Colin Walsh (Organist Emeritus, Lincoln Cathedral)
Anniversary Recital
I would like to invite you to our anniversary recital this year. It is on Sunday 22 October at 2:45 and will be given by world-renowned organist Dr Colin Walsh, Organist Emeritus of Lincoln Cathedral, who makes a welcome return to the Albert Hall.
Walter Alcock: Introduction and Passacaglia
Camille Saint-Saëns: Fantaisie in D flat
Charles-Marie Widor: Symphony V ( first movement)
Interval
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541
Marco Enrico Bossi: Etude Symphonique
Joseph Jongen: Choral
Jongen: Cantabile
Jongen: Toccata
Colin’s programme begins with the quintessentially English Introduction and Passacaglia by Sir Walter Alcock. Written for Hereford Cathedral, which has a glorious Father Willis organ comparable with that at Lincoln, it calls for a wide range of tone colours to which our Binns Organ can well respond. And in the year of a coronation, we might recall that Alcock played for three of them and rose to the occasion mightily when Edward VII arrived late, improvising for half an hour until it was possible to begin Parry’s newly-commisssioned I Was Glad. Alcock’s piece is followed by Saint-Saëns’s evergreen Fantaisie in D flat, its elegant opening contrasting with its lively second section. To complete the first half we hear the first movement of Widor’s fifth symphony, with its demonstrations of how Schumann influenced French organ music. Both Saint-Saëns and Widor played the organ of the Royal Albert Hall, in Widor’s case at the instigation of the future Edward VII. Widor’s successor Marcel Dupré recorded the Widor movement featured in this recital on another Father Willis organ, the ill-fated instrument in the Alexandra Palace, and he gave Alcock the theme for his Passacaglia. Some nice connections there. The second half of Colin’s recital leaps into life with one of Bach’s most cheerful preludes and fugues, and it is followed by the virtuoso Étude Symphonique by Enrico Bossi, where the pedals are given much to do. Finally three pieces by the Belgian tunesmith Joseph Jongen. The Choral tours the whole organ, starting quietly and ending flat out, while the Cantabile does what it says on the tin: and being Jongen you get two lovely cantabile melodies. Jongen was a virtuoso organist, and the Toccata which ends the recital fully demonstrates this.
Tickets £15, concessions £10: book online or pay at the door.