMPOTENT ORGAN

Having left Adelaide at the end of 1972 to become Chief Conductor of the QSO, one series of concerts I particularly enjoyed each year were the ASO Proms. I conducted the inaugural season in 1973 and participated in subsequent series for over eight years. “Prom” programs included some ‘warhorses’, but also many works (including commissions) unlikely to surface in the Orchestra’s main Subscription Concerts of that era. Some such works included the Artie Shaw Clarinet Concerto (with soloist, Gabor Reeves), Schumann’s Concert Piece, Op. 86, for Four Horns (which starred Stan Fry and his team), two Symphonies by Martinu, (Nos. 4 & 6), the George Golla Guitar Concerto and dozens of similar works.

As the climax of the inaugural season in 1973, I scheduled that well-tested favourite, Saint-Saens’ Symphony No 3, in the last movement of which the organ plays a spectacular (not to mention, essential) role. The audience in the Adelaide Town Hall was in great form and we were all enjoying ourselves tremendously. The excitement was palpable, as expected in the Saint-Saens, when things suddenly took a turn for the worse. The organist found himself confronted with that dread of all organists, a cypher, or leak in the wind supply. Worse still, the venerable Town Hall organ was becoming decidedly uncooperative.

The force-fed air through the instrument began to cause unwelcome, discordant sounds from a set, or sets of pipes. Cyphers can be a real pain for organists who have to try immediately to identify which stops are affected and then cease to use them. In this case, the cypher was “contagious” and, far from being a weak-toned distraction, was becoming louder and more rudely intrusive as each page went by. In the end, despite his best efforts to obviate the problem, there was only one thing the organist could do and that was to shut down the instrument. This was a calamity, and became more so in the final bars of the Symphony, where the composer demands the maximum sound and magnificence from the organ. In a matter of seconds, instead of ending with a bang, the symphony petered out, a pale imitation of the intended effect. This was especially so in the penultimate bar where the silent organ left veteran timpanist, Richard (‘Dick’) Smith, doing his solo best to carry the instrumental burden until the last bar. At that point the ASO players joined in with generous extra decibels to compensate for what was by then, a decidedly impotent organ.

It was a toss-up as to who felt more cheated, the audience or the performers. Fortunately, the Promenaders thought the episode uproariously funny and cheered louder than ever as we took our bows. They left the Town Hall that night in great spirits after the obligatory Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 which, though still minus the organ, was played with even more gusto than usual.

- Patrick Thomas