Celebrity organ recitals in Southwell Minster

Largo

Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904)

Grand Chœur in D

Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

Air on the G string

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Prelude & Fugue in A minor

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Adagio for the Musical Clock

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Fireworks Music

G F Handel (1685-1759)

Toccata on an American Theme

Stefan Lindblad (b. 1958)

Andantino (Concerto No 3 in G)

Antonio Soler (1729-1783)

The Stars & Stripes for ever

John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)

Highly popular American virtuoso Carlo Curley pays a return visit for a programme of solos and duets with the Minster’s Rector Chori, Paul Hale. Many of the pieces show the currently-popular vogue for transcription, all the rage a century ago and now very much back with us again. There is of course ‘real’ organ music from Bach and from the contemporary Stephan Lindblad, his piece—and of course the Sousa at the end—recalling Carlo Curley’s native land and also reminding us of the current race to the White House. Carlo Curley will introduce the programme items himself.
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Te Deum

Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)

Balletto del granduca

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621)

‘Jig’ Fugue in G (BWV577)

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Canon in B minor

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Stèle pour un enfant défunt

Louis Vierne (1870-1937)

Allegro vivace (Symphonie V)

Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)

Scherzo symphonique

Pierre Cochereau (1924-1984)

The Minster’s assistant organist Simon Bell begins ‘in your face’ with Jeanne Demessieux’s feisty Te Deum. The elegance of Sweelinck’s Balletto del granduca is followed by the cheerful Jig fugue, attributed to Bach, and Schumann’s quirky Canon in B minor. Vierne’s Stèle pour un enfant défunt has a doubly tragic history: it was written in response to a child’s death that had affected Vierne deeply, and it was the very last piece he played before falling dead at the console in Notre-Dame. But fear not: there is no curse on the piece! I have attended two ‘live’ performances of it, and both soloists lived to tell the tale (and Nicolas Kynaston is still happily with us almost forty years later).

We remain in Paris for Simon’s last two pieces. We hear the first movement of Widor’s best-known symphony, the fifth: this is a set of variations on a rather Schumannesque theme, and they show many sides to Widor’s personality. And finally to an organist who published little but whose improvisations—every one of them recorded—have been transcribed by others so that we can hear them today. Pierre Cochereau’s Scherzo Symphonique is an exciting romp with which to end.

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Jeanne Demessieux, Te Deum	Dupré, Évocation; Tournemire, Te Deum; Langlais, Hymne d’action de grâce
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck Balletto del granduca	Most of Sweelinck’s other work!
J S Bach ‘Jig’ Fugue in G	Buxtehude, Fugue in C
Robert Schumann Canon in B minor	Schumann, The other canons from op 56, Four Sketches op 58, Six Fugues on BACH
Louis Vierne Stèle pour un enfant défunt	Slow movements from most of Vierne’s symphonies
Charles–Marie Widor Allegro vivace	The rest of symphony 5; symphony 6
Pierre Cochereau, Scherzo symphonique	Bossi Étude de concert; Bonnet, Étude de concert

Biography

Simon Bell was appointed Assistant Organist of Southwell Minster in April 2003, having previously held posts at Westminster Abbey and St Albans Cathedral. During his time at Westminster he played at a number of important civic and state occasions, most notably the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

Simon was educated at Queen’s College, Taunton and Leeds University where he graduated with first class honours. During his time at Leeds he was director of the University Chamber Choir, and held the University’s Organ Scholarship. In addition, he holds a Master of Music degree in Advanced Performance from the Royal College of Music. In 1997 Simon won the coveted Limpus prize for the highest marks in the FRCO diploma examination, and was presented with a Silver Medal by the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He is the third successive member of his family to hold this diploma. Simon has been appointed Assistant Organist of Winchester Cathedral from September 2008.

At Southwell Minster, Simon is responsible for directing the Minster Chorale, the Minster’s Voluntary Choir, in addition to playing for the many choral services. He is also musical director of the Lincoln Chorale, Lincolnshire’s leading Chamber Choir. As a solo recitalist, Simon has played in venues throughout the country, and has broadcast for radio and television. Simon was a prizewinner in the 2001 St Albans International Organ Competition and a semi-finalist in the Royal College of Organists’ Performer of the Year competition in 2002. Recent enganements have included recitals at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s, Chester & Westminster Cathedrals, St John’s College, Cambridge and at Southwell. Simon is a former holder of the prestigious W T Best memorial organ scholarship, awarded triennially by the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He studies with Ben van Oosten.

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Overture ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)

Nimrod (Enigma Variations)

Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

Toccata & Fugue in D minor (BWV565)

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Three Pieces

Nicholas Choveaux (1904-1995)

Air on a G string

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Scherzo in G minor

Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925)

If Lefébure-Wely is called the organist’s Offenbach, it’s good for us to hear the real thing, complete with Can-Can. We follow this with the immense dignity of Nimrod, then the nobility and sonority of BWV 565. Then on to less familiar territory: Choveaux is recalled with gratitude by organ-music lovers as one of the organisers of the 1930 Karg-Elert festival which did much to popularize the German composer’s music in this country and also led to the foundation of the organ music society. Choveaux’s Three Pieces begin with an attractive March and end with a rousing toccata on All creatures of our God and King. Air on a G string, to give it the title it received when it was popular as a solo violin piece, gets its second outing this season, and it is followed by Enrico Bossi’s Scherzo in G minor, a piece which became well-known through Francis Jackson’s recording from York in the Great Cathedral Organ series.

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Jacques Offenbach ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’	Lefébure-Wely, Sorties in B flat and E flat; Franck, Final
Edward Elgar Nimrod	Elgar, slow movement of Sonata in G Thalben Ball, Elegy Walford Davies, Solemn Melody
J S Bach Toccata & Fugue in D minor	Preludes and Fugues (Praeludia) by Buxtehude
Nicholas Choveaux Three Pieces	Karg-Elert, Hymn to the Stars (from Seven Pastels from Lake Constance); many French-style toccatas including Lanquetuit, Toccata in D; Guy Weitz, Stella Maris
J S Bach Air on a G string	Bach, chorale preludes on ‘Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier’ BWV 731 and ‘Wenn wir in hochstein Nöten sein’ BWV 641; Flor Peeters, Largo from Suite op 71
Marco Enrico Bossi Scherzo in G minor	Bossi, Étude de Concert; Gigout, Scherzo in E

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Bridal March & Finale

Charles H H Parry (1848-1918)

Partita Ach, was soll ich Sünder machen BWV 770

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Prière après la communion

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Sonata in G minor

Oskar Lindberg (1887-1955)

Sonata in C minor

Percy Whitlock (1903-1946)

Former assistant organist at the Minster, Philip Rushforth, returns to commemorate some unusual anniversaries for Sir Hubert Parry: 160th anniversary of his birth and 90th anniversary of his death. He follows this with what was evidently one of Bach’s prentice works, the Partita or set of variations on Ach, was soll ich Sünder machen. Messiaen’s centenary is commemorated in his Prière après la communion, which comes from his final organ work Livre du Saint-Sacrement but inhabits the same world as his first published piece for the instrument, Le Banquet Céleste.

Finally come two inter-war sonatas. Stockholm-based Oskar Lindberg’s Sonata in G minor of 1923 is followed by large-scale Whitlock, whose Symphony for organ and orchestra was recently heard at the Minster while his Sonata in C minor was one of the first pieces played on the Quire organ here. This Sonata, dating from 1935-36, is cast in four movements: a large-scale homage to Elgar; a very ‘ecclesiastical’ slow movement written when Whitlock was a church organist; a playful scherzo, reminding us that Whitlock regularly performed popular music at the Bournemouth Pavilion; and an extensive finale whose second half gives us a big tune worthy of Rachmaninov himself, and was indeed inspired by that composer’s second symphony.

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Charles H H Parry Bridal March & Finale	Parry’s organ music, starting perhaps with the Elegy of 1913
J S Bach ‘Ach, was soll ich Sünder machen’	The partitas BWV 766-8
Olivier Messiaen Prière après la communion	Messsiaen, Le Banquet Céleste; Apparition de l’Église Éternelle; Diptych (second half - reappears in Quatuor pour la fin du temps ); first and last movements from L’Ascension; Desseins Éternels from La Nativité du Seigneur; Combat de la Mort et de la Vie from Les Corps Glorieux (after a four-minute bombardment there is a glorious sun-drenched epilogue)
Oskar Lindberg Sonata in G minor	Comparable large-scale works by Reger and Karg-Elert
Percy Whitlock Sonata in C minor	Sonatas by Elgar (both of them!), Howells (now known to be his second sonata, of 1934), William Harris and Bairstow. Whitlock’s Symphony for organ and orchestra is comparable in scale, while his two Fantaisie-Chorals are reflected in the finale of his sonata. But in many ways Whitlock’s sonata is, except in size, comparable to the shorter pieces in his other suites and collections for organ. His role model for the big tune in the finale of the Sonata was Rachmaninov’s second symphony. If you don’t know that work, fork out a fiver on André Previn’s 1973 recording on HMV Classics, a classic of the gramophone: you get Jack Brymer doing the ravishing clarinet solo in the slow movement too.

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Voluntary in G

John Stanley (1713-1786)

Prelude Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Prelude & Fugue in C minor

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Three Chorale Preludes

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Passacaglia in C minor

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Scherzo in F

Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925)

Intermezzo

Väinö Raitio (1891-1945)

Impromptu

Louis Vierne (1870-1937)

Finale (Symphonie VI)

Louis Vierne

Our Finnish guest pays homage to England, just as Demessieux and Dupré used to when playing in this country, with a piece by the blind eighteenth-century composer John Stanley. The Bach chorale prelude which follows is one which deeply moved Schumann, then we move to composers most immediately thought of for their orchestral works. But Mendelssohn was renowned as an organist and Bach pioneer, while Brahms took a lifelong interest in Baroque composers and his very last music (of which we are to hear some extracts) was for the organ.

Bach’s monumental Passacaglia in C minor leads to three romantic works; Bossi’s Scherzo in F, a piece from 1913 by mainstream Finnish composer Väinö Raitio and finally two late pieces by Vierne, the scampering Impromptu (dedicated to another blind organist, André Marchal) and the Finale from his Symphonie VI, composed in a rare happy moment in the summer of 1930.

If you liked this	You might like
John Stanley Voluntary in G	There are three sets of voluntaries by Stanley, and Margaret Phillips has recorded them all. Jennifer Bate’s boxed set (English Organ Anthology – from Stanley to Wesley) has several of them, plus other attractive English music of the eighteenth century
J S Bach ‘Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele’	Bach at his most emotional, as Schumann observed. Try ‘Wenn wir in hochstein Nöten sein’ BWV 641 and ‘Aus tiefer Nöt’ BWV 686
Felix Mendelssohn Prelude & Fugue in C minor	Mendelssohn’s other two preludes and fugues for organ, plus his six sonatas. It would also be worth exploring organ music by S S Wesley
Johannes Brahms Three Chorale Preludes	The remaining eight preludes by Brahms, who also did an earlier large-scale chorale prelude plus three other pieces of which the Prelude and Fugue in G minor is of particular interest.
J S Bach Passacaglia in C minor	The comparable passacaglia by Buxtehude, and later ones by Rheinberger (in sonata no 8), Reger, Middelschulte (with a spectacular presentation of Ein feste Burg in the middle) and Healey Willan
Marco Enrico Bossi Scherzo in F	Bossi, Scherzo in G minor
Väinö Raitio Intermezzo	Raitio left half a dozen organ pieces. Finland’s finest, Sibelius, produced just two organ pieces, Intrada and Surusoitto (Funeral Music), which received their world première from Percy Whitlock at the Royal Albert Hall in March 1934
Louis Vierne Impromptu	Divertissement (from 24 Pièces en Style Libre); Feux Follets, Naïades (from Pièces de Fantaisie), Scherzo from Symphonie II
Louis Vierne Finale (Symphonie VI)	Life didn’t give much for Vierne to enjoy, and his music reflects this, so there is little to compare with the spirited ending to his Symphonie 6. At his most joyful you might think of the finale of Symphonie 1, Carillon de Westminster and Les Cloches de Hinckley from Pièces de Fantaisie, Carillon de Longport from 24 Pièces en Style Libre, or – in the choral repertory – the Gloria from his Messe Solennelle.

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Prelude & Fugue in A minor (BWV543)

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Adagio

John Bennett (1735-1784)

Voluntary in G minor

Thomas Roseingrave (1690-1766)

Hornpipe

Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)

Three pieces from A Little Organ Book (in memory of CHH Parry)

Parry (1848-1918), Brewer (1856-1928), Walford Davies (1869-1941)

Toccata on Urbs beata

Peter White (1937-2007)

Introduction, Passacaglia & Coda

Brian Brockless (1926-1995)

Three movements from Livre d’Orgue

N de Grigny (1672-1703)

Chorale III in A minor

César Franck (1822-1890)

Verset pour la fête de la Dedicace

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Hymn d’Actions de grace 'Te Deum'

Jean Langlais (1907-1991)

Bach’s monumental Prelude and Fugue in A minor is followed by three English pieces from the eighteenth century, the last of them being appropriately by Bach pioneer Samuel Wesley.

2008 sees the fourth centenary of the birth of the poet John Milton and hence the first centenary of Walford Davies’s Solemn Melody, written in 1908 to celebrate an earlier anniversary of the composer. The Davies commemoration occurs however in his contribution to A Little Organ Book, a volume commemorating Sir Hubert Parry’s death which in fact incorporates a piece by Parry plus one by Elgar’s friend Sir Herbert Brewer.

Jonathan Gregory commemorates a predecessor at Leicester Cathedral, Peter White, and goes on to play another significant English piece, the Introduction, Passacaglia and Coda by Brian Brockless, onetime organist of St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield (which featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral) and pupil of Herbert Howells and the Hungarian exile Mátyás Seiber.

Jonathan Gregory then spans more than 250 years of French music, from Nicholas de Grigny, an inspiration to the young J S Bach, via César Franck’s swansong, to two plainsong-inspired pieces, one by centenarian Olivier Messiaen, followed by a ceremonious response to the Te Deum by last year’s centenarian, Jean Langlais.

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Fugue on the Magnificat

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Adeste Fideles; Harmonies du Soir; Lobet den Herren

Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)

Sonata III in C minor

Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)

Rhosymedre

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Saints on a Spree

Nigel Ogden (born 1954)

Bach’s Fugue on the Magnificat is one of those pieces where you wonder, “Is he using the pedals?” The answer, though long-delayed, is Yes: and how! The Minster’s Rector Chori (who can trace back through his organ teachers a line reaching to JSB himself) then commemorates two more 2008 anniversaries: Karg-Elert died 75 years ago, and three examples of his many different styles are to be heard. Harmonies du Soir, a gorgeous piece of impressionism, is dedicated to Guilmant, so appropriately we hear the attractive Sonata in C minor by that composer, much loved by all who knew him. Paul also commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Vaughan Williams, another much-loved composer who was active till the day he died (when indeed he was supposed to be attending a recording of his ninth symphony). Rhosymedre is a lovely lilting prelude on a Welsh hymn-tune. Vaughan Williams’s 8th symphony included as one of its movements a Homage to the bandleader Henry Hall; so it is appropriate to follow his music with a piece in homage to one of today’s most popular organists, Nigel Ogden, who has himself performed at the Minster.

Biography

Paul Hale was organ scholar of New College, Oxford and later assistant organist of Rochester Cathedral before arriving in Southwell as cathedral organist ('Rector Chori' is Southwell's ancient term) in April 1989. As a player and choral conductor he has performed in all the major venues in England and Europe (including Rome) and the USA, as well as on all major UK television and radio channels. He was a consultant and author of 23 articles for the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, responsible for 20th century organists. His recent CDs (both with his cathedral choir and also solo organ) have received critical acclaim in the national press including Gramophone.

In addition to his varied cathedral duties he is diocesan organ adviser to Southwell and Lincoln (South), conductor of the Nottingham Bach Choir, an executive committee member and examiner for the Royal College of Organists, president of the East Midlands Choirs Charitable Trust, and a Trustee of the Percy Whitlock Trust. He is in national demand as an organ consultant, most recently for Repton and King's Lynn Parish Churches, for the DeMontfort Hall in Leicester, Bridlington Priory, Leicester Cathedral and Glasgow University. He also designed the tonal schemes for the organs in the cathedrals of Rochester, Birmingham and Southwell.

Paul Hale has reviewed music and recordings for numerous publications but is probably best known for his reviews of some 2,000 recordings over a period of twenty years in the international journal of the IAO, Organists' Review, of which he was editor from 1992 to 2005.

visit Paul Hale’s personal web site for information about his busy schedule of organ concerts, his work as an organ design consultant, conductor of the Nottingham Bach Choir, and other interests.

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Plein Jeu

Louis Marchand (1669-1732)

Fantasia in A

William Byrd (1543-1623)

Offertoire & Communion

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

Fantasia and Toccata in D minor

C V Stanford (1852-1924)

Partita Sei Gegrüsset, Jesu gütig (BWV768)

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Choral & Scherzo (Symphonie II)

Louis Vierne (1870-1937)

Toccata

Alistair Putt (born 1983)

Frightened of Bach? Louis Marchand was, if the story is correct about him fleeing the scene prior to an improvisation contest with the Great Master. In David’s programme, we can compare them both, Marchand at his grandest and Bach at his most inventive. Local genius William Byrd (organist of Lincoln Cathedral at the age of twenty) provides as massive a contrast as one could with the continuing centenary celebrations of Olivier Messiaen. Earlier French music is provided by two movements from Vierne’s Symphonie II, the meditative Choral rising to a roaring climax followed by a characteristic fluffy French Scherzo. And finally, new music—a brilliant work by one of David’s New College contemporaries: the organ is alive and well and has a great future.

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Grand Chœur Dialogué

Eugène Gigout (1844-1925)

Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C (BWV564)

J S Bach (1685-1750)

Prélude, Adagio et Choral varié sur le Veni Creator

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

Introduction & Passacaglia in D minor

Max Reger (1873-1916)

Trois Pièces

Jehan Alain (1911-1940)

Scherzo

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

Imperial March

Edward Elgar (1857-1933)

Thank goodness for the new technology! Guilmant may have made a record in 1904 (possibly); Gigout certainly did, on an organ-roll, and he recorded his Grand Choeur Dialogué. Bach’s mould-breaking three-movement piece is followed by another great three-movement piece, Duruflé’s response to the Veni Creator, written with the Notre-Dame organ in mind and dedicated to one of his teachers, Vierne. Duruflé’s other teacher was Tournemire, to whom he dedicated his mysterious Scherzo, even though he likened studying with Tournemire to sitting on a volcano, lessons with Vierne being far more easy-going. Duruflé’s colleague Alain showed where organ music might have gone had he not died in action in 1940, but Reger only hints at the ‘massiveness’ he later sought in his romantic but controlled Introduction and Passacaglia. Finally another commemoration of last year’s 150th anniversary of Elgar, with the composer’s first concert march, the first of many such: and not just by him.

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