15/05/2012 00:00
TW
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By Lois Jones.—There were around 400 people in the Basilica of Sant Francesc in Palma on Friday night to listen to Simon Johnson, the current organist and musical director of Saint Paul's cathedral in London, in concert.

Johnson was playing on the final night of this year's historic organ week during which players from around the world are invited to give a performance on the instrument in the Basilica which has been refitted to its former glory by German organ restorer Gerhard Grenzing.

The historic organ foundation (ACA) is the brainchild of Majorcan Toni Caimari who launched a campaign a quarter of a century ago to rescue the treasure trove of instruments in churches around Majorca from abandonment and ruin.

Many organs on the mainland of Spain were subjected to a makeover in the Victorian era, losing many of their early original features in the process, but Majorca escaped what some would describe as this “unfortunate” restoration programme. Subsequently, when Grenzing arrived on Majorca in the 1960s, he found a wealth of organs badly in need of repair but in their original state.

The organ in the Basilica of Sant Francesc was just such an instrument and in fact it is the latest on Majorca to benefit from Grenzing's artistry.
Simon Johnson has an international reputation of his own, the five manual organ at St. Paul's cathedral in London is one of the most important instruments of its kind in the world.

Johnson has given concerts in France, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Holland Italy and North America and in fact next year he will be off on another whirlwind tour of the United States. His performances as a soloist include those with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, and London's Mozart and Barroque Orchestras. In 2008, he spearheaded a series of performances by French composer Oliver Messiaen whose centenary was being celebrated that year on the South Bank and elsewhere.

Johnson's professionalism enabled him to demonstrate the full range of tonality and register of the organ in Sant Francesc. His repertoire ranged widely from Johann S. Bach, William Byrd, Herbert Howells, William Walton (Ord and Sceptre), César Franck, Olivier Messiaen and Majorcan composer Antoni Martorell who died in 2009.