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Lionel Rogg plays Bach: the Goldberg Variations

A Walcker and a Father Willis

A Dobson organ from Iowa comes to Merton College, Oxford

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from last year’s The Organ Scholar Experience course, held in Oxford /Royal College of Organists

Next week 38 teenagers* are gathering in Cambridge to ‘live the life of an organ scholar’ on the RCO’s ‘The Organ Scholar Experience’ course (TOSE). They will have tuition in repertoire and keyboard skills and will also sing, accompany and conduct two services of choral compline and two of choral evensong.  Quite a responsibility.  All the services plus the four recitals by the tutorial team are open to the public (and you can see from the list below that the tutorial team is pretty impressive!)

For quick reference here is a summary:

Organ recitals from TOSE tutors: Oliver Brett (17:15, Tuesday 29 July, King’s); Henry Fairs (13:10, Wednesday 30 July, Trinity ; Daniel Moult (19:30, Thursday 31 July, Ely Cathedral); Anne Page (13:10, Friday 1 August, Pembroke). Also student showcase recital (19:30, Saturday 2 August, St John’s).

Choral services directed and performed by students: Tuesday 29 July, 21:30 (Compline, Peterhouse); Wednesday 30 July, 17:30 (Evensong, Trinity); Thursday 31 July, 21:15 (Compline, Ely Cathedral Lady Chapel); Friday 1 August, 17:30 (Evensong, Sidney Sussex);  Sunday 3 August, 15:30 (Evensong, St John’s).

Except for the Ely recital where admission is £10 (accompanied under 16s free) at the door, admission to all events is free, with a retiring collection at some.

Full listing available here.

The RCO’s Organ Scholar Experience is a regular event.  Check their website for future courses.

 *including 7 women I am pleased to hear.  Go girls! – we need more lady organists

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“The Chipp variations are all quite hard,” says Anne, “and have a quite astonishing pedal part, for the time they were written.  They never let up – not a rest in three whole pages, and you have to be awfully mobile, going into chromatic double octaves at one point.  Chipp was obviously a fluent manual and pedal player, with quite a big stretch in both hands.  He uses the full range of the modern pedalboard, and the piece was obviously written for an instrument in something close to equal temperament.”

Anne has recorded 2 or 3 of Chipp’s Sketches for the Historic Organ Sound Archive, and first came across him via friend and colleague José Hopkins, currently organist at Haslingfield in Cambridgeshire.  José was involved in the rebuilding of the historic organ at Haslingfield, where Anne made recordings.  This organ is very closely associated with Chipp, who himself brought it to St Mary’s Ely, when he was appointed to Ely Cathedral.  There’s lots more on the organ’s history under its entry in the NPOR.

Though Chipp was obviously a disciple of Mendelssohn* both Anne and José are of the opinion that he wrote good music in his own right –  interesting enough for José to have written a short book about him, which will be on sale at Anne’s recital.  (I’ll definitely get the book, but I’ll leave the Variations to Anne for now.)  Full details of both below.

Anne Page’s website is here, and find recordings on her YouTube channel.

*and in return Mendelssohn appears to have been a fan of Dr Chipp – Mendelssohn gave him a glowing reference, probably after Chipp gave one of the first performances of his (Mendelssohn’s) Organ Sonatas.

Recital details:

BLOOMSBURY CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH,  235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2 8EP
Saturday, 26th July 2014 at 4:00pm
ANNE PAGE  (Cambridge)

Programme:

Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)   Repons pour le Temps de Paques

Jehan Alain (1911-1940)   Introduction et Variations – Scherzo – Choral

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)    Joie et clarté des Corps glorieux

JS Bach (1685-1750)    Prelude and Fugue in G major BWV541

ET Chipp (1823-1886)     Introduction and Variations on ‘God Preserve the Emperor’

Admission free – retiring collection – buffet afterwards

More on E T Chipp:

Musicologist David Byers writes about the life and times of E T Chipp here - scroll down the article to find the relevant section, where you will also find a facsimile of the reference given to Chipp by Mendelssohn.

Details of José’s book:

Edmund Thomas Chipp – a life that led melodious days
José Hopkins
ISBN 9780957635807
£10

Welcome to my readers in China! 欢迎来到我的中国读者。我很想听到你的声音！点击这里查看更多

You might like to read an earlier interview with Anne Page here:

Five questions for…Anne Page

The post Anne Page and the demanding Dr Chipp appeared first on The Lady Organist.

Eglise Notre Dame de France, just off Leicester Square in London’s theatreland

Eric Shepherd has just drawn my attention to a fascinating recital coming up, in a fascinating place.  Eglise Notre Dame de France is an unassuming post-War building in a side street off London’s Leicester Square – an area known for its slightly seedy nightlife, with Chinatown to the north and Theatreland all around.  The church is run by the Marist Fathers for the Roman Catholic francophone community in the West End of London, looking after refugees and the homeless in particular:  when I visited yesterday there were a quite a few weary people using the church as an opportunity for rest away from the hustle and glitz outside.   However of particular interest to us is the organ – as Eric told me “There will be a rather special organ recital at Eglise Notre Dame de France on Wednesday 9th July.  It will be given by Thomas Monnet from Saint-Maurice de Becon, near Paris, and it will be the first time for nine years that there has been an organ recital at the church, and the first recital after our work on the organ in 2011.”

This organ happens to be the first organ built by August Gern (in 1868) after he left the employ of Cavaille-Coll, and it was an inspiration to Ralph Downes when he visited it in the 1930s as he formulated his theories of organ design – which culminated in the Royal Festival Hall organ and ultimately the British Organ Reform movement.   Sadly both the church and organ were badly damaged by bombing during the War – bits of the organ were rescued, and the current organ is a mixture of original pipework and secondhand French stops (including some Cavaille-Coll) – all voiced in the French style. The work referred to is BC Shepherd & Son‘s latest refurbishment – read more about it, and see the specification of the organ here:

BC Shepherd Notre Dame de France

RECITAL DETAILS:

Eglise Notre Dame de France, (The French Catholic Church in London), 5 Leicester Place, Leicester Square, London WC2H 7BX
Wednesday 9th July, at 7.30pm

Thomas Monnet (Saint-Maurice de Becon, near Paris)
Programme:  In Memoriam Jean-Louis Florentz 1947-2004, and will comprise his complete organ works.

Thomas Monnet

(Thomas appears on the Genius of Cavaille-Coll DVD set issued by Fugue State Films)

Detail from the Annunciation/ Jean Cocteau/ Notre Dame de France

Notre Dame de France also houses some extraordinary artworks – including murals by Jean Cocteau dating from the restoration of the church in the 1950s after the bombing – well worth a a visit if you are around Leicester Square.  (If you’re interested, Niall McDevitt writes on some of the wilder theories behind the symbolism in Cocteau’s murals – Da Vinci Code and all - here.)

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Ralph Downes and the Royal Festival Hall organ

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Lionel Rogg (and his Orgue a la Maison)

A reminder that Lionel Rogg will play the Goldberg Variations on the organ of Trinity College, Cambridge this weekend – a unique performance in the UK, and the colours of the Chapel’s Metzler organ will bring a new dimension to this well-loved work.   The performance takes place at 5pm on Sunday June 22nd (2014).  Admission is free, with a retiring collection.

Lionel Rogg has filmed the Goldberg Variations for YouTube on the organ of St-Imier, Switzerland – here’s part 1 to whet your appetite:

CAMBRIDGE ACADEMY OF ORGAN STUDIES

SUNDAY JUNE 22nd (2014), 5pm

 LIONEL ROGG  plays BACH : THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

on the Organ of Trinity College Cambridge, CB2 1TQ
by kind permission of the Master and Fellows

Admission free; retiring collection.

Welcome to my readers in China! 欢迎来到我的中国读者。我很想听到你的声音！点击这里查看更多

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Playing Bach with Professor Peter Williams

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Improvisation St Albans IOF

Interpretation St Albans IOF

More information from the competition website.

NB I’ve noticed the Improvisation pdf doesn’t always read properly unless it’s been opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

International Organ Festival wants new members

The post St Alban’s International Organ Festival – the 2015 competition music appeared first on The Lady Organist.

The distinctive tower of St Nicholas Cathedral is a well-known Newcastle landmark   /rodjonesphotography

Do you know anyone – of any age – who you think might secretly hanker after playing the pipe organ?   Who lives in the north of England?  The Great North Organ Day hits Newcastle on Saturday 17th May.   Based around Newcastle’s two Cathedrals of St Mary and St Nicholas, it has something for everyone – recitals, masterclasses, hands-on tuition, advice on pipe and digital organs, and a pianist conversion workshop (churches, I’m sure you know someone you can send on this!)

Meet Gordon Stewart (from BBC Songs of Praise), James Lancelot (Organist at Durham Cathedral), Anne Marsden Thomas (RCO Academy) and Rosemary Field (RSCM) – and also Duncan Matthews, works manager at Durham organ builders Harrison & Harrison, who will give some insight into the design, construction and maintenance of the church’s most valuable asset.

Coming from the north of England myself (er…Middlesbrough if you must know, one of Newcastle’s scruffier neighbours) I am proud to be a sponsor of the Great North Organ Day.  It’s also sponsored (and organised) by the RSCM, the IOA and the Newcastle and District Society of Organists.   Booking forms and more details can be found at www.greatnorthorganday.co.uk.

You might also like to read about the Royal Festival Hall organ, built, and recently restored by Harrison & Harrison, and an interview with Anne Marsden Thomas, here:

Ralph Downes and the Royal Festival Hall organ

Five questions for…Anne Marsden Thomas

A 50s revival – the London Royal Festival Hall organ

The post Create an organist (or just have a good day out) – The Great North Organ Day appeared first on The Lady Organist.

We had an enjoyable exchange of emails on what the piece should be. Something short and meditative to play during Communion I said, about CertRCO level in difficulty? – Perhaps along the lines of the Elgar Vesper Voluntaries? suggested Thomas.  In the end the final piece most resembles the Intermezzo from the Vesper Voluntaries: Thomas has used 1 Corinthians Behold I shew you a mystery… as the starting point, and and the piece ends on an appropriate anticipatory note.

A  world premiere then, this Sunday, at my church. It will be interesting to see what my congregation makes of Thomas’s sound world.

Thomas Morgan is a composer, conductor and organist based in South Wales.  He studied music at the University of Salford with David King and Peter Graham, and went on to study composition at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with Robert Spearing, followed by postgraduate study in choral conducting with Simon Halsey and Adrian Partington.   You can contact Thomas via his Facebook page, and hear some of his compositions on SoundCloud.  Score Exchange has a catalogue of scores.  And, of course, you can follow him on Twitter! @tmorgancomposer

The post Thomas Morgan premiere – thanks to Twitter appeared first on The Lady Organist.

Anglican women priests on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral yesterday /Jenny Baker

Whether they are people of faith or people of none, most organists’ lives are caught up in the life of the church, simply because their chosen instrument is mainly to be found there.  So I include this astonishing photograph, unthinkable less than a lifetime ago –  women priests on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, after a service yesterday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ordination of women into the Anglican church.

Thanks Jenny Baker @runningjenbaker for tweeting it.

The post Like a mighty tortoise, moves the Church of God appeared first on The Lady Organist.

Thanks Central Methodists @preston_church and Dave Walker @davewalker for tweeting.

The post Get on-trend this Spring with the now colours from the Methodist Church appeared first on The Lady Organist.