Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2024 i Choir & Organ

Aside from the release of the new album, does the choir have any exciting engagements lined up? One of the main highlights for all of us is the annual May Morning ceremony, which sees the Choir ascend Magdalen’s iconic tower to sing to the thousands of people gathered in the street below at dawn on 1st May. This year, the start of May also sees the 550th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the College’s chapel, and we have some special services planned to celebrate that, including a BBC broadcast Evensong at the end of April. The Choir is also performing Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri in Oxford and London at the end of March, more recordings for CORO are planned, and future international touring plans include European…

MUSIC ORGANISATION AND CHARITY JAM (John Armitage Memorial Trust) launches its season on 20 March at 7:30pm with a concert of new works for choir, brass quintet and organ at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street. Named ‘Music of Our Time’, the concert will premiere six new works, including commissions from Tarik O’Regan and Isabelle Ryder. Selwyn College Chapel Choir will be lead by Sarah MacDonald, with Simon Hogan as organist and brass quintet Onyx Brass. A world premiere from Isabelle Ryder, Illumination, written for organ and two trumpets, pays homage to St Brigid (St Bride) of Kildare, patron saint of St Bride’s church. Founded in 2000 to support and commission new music in the UK, JAM now comprises its annual March concert, composers’ residency and the JAM on the…

Over the course of the 20th century, the organ of Norwich Cathedral underwent an eye-opening – and for contemporary listeners, probably ear-opening – transformation. From the relatively modest Norman and Beard instrument in position at the turn of the century (around 60 speaking stops, including an Echo division) it had become, after the Hill, Norman and Beard (HNB) rebuild of 1938-42, an instrument of more than 100 stops (the Echo of the 1899 instrument now disconnected). Around half of the pipework of this organ was new. By 1970, after further work by HNB, the instrument was essentially two organs, facing in two directions, and arguably attempting to marry two mutually exclusive approaches to tonal design. Facing east was a small two-manual organ for choral accompaniment purposes, with an enclosed Choir-Swell…

visit our online listings at visit our online listings at www.choirandorgan.com COURSES CORSI DE MUSICA ANTICA E MAGNANO 15-24 Aug, Magnano, Italy Tutors: Albert Muehlboeck (clavichord, fortepiano), Eva Kiss (voice) Georges Kiss (harpsichord), Silva Manfré (organ and basso continuo), Anastase Démétriadès (recorder). Offering specialisation to trained musicians and to introduce younger musicians to the study and interpretation of early music. MusicaAnticaMagnano.com CREATIVE OUNDLE FOR ORGANISTS SUMMER SCHOOL 19-25 Jul, Oundle, UK Director: Ann Elise Smoot. Instruction in repertoire, keyboard skills, hymn-playing, and a chance to try conducting. Contact Yvette Murphy, creativeoundle.co.uk JENNIFER BATE ORGAN ACADEMY 2-6 Apr, St Catherine’s School, Bramley, UK A fully-catered residential course for women organists aged 13-21. Masterclasses and opportunities to work on repertoire as well as choral conducting, service accompaniment, improvisation, continuo and concerto performances.…

Let’s say you don’t want the servants overhearing sensitive matters of state in the dining room (such a common problem these days, one finds). You can’t possibly lay the table yourself, nor serve the food, so what to do? The answer is simple: you cut a big hole in the floor and drop the table down below stairs. Once the soup is ladled, your staff will hoist it back into place – steady now – using an ingenious pulley system. Repeat between courses and, hey presto, secrecy is maintained. This table à confidence was crucial to the royal and political life of Sweden in the 18th century, but it did more than serve as cover for covert conversations; it lent its name to the Confidencen, Stockholm’s jewel-like opera house and…

Upcoming releases The Gabrieli Consort under Paul McCreesh is releasing a recording of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius on 26 April featuring the young people taking part in ‘Gabrieli Roar’. Fifty singers aged 15-21 took part in the recording through a five-day residential course, part of the Consort’s commitment to engaging teenagers with choral music. A recording of John Stainer’s oratorio The Crucifixion will be released by Delphian on 29 March. Duncan Ferguson and the Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh are joined by two Scottish soloists and, in the hymns, by local young musicians and the cathedral congregation. A collection of recordings on BIS Records of both Masaaki and Masato Suzuki will be released in the coming months. The fifth volume of Masaaki’s Bach Organ Works recordings, playing the 1737…

'Whilst studying my undergraduate in music at Queens’ University, Belfast in 2008, I realised that no one was going to be as interested in my music as I am. That prompted me to start putting on concerts and promoting my music myself. During the undergrad, I set up the Queens Composers Concert series with a few other students. The idea was to give performance opportunities to other composers and performing opportunities to performers who were interested in working with composers. This ethos moved with me across to Scotland when I began my Masters at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. I continued putting on concerts during my studies, eventually launching The Night With… in 2016. The Night With… has grown from an initial two concerts in 2016 to a…

THE LABEL OF HARRY CHRISTOPHERS and The Sixteen, CORO, has announced a partnership with The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford. It will begin with the release of new album, Peace I Leave with You in April. Showcasing composers Joanna Marsh and John Sheppard, a previous director of the choir, the album will also feature works by Hubert Parry and John Tavener. In addition to the album, CORO will also make the first recording of Magdalen College Chapel’s new organ, in a new album of popular hymns out in 2025. The Choir of Magdalen College, founded in 1480 also makes appearances outside of its chapel in engagements which include the scores for BBC’s Blue Planet and on Paul McCartney’s album Ecce Con Meum. In a further link with the music of…

TOP RECITAL CHOICES ▶ Merton College, Oxford celebrates 10th anniversary of its Dobson Organ French organist Olivier Latry, of Notre-Dame de Paris, will give a recital to celebrate 10 years of Merton’s Dobson Organ on Saturday 20 April at 7:30pm. The programme will include works by Alain, Guilmant, Liszt, Gigout and Vierne. ▶ On 20 April, International Organ Day, Artistic Director of the St Alban’s International Organ Festival David Titterington will play a fundraising concert at the Dutch Church in London at 5:30pm VENUE FOCUS The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow is a cultural gem that houses an impressive collection of art, artifacts, and exhibits. Among its many treasures, including the currently on-load Salvador Dalí painting Christ of Saint John of the…

Organists, unlike other musicians, rarely own their own instrument. If they do, it’s usually an electronic version – not the real thing! When I started learning the organ, aged 15, this was a real hindrance for me. Churches are cold and damp and practice unpleasant. Only when I started rambling around local villages, filming blogs for my YouTube channel Ben Maton – The Salisbury Organist, did I realise the true value of playing the organ. Organs are quirky, dusty, noisy, unpredictable. The music they produce is, however, a perfect accompaniment to the rich beauty of the English countryside. Last week, my travels took me to Bowerchalke, a village half-way between Salisbury and Shaftesbury (the Shaston of Hardy’s Wessex). Equipped with microphone, camera and a backpack full of sheet music, I…

Exploring a ‘provocative and jovial relationship with your audience; lurking in the corridors between liminal spaces’ is how Fraz Ireland describes their work. Can we unpack those elements? Ireland recounts their studies at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) alongside an undergraduate degree at the University of Manchester. ‘My dissertation was about the things around the outside of music. Not the sounds that we hear, but all the other bits… The title, the programme notes, the seats we sit on… I was arguing that those paratextual elements are at least as important as the sounds themselves. Alongside that, I couldn’t ignore the importance of the composer’s biography. Who hasn’t sat through a concert, been a bit bored by one of the pieces, and started reading the programme?’ Giving the…

Let me take you back in time 50 years or so, to a period when organists and organ builders were utterly convinced that the ‘right’ sort of organ, the ‘correct’ sort of organ, was a classically-voiced instrument. Your Open Wood 32? Saw it up. Your well-appointed Solo or Orchestral division? Shove a Cymbal III on it. Without a doubt, ill-considered things were done to beautiful Romantic organs, in pursuit of a dogma. Fast forward to the 2020s and the tide has turned, as has the dogma. Having lamented the vandalism of Romantic instruments, without a thought we seem to have commenced doing precisely the same thing to the Classical organs of the 1950-80 period. Is it not enriching to be challenged by an organ? Perhaps one that speaks a different…

THIS YEAR, THE ROYAL COLLEGE of Organists celebrates five respected musicians in their respective achievements relating to organ and choral music. An addition to last year’s four recipients, the College’s medal is only given once a year and is its highest honour. Among the recipients is chief conductor of the BBC Singers Sofi Jeannin, whose career includes conducting Handel’s Messiah with Britten Sinfonia and Poulenc’s Stabat Mater with BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Dr Stephen Layton MBE will also be awarded. Known for being the founder of choral group, Polyphony, Layton also served as director of music at Temple Church and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was educated under former president of RCO, the late Stephen Cleobury. President of the RCO, David Hill says: ‘The 2024 honorands are both respected and celebrated…

DH: What is your musical background? FB: I do come from a very musical family, but none with formal training. My mother was our church pianist, and my sister is currently the organist at my home church in Western New York. My sister has played since she was a teenager and plays brilliantly by ear. My maternal grandfather was a band leader in World War II, composed music and played guitar, clarinet, saxophone, and sang. He died before I was born, but I was told that he was a wonderful jazz musician. He taught my mother both saxophone and clarinet. My fondest memories of music making are of hearing my mother and aunts sing together at church; I loved it. DH: What were you doing from a young age? FB:…

The clue is in the name: the concert repertoire of Musica Viva NY (MVNY) does regularly include Bach cantatas and works by the likes of Mozart, Brahms, Duruflé and Bernstein, but the choir’s USP is its commitment to performing the work of living American composers, together with music by women composers, composers of colour and works that address social, racial or environmental issues. The current season demonstrates that commitment wholeheartedly, and has included recording three of its recent commissions for commercial release in the autumn of 2024. MVNY is a chamber choir of around 30 singers, some of whom are professional and others skilled volunteers – alumni include the soprano Renée Fleming and the bass-baritone Samuel Ramey. It was founded in 1977 by Walter Klauss, then organist of the Unitarian…

SUMMER 2024 GUSTAV HOLST AT 150 Surveying the choral works of the great composer as we mark 150 years since his birth TÕNU KALJUSTE David Hill speaks to the renowned choral director and Principal Conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir about the musical tradition of Estonia and his most favoured choral music PETERHOUSE CAMBRIDGE The historic Snetzler organ at Peterhouse, Cambridge, is preserved while creating a versatile new instrument to serve the musical and liturgical needs of the chapel. Flentrop Orgelbouw and Orgelbau Klais have collaborated on this unusual project NEW MUSIC Meeting composer Hugo Bell, who takes us through his new choral work for The Marian Consort Plus… The latest international news and previews, specialist reviews, regular columns and the International Directory of Pipe Organ Builders’ supplement.…

Rating: ★★★★★ Highly recommended ★★★★ Very good ★★★ Good ★★ Average ★ Poor Early Music Editor Rebecca Tavener Organ Music Editor Stephen Farr Choral Music Editors Martin Ashley Joy Hill Jeremy Jackman Jeremy Summerly THIS ISSUE’S REVIEWERS Chris Bragg Rupert Gough Brian Morton David Ponsford Michael Quinn Philip Reed Clare Stevens Rebecca Tavener KEYBOARD CDS Liszt: Piano works, arranged for Organ Diederik Blankesteijn, Bätz Organ (1831), Domkirk, Utrecht, Netherlands Brilliant Classics 96855 For Liszt, piano and organ were often interchangeable, with the composer pushing the boundaries of tonal possibilities for both instruments. At the core of this album is Diederik Blankesteijn’s own transcription of the great Sonata in B minor S178. This monumental work can be seen as a struggle between the holy and the satanic. Maintaining a sense of…