Jonathan Scott (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester)
Please note change of soloist and programme
Richard Wagner (arr. Edwin Lemare): Overture to Tannhäuser
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Fantasy in F minor K.608
Léo Delibes (arr. J. Scott): Prélude, Mazurka and Waltz from Coppélia
Marcel Lanquetuit: Toccata in D
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (arr. Edwin Lemare): Fantasy-Overture Romeo & Juliet
Marcel Dupré: Prelude & Fugue in G minor Op.7 No.3
Albert W. Ketelbey: In a Persian Market
Camille Saint-Saëns (arr. J. Scott): Finale (from “Organ” Symphony No.3 Op.78)
Renowned Bridgewater Hall organist Jonathan Scott is no stranger to Nottingham. In recent years he has given the Royal Concert Hall organ some strenuous workouts, most notably with Jongen’s Symphonie-Concertante (a work described as needing a black belt in technique to convey its spectacular virtuosity) and, on the same evening, Messiaen’s L’Ascension. He has also been the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s organ symphony but as he shows in our Anniversary Recital “who needs an orchestra?”
The same could be said of the delightful music of Delibes, a Parisian composer who managed to avoid the feuds that the Parisian organists of the time were busily having with each other, while Lemare – who played at the opening of the “New City Organ” at the Albert Hall in October 1910, perfected the art of the one-man orchestra. He played the Overture to Tannhaüser on that occasion, so it is good to have his performance repeated just 108 years later. And making its first appearance at the Albert Hall as an organ piece is his arrangement of Romeo and Juliet, no less.
A more exotic piece comes from onetime organist Albert W Ketelbey, who went on to become one of the wealthiest composers in the country. Mozart’s piece demonstrates why the organ is known as the King of Instruments, while the programme is completed with two virtuosic French pieces: Dupré’s acrobatic Prelude in G minor and its bouncy Fugue, and Marcel Lanquetuit’s rousing Toccata.
Tannhauser Overture: https://youtu.be/mNZwgNlhmG8
Saint-Saens – Finale: https://youtu.be/Eq_jzx-gLBk
For more information please visit www.jonathanscott.co.uk