Review Text
The organ at St Botolph\'s Aldgate in the City of London is a remarkable survival, one of the most reliable witnesses to the sound of English church music of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It is the oldest surviving English church organ, and the only surviving organ by Renatus Harris. It was built about 1704, when Harris was paid for the Trumpets and Echos (now the Swell). Standing at the easternmost gate of the ancient City of London, the church had not been burnt in the great fire of London of 1666, but was in any case replaced by a new building in 1744, designed by George Dance, in a style similar to Christopher Wren\'s City Churches. The organ was put into store and re-assembled in the new church by John Byfield, Renatus Harris\'s son in law. The organ has been rebuilt and altered since then, but the Victorian additions were removed by NP Mander Ltd in 1966. The organ was in 2006 restored to it's 1744 state by Martin Goetze and Dominic Gwynn, but with a small pedal organ. Timothy Roberts was organist of His Majestys Sackbuts and Cornetts, 1990-2002, and principal keyboard of the Gabrieli Consort and Players, 1988-2007. He has been associated with Goetze & Gwynn in various ways: he made Radio 3 recordings on their restorations at St Lawrence Whitchurch and at Keddlestone Hall; has played their Italian-style large chamber organ on a number of CDs (Hyperion, DGG); and in 2005 recorded on the organ they had restored at the Convent of Santa Clara, Santiago de Compostela, the resulting CD (tramu.com) being praised by John Kitchen as \'a revelation and hugely enjoyable\' (Early Music Today, June-July 2006). Born in north London, Tim studied at Cambridge (piano lessons with Peter Feuchtwanger) and at the Guildhall School, London (harpsichord lessons from Christopher Kite and Jill Severs). His musical projects have included both the unfamiliar - such as clavichord recitals, and publications and recordings of newly edited English music of the 17th to 19th centuries - and the unexpected: for example, an acclaimed Bach Album (with HMSC, Hyperion) that consists mainly of transcripions of organ music.
