Colin Walsh (Organist Emeritus, Lincoln Cathedral)
Marco Enrico Bossi: Entrée Pontificale
César Franck: Prelude, Fugue and Variation
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 546
Frank Bridge: Allegretto grazioso from Six Pièces
Jean Langlais: Communion from Suite Médiévale
Louis Vierne: Final from First Symphony
Colin Walsh also makes a welcome return this season, with a piece well-suited to his work at Lincoln and also well-suited to Nottingham Cathedral, where Colin has also often played, across the road from the Albert Hall. “Entrée Pontificale is just the thing” wrote a critic “with its rolling diapasons, roaring reeds, and prelates rolling up and roaring down the aisle.” The Franck which follows is more subdued, as befits the pater seraphicus, but Bach gives us everything in his sonorous Prelude in C minor, BWV 546 and its attendant Fugue. Two highly contrasted quiet pieces follow; Frank Bridge’s piece is also known in an arrangement for flute and piano, while Colin pays homage to his teacher Langlais with the Communion from his Suite Mediévale based on plainsong. Vierne played in Nottingham on the organ which inspired the Albert Hall one, the Binns at Castlegate church, and Colin’s recital ends with Vierne’s most famous blockbuster.
The concert runs from 1.10pm to 1.55pm.
Admission £5 at the door, or book online.
Feel free to bring your own lunch.
Colin Walsh’s association with cathedral music goes back nearly fifty years. He has served, in various capacities: St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, Christ Church, Oxford ( where he studied with Simon Preston and Nicholas Danby), Salisbury Cathedral (as assistant to Richard Seal) and St Albans Cathedral. He went to Lincoln Cathedral in 1988 as Organist and Master of the Choristers, becoming Organist Laureate in 2003 and Organist Emeritus in 2021.
As an organ recitalist he has played across the UK, most European countries, the USA, Australasia, Hong Kong and Russia. His studies in Paris with Jean Langlais inspired him to specialise in 19th and 20th century French organ music. His recordings as a choral conductor, accompanist and soloist number over forty over many years and various labels.
He teaches in Cambridge and elsewhere and is an honorary Doctor of Music from the University of Lincoln.