When the music and the occasion match the surroundings it is going to be something special, writes George Chittenden.
It is no easy task to describe the best day of one's life, yet in pondering this some clear highlights emerge, particularly in relation to my work as a solo concert organist.
In travelling frequently to play concerts at exciting and diverse locations, one sometimes meets the opportunity to perform works that were composed with a particular building in mind.
There are also opportunities to perform ''commissions'', or music that has been written by friends and colleagues for a particular concert.
In August 2009, all of these factors combined, to thoroughly exciting effect.
In 2008, I received an invitation to play an organ concert at St Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, situated in northern Belgium.
This iconic medieval city, littered with church steeples, ancient bridges and distinctive Flemish houses, holds a regular series of organ concerts, performed on summer nights to substantially-sized audiences.
St Bavo's Cathedral is known not only for its stellar cathedral organ and vaulted Gothic architecture, but chiefly as the home of Jan Van Eyck's masterpiece of medieval art, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.
This vast painting, which depicts in lavish splendour the triumphant creed of Christian theology, has been an inspiration to millions of pilgrims throughout its existence.
This inspiration was particularly true for Tim Raymond: a Yorkshire-based friend and a critically acclaimed British composer.
Upon hearing of my forthcoming concert date in Belgium, Tim exclaimed warmly the great inspiration that Van Eyck's painting had bestowed on him, and how his vision of this work of art was still crystal-clear, even years after having visited Ghent.
Tim and I began to discuss the idea of a composition for organ inspired by the imagery of this painting.
Over the coming months, Tim sculpted a 15-minute composition entitled Caritas Pater Est (God Is Love), which included a research trip to Ghent itself.
In addition to Tim's reacquaintance with the painting, he also discovered the ancient Ghent Breviary, containing much monastic plainchant from this very cathedral.
The ensuing organ piece, ascribed with my name on its dedication, was absolutely and centrally music written for a particular building and a particular occasion; it employed depictions of imagery from the painting, in addition to ancient, local plainchant.
It is a fiery, intense and rhythmical work for the most part, which then subsides suddenly into moments of great introspection and tenderness.
Being able to perform this work on one of the world's premier organs, with an audience of several hundred people (which included the composer himself), was a hugely significant moment, and certainly the outstanding highlight of my career as a solo concert performer.
• George Chittenden is director of music at the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, Dunedin.
