Tom Corfield (Derby)
Dietrich Buxtehude: Passacaglia in D minor
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude on O Lamm Gottes unschuldig, BWV 618
César Franck: Choral No 2 in B minor
Louis Vierne: Lied, Scherzetto (from the 24 Pieces in Free Style)
Franz Schmidt: Prelude and Fugue in D

Debussy called J S Bach “the father of us all”, but Bach’s musical father was surely Buxtehude, whose complex and ingenious Passacaglia opens Tom Corfield’s recital. Then it’s JSB himself in devout and meditative mood, leading us to one of César Franck’s major works, his second Choral. This explores several aspects of Franck’s response to the symphonic Cavaillé-Coll organ, from its sonorous, indeed ominous, opening to its lighter sequel to this and then the beautiful central melody, repeated at the end.
Vierne presided for thirty-seven years at Cavaillé-Coll’s organ in Notre-Dame (now thankfully back on song after the terrible fire of six years ago) but he also thought of those who played less well-endowed organs in two volumes of pieces published shortly before the outbreak of the first world war. Tom is playing two of those pieces, the beautiful Lied and the sprightly Scherzetto. To end, German music of a century ago, a Prelude and Fugue (a form we associate with J S Bach) by Franz Schmidt which shows us how this form had advanced two centuries after the Great Master.
The concert runs from 1.10pm to 1.55pm. Admission £5 at the door, or book online. Feel free to bring your own lunch.
Tom Corfield was educated at the Royal Academy of Music and the University of East Anglia where he was the Organ Scholar of Norwich Cathedral. There followed four years as assistant to Simon Lindley at Leeds Parish Church and a period of postgraduate study before his move to Derby, where from 1985 to 2016 he was Assistant Organist at the Cathedral. Since 2021 he has been Organist of St Anne’s in Derby. He teaches for the Open University and is currently a rehearsal accompanist for Derby Bach Choir, Derby Choral Union and the Dalesmen male-voice choir.