St Thomas the Martyr
To a certain extent you could say that George Handel played the organ at St Thomas the Martyr. And you could definitely say he sat on the console bench, which is orginal, and looked up at the carved wooden cherubs on the organ casing with his own eyes. The exterior was built by John Harris in 1729, but the interior was destroyed in a fire in 1991, so it was decided to take the interior of an 1881 Vowels organ from St Wurburgh's church and slot it into place at St Thomas the Martyr. As a result the keyboard is not the one that Handel would have played, and the sound is not one he would have heard.
The instrument has a Baroque exterior and a Romantic interior, and the organ builder John Budgen spent some time remodelling the Vowels interior to give it a Baroque character. The result is an organ of unique colour and texture. There is a great deal of clarity to each of the sounds produced, and with the reverb in the church (which we timed at about 3.5 seconds), it sounds absolutely wonderful!
The church is looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust, who were very kind to let me through their office and onto the gallery where I recorded Kacper playing. It is currently being used as a place of worship for the Romanian Orthodox community in Bristol, and I loved seeing the signs around the building in both English and Romanian. It is good to know that there are pockets of space in England where people who have come from other countries are welcome and supported.
I played a couple of improvisations and was immediately transported by the rich tone of the organ. Many a time I have milled about on Thomas Lane between watching gigs at the Fleece without realising that a beautiful church sits next door; now I am also very pleased to say I have been inside, sat on a bench that Handel once sat on and admired the wooden carvings that he also once admired.
St Thomas the Martyr Improv
Kacpar jams on the St Thomas the Martyr organ
