Peter Hurford obituary

Organist who encouraged historically informed performance style and instruments

The organist Peter Hurford, who has died aged 88, was founder of the St Albans International Organ festival and one of the most influential exponents of the principles of historical performance practice in the second half of the 20th century.

When he gave his first recital on the new Royal Festival Hall organ in London in 1955 he was only 25, at a time when the average age of organists appearing there was 47, and the refreshing, communicative quality of his musicianship was immediately apparent.

He went on to give 20 recitals in the hall, in the series known affectionately as Wednesdays at 5.55 after its immutable time slot, more than any organist other than Ralph Downes, the designer and first curator of the instrument.

Hurford and Downes were key figures in the Organ Reform Movement, which resulted in the installation of neoclassical instruments, mostly of continental manufacture, based on the principles of organs of Bach’s era.

Abroad, the influential figures included Marie-Claire Alain, Piet Kee, Anton Heiller and Luigi Tagliavini, all of whom, along with Downes, were to serve regularly on the jury of the St Albans festival, set up by Hurford in 1963.

The historically informed perspective of the festival – in terms of both performance style and instruments – was epitomised by the new Harrison & Harrison organ, designed by Downes and Hurford for the abbey – the first cathedral organ in the country to be built and voiced on classical lines. Prizewinners at the prestigious festival in subsequent years included Gillian Weir, Andrew Davis, Thomas Trotter and Kevin Bowyer.

Hurford had been appointed master of the music at St Albans in 1958, a post he was to retain until 1978, when he relinquished both abbey and festival responsibilities to develop his career as a freelance organist. Bach was always at the centre of his preoccupations, though he played other baroque music too, as well as Romantic repertoire such as Liszt, Franck and Vierne.

In 1980-81 he curated a Bach organ festival at the Royal Festival Hall, the aim of which was to present all Bach’s organ works, without duplication, in the Wednesdays at 5.55 series. In collaboration with the Bach scholar Peter Williams, Hurford jettisoned no fewer than 39 works that were determined to be spurious – though the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor was, despite its doubtful authenticity, spared. Even so, the performance time of the series had to be increased by a third to 21 hours to accommodate the amount of music. In 1997 he was to organise a comparable Bach organ music cycle for the 50th Edinburgh International festival.

Hurford’s concert tours took him to Europe, America, Australasia and Japan, but it was probably the complete Bach organ works project for BBC Radio, some 34 programmes broadcast between 1980 and 1982, that brought both him and the notion of Bach’s organ music on period instruments to the widest audience. He also made commercial recordings of the complete organ works of Bach, Couperin, Handel and Hindemith.

The son of Hubert Hurford, a solicitor, and his wife, Gladys (nee James), Peter was born in Minehead, Somerset, and educated at Blundell’s school, Tiverton, Devon (1944–48), and the Royal College of Music (1948–49). From there he went on to become organ scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge (1949–53), taking a degree in music and law. He had further studies in Paris with André Marchal.

After national service as an officer in the Royal Signals (1954-56) he took a post as organist at Holy Trinity, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

In 1955 he married Patricia Matthews and they had a daughter, Heather, and two sons, Michael and Richard, who were both scholars in the St Albans Abbey choir; Michael was also head chorister.

Hurford was credited with raising the standard of the abbey choir to that of the best cathedral and collegiate choirs in the country. He also initiated a choir camp at Luccombe, Somerset, and in 1958 brought together parish choirs from Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire for the first biennial diocesan choirs’ festival. His book Making Music on the Organ (1988) covered topics such as the tonal design and key action of organs, balance and posture on the organ stool (together with hints on clothing) and detailed discussions of the performance of German and French baroque music. He also published choral music for the Anglican liturgy, notably the Litany to the Holy Spirit, to a text by Robert Herrick. In 1984 he was appointed OBE, and he held three honorary doctorates.

Underpinned as it was by historically informed principles and formidable virtuosity, Hurford’s playing was notable for its intellectual integrity. He was able to allow the large-scale pieces such as the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, or the Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, to unfold in grand, almost old-fashioned style, but enlivened by incisive ornamentation and bearing huge expressive weight. Registrations were carefully chosen to maximise contrapuntal clarity, while meticulous articulation and control of agogic accents (by lengthening notes) ensured crisp, lively performances.

Readings of such works generated a powerful momentum, but were largely innocent of rhetorical flourishes, let alone Romantic subjectivity. Rather his fresh, taut, vigorous playing style paved the way for the more adventurous rhythmic flexibility of future generations.

Hurford suffered a stroke in 2007, but was back on the stool within seven months. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease the following year and gave his last public performance in 2009.

Patricia died in 2017. He is survived by his children.

• Peter Hurford, organist, born 22 November 1930; died 3 March 2019

Contributor

Barry Millington

The GuardianTramp

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