INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW:
This is a rather good CD. Surprisingly so, because it is not every day that one listens to a whole recital disc devoted to a “humble” village church organ, and – to be utterly frank – the thought of listening to the music of Bach, Froberger, Fischer and Sweelinck on such an instrument filled me with some trepidation. Indeed, Dubois and Franck seemed a rather too hopeful choice of repertoire. But the surprise was the more pleasant because the Walker organ at St. Mungo’s, Simonburn, Northumberland has some exquisitely charming sounds and the playing on this disc is at all times skilful and accurate.

The church in Simonburn is a modestly sized building and as a result the recording lacks the benefit of any appreciable acoustic. In fact it would be no exaggeration to say that there is none, at least to judge from the leaden silence after each final chord. That Henry Wallace makes his performances come alive at all in such an environment is some achievement. Unexpectedly, the Bach choral preludes work well; they are sensitively played, and the registration of each is chosen with care. Most characterful is the delightful solo reed – presumably the swell horn – used in Wachet auf. Another strikingly enchanting registration is the flutes which Wallace uses in the Sweelinck. Of the Baroque pieces, the Bach C minor Prelude is the least convincing. Although Wallace takes it no slower than many performers, the complete lack of grandeur in the sound makes the music seem rather ponderous, despite the technical fluency of the performance,

As for the Romantic pieces, both the Mendelssohn and Rheinberger succeed within their own terms. Perhaps more interestingly, so do the works by Franck and Dubois. Even with the limited resources at his disposal, Wallace manages to give the impression of a well-contrived crescendo; somehow, one does not miss the tonal palette of a larger instrument. The Dubois Toccata trundles along merrily, due not in part to Wallace’s rhythmic poise. Nevertheless, here one senses the limitations of the instrument: the clatter from the action and the relatively indistinct articulation in the semiquaver writing suggests music that is beyond the cope of this venerable but ultimately limited instrument.

Listening to this recital is an enjoyable experience and one can readily appreciate the enthusiasm of those who were involved in this recording. And, in the final analysis, it is undoubtedly one of the more “easy-listening” organ CDs that I have come across for a while.
Warwick Cole

ORGANISTS’ REVIEW (on original cassette issue, 1992):
Well done, Simonburn! This sweet-toned James Walker of about 1860 has just been completely restored by Harrison & Harrison – another of their excellent recent similar projects. This is just the sort of recital which has village-church members declaring “I never knew our organ could sound like that!” In other words, the gifted and musical Henry Wallace (whose tapes at Hexham and Cullercoats have in the past been received with great critical acclaim), plays a well-balanced and enjoyable programme with refinement, projection and imagination, This is a small organ possessing the pre-Willis/Lewis unforced beauty of tone to which many thinking (and hearing) organists are now returning, after 100 years of “music-machines” and 30 years of Germanic pseudo neo-Baroque spittings and chuffings. It only possesses fourteen ranks, but each is a gem.
Paul Hale

THE NEWCASTLE JOURNAL CULTURE MAGAZINE:
Originally issued on cassette in 1992 to fund the restoration of the organ on which it was played, Henry Wallace’s recital at St. Mungo’s Church in the Northumberland village of Simonburn is now out on CD. Ranging from Sweelinck in the 17th century to Reger and Dubois in the 20th, Wallace demonstrates the finely tuned 1860 James Walker organ to its best in distinctively voiced counterpoints and luminous choral effects. Froberger, Johann Fischer, Bach, Rheinberger and Franck surround the central Mendelssohn Organ Sonata in D minor, op. 65 no. 6, its fleet-footed scale passages and flexible tempi lent clarity by the not over-resonant acoustics and a warm, natural recorded sound.
Tom Hall

MUSICWEB:
This is a re-issue of a recording made to mark the restoration of a modest but gorgeous example of mid-19th century village organ building. First built in 1860 by the original J.W. Walker for a private house, the organ ended up in the church of St Simon, Mungoburn, [sic] in Northumberland. It consists of 13 stops on 2 manuals and pedal:

GT: 8888442

SW: 88848 (Horn)

PED: 16

The quality is immediately evident; more unaltered examples of really good 19th century small-scale English organ building should be recorded I think. The sweet flutes, gentle principals and the rich Horn all contribute to a beautiful instrument.

A shame then, that the organist Henry Wallace FRCO (never list your qualifications on a CD cover!), a former student of Peter Hurford and David Sanger, plays not a note of 19th century English music and dedicates the better part of thirty minutes to music written before 1750. This serves neither the instrument, nor the music optimally. That said, Wallace's Bach playing is probably stylistically rather in the manner of the way Bach was performed in 1860; rather legato and rhythmically unyielding. The result is a strangely satisfying aesthetic match. The Sweelinck, Froberger and Fischer miss the mark. The rest of the literature works better, but the playing is musically rather naive. The Franck is too solid, the Mendelssohn doesn't take sufficient notice of the composer’s very exact tempo markings. The Dubois is in G, not in C as stated on the CD booklet. What a shame we hear no Wesley, Russell, even the marvellously constructed miniatures of Edward Elgar's op.14 Vesper Voluntaries would have been spot-on.

A nice piece of local history, and an undoubtedly first-rate instrument, but to satisfactorily fill nearly 70 minutes of CD with such a modest instrument requires far more cunning than Wallace can offer.
Chris Bragg

[Note: while we always believe that music appreciation is subjective and do not as a rule object to reviewer’s comments, we do wonder whether in view of the critic getting the church and village name reversed, the review was written following a heavy night out… so far as the programme is concerned, it was chosen back in 1992 to maximise appeal to the general public, not just to music connoisseurs: bear in mind that this recording was originally issued as a fund raising exercise to assist with the organ restoration fund. The local population in a small country village might know of Bach and Mendelssohn, but probably not much 19th century English music (sadly). As to the playing – and the programme, see the previous review!]