Wednesday 17th June 2015
12.30 Lunchtime Concert Graham Davies, organ Assistant Director of Music, Pinner Parish Church |
Sponsors: 2015 Season Sponsor: Patricia Morgan Optician Supported by: Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society |
ProgrammeJohann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Prelude and Fugue in C BWV 545 Dieterich Buxtehude (1637/39-1707) Komm Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott (F major) BuxWV 199 Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) Two Variations on Veni Creator John Stanley (1712-1786) from Ten Voluntaries for Organ (1748) Voluntary in G Op 5 no 3 Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) Petit Prélude and Choral (1937) Louis Vierne (1870-1937) from Vingt-quatre pieces en style libre Op 31 (1913-14) 20 Pastorale J S Bach Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele BWV 654 Fugue in E flat "St Anne" BWV 552 |
Graham Davies
Graham Davies received his early musical training at Winchester Cathedral where he assisted and was a pupil of Graham Matthews and Martin Neary. Graham has held a number of important church appointments including Director of Music at Malvern Priory and Deputy Organist at Bath Abbey in 1994 where for seven years he was accompanist for the Abbey Girls’ Choir. In 2005 Graham was appointed to All Saints’ Clifton, in Bristol where he developed the music within an Anglo Catholic tradition, widening the repertoire and recruiting many new members to the choir. From 2005 to 2008 he was a regular accompanist for the Wells Cathedral Voluntary Choir. At this time he finished his business career to devote all his time to music. As well as being an organ recitalist, where Graham has given many concerts in churches and cathedrals throughout the UK, he has worked extensively as an accompanist with a variety of choirs, solo singers, and instrumentalists, most recently in vocal, flute, and cello duos on the harpsichord and organ. Graham is currently Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Pinner Parish Church, Middlesex. |
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The Christ Church organ was built by Hill, Norman & Beard in 1970 with 16 stops, using some pipes from previous organs plus some neo-baroque sounds typical of the 1960's and '70's (Chimney Flute and Fifteenth on open-foot voicing, like the Royal Festival Hall organ). In 1995, HNB moved some loud stops from the Great to a new double case in the nave, 6 stops were added, and the tone was refined. |
The Hill Norman & Beard organ at Christ Church (United Reformed), Leatherhead
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Concert at Home:
Here are some links to online recordings of works that feature in Graham Davies' concert:
Here are some links to online recordings of works that feature in Graham Davies' concert:
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Our opening work is Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 545, played here on the largest surviving Baroque organ, built between 1734 and 1737 by Christoph Treutmann, in the Stiftskirche St Georg (Augustinian Foundation Church of St George), Goslar-Grauhof. The organist is Gerhard Weinberger: If you would like to see the stop list for this Baroque organ please click on the link below. You will also find more about the church (although it is in German)
Sometimes, searching for a recording, we come across what might seem a novelty item. Here is a performance of Buxtehude's Komm Heiliger Geist on a pleasing duo of trumpet with organ. However, this duo is a little unusual. Do click on the link to hear organist Gerard van Reenen accompanying trumpeter
Gerard van Reenen in this remarkable performance: If you prefer your Buxtehude performed in a more traditional manner, here is a recent recording by Aldo Locatelli:
Marcel Dupré was organist of St Sulpice, Paris, for 37 years. In this recording he improvises on the theme of Veni Creator
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The John Byfield organ in St Mary's Rotherhithe was built in 1764 when John Stanley was 52. Although there is no evidence that Stanley heard or played the instrument it survives as an excellent example of the organs of Stanley's day. Alan J Phillips is the organist for Stanley's Voluntary in G Op 5 No 3: Belgian organist and composer Joseph Jongen's Petit Prélude and Choral are played here by Pierre Lebeau on the
organ of St Agathe, Berchem near Antwerp. The Pastorale from Vierne's 24 Pieces en style libre is played here by Ben van Oosten on the Cavaillé-Coll organ
of St-Antoine-des-Quinze-Vingts. Fifteen times twenty equals 300, the number of hospital places for blind patients provided in the original Cistercian foundation. And so we close with two Bach organ works. The first is An Wasserflüssen Babylon (By the Waters of Babylon), played here by Roland Servais, on the 250 year old Goynaut-Westenfelder organ in Notre-Dame au Sablon, Brussels:
An excellent postlude is provided by David Szabo playing the organ in the Budapest Palace of the Arts. The work is Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E-flat, St Anne, BWV 552.
If the term "St Anne" rings no bells, wait for the theme at the start of the Fugue: |
