Wednesday 19th July 2017
12.30 Lunchtime Concert

Gary Sieling, organ

Organist & Director of Music
St Mary the Virgin Church, Henley-on-Thames

Sponsors:

2017 Season Sponsor:
Patricia Morgan Optician


Supported by:
Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society

Programme 

Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
Psalm-Prelude Set 2 No 2 (1939)

from Six Pieces for Organ
Paean (1940)

Herbert Murill (1909-1952)
Postlude on a Ground (1949)
Sarabande
Carillon (1949)

George Dyson (1883-1964)
Prelude and Postlude (1956)
     Prelude in F, Con moto piacevole
     Postlude in D, Allegro con brio

Stanley Vann (1910-2010)
Aria
Exultate

Free Concert, with a retiring collection to cover costs. Tea and coffee will be available after the concert.

Gary Sieling

Gary Sieling was born in Bedfordshire and educated at Dunstable Grammar School. He read for his BMus degree at the University of London, Goldsmiths’ College, and while a student played for the debut of the London Cantata Choir with whom he is still associated.

He studied organ with Peter Moorse, Nicholas Danby at the Royal College of Music, Dr Peter le Huray at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, and Jane Parker-Smith. He was awarded FRCO in 1981 and MA in Performance from Anglia Ruskin University in 1997, studying organ with Nicholas Kynaston at Caius College, Cambridge.

Gary was organist of Dunstable Priory and then Assistant Master of Music at Peterborough Cathedral. During his time there he was Conductor of the Peterborough Philharmonic Society, Director of the St Peter’s Singers, and Founder and Associate Conductor of the City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra. He also taught organ and piano at Oundle and Stamford Schools. He played for the Cathedral Choir on two tours of America in addition to regular TV and radio broadcasts and recordings.
    
After 6 years in London as Director of Music at Bromley Parish Church and All Saints Blackheath, Gary has now relocated to Reading to join the music staff at the Abbey School and take on the post of Director of Music at St Mary the Virgin, Henley-on-Thames. The church choir is of high standard, sang High Mass at Brussels Cathedral in 2015 and in Cologne Cathedral in 2016. Meanwhile, he also directs the chamber choir FineChants and works as a freelance organist, harpsichordist, conductor, adjudicator, and examiner for the Royal College of Organists. He spent the summers of 2009 and 2011 as the Music Adjudicator to the Sri Lanka Performing Arts Festival. He is hoping to retire soon to take up a PhD course in Modern Harpsichord Music.

His recent CD recordings include one for Priory Records from Chelmsford Cathedral featuring the major organ works of Stanley Vann, sometime organist of Peterborough Cathedral, and the Kenneth Leighton Memorial Album which Gary compiled and published. Gary has also recorded a CD of harpsichord and organ music at Bromley Parish Church. Organ concert venues in this country include St Paul’s, Canterbury and Westminster Cathedrals, King’s College Cambridge, and Westminster Abbey. He has made ten international concert tours visiting Denmark, Germany, Italy and USA.

Gary likes to relax by travelling and exploring old churches.

---

“……brilliant and elegant playing……”     Folkebladet Denmark
“……very accomplished musician……”     NWZ Oldenburg
“……a magnificent performance……”     Nottingham Evening Post
“……stimulating performance, informative banter……”     Brackley Festival
“……professionalism and musical expertise……”     Cornwall Music Festival

www.garysieling.co.uk


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. In summer 2015 the nave organ was re-voiced to produce a more robust tone.

The Hill Norman & Beard organ at Christ Church (United Reformed), Leatherhead

Concert at Home:

Here are some links to online recordings of works that feature in Gary Sieling's concert:


Gary Sieling opens his 2017 Leatherhead concert with the second of Herbert Howells' Psalm-Preludes from his Second Set. This was written in 1939, and is reflective of the verse from Psalm 139:

Yea, the darkness is no darkness with Thee, but the night is as clear as the day:
the darkness and light to Thee are both alike. (Psalm 139:11)

The organist here is Daniel Stipe, at the 1994 organ of Trinity Lutheran Church, Richmond, Virginia:

We remain with Howells to hear his 1940 work Paean, played on the restored Hill organ in
St Deiniol's Cathedral, Bangor, Gwynedd - the largest organ in Wales:

Next we hear three short pieces by Herbert Murrill, starting with his Postlude on a Ground, played on an 1893 Hook & Hastings organ restored by Bradley Rule:

I did not find a recording of the Sarabande, do here is a very clear and precise rendition of the third, Murrill's popular Carillon, played by Piotr Ruchon on the organ in Kaliningrad Cathedral, Russia:

It is disappointing to report that I found no online recording of George Dyson's 1956 Prelude and Postlude, nor of Stanley Vann's Aria and Exultate.

You will find Gary Sieling's recordings of Stanley Vann works, on the organ of Chelmsford Cathedral,
here on spotify or on Priory Records if you'd like the CD

Perhaps this will make up for the missing items - probably the most recent recording we have ever used on these pages !

Daniel Roth is the very accomplished organist of St-Sulpice in Paris, a post he has held since 1985, and in which he follows Widor and Marcel Dupré. The church has two Cavaillé-Coll organs: a 5-manual 102 stop great organ (based on an earlier instrument by Cliquot) and a separate 2-manual choir organ (updated by Mutin in 1903). With his feel for these two instruments and for the space in which they work, Roth has written Quatre pièces pour les deux orgues Cavaillé-Coll de l'église Saint-Sulpice à Paris.
We hear the Communion.

The recording, with sub-organist Pierre-François Dub-Attenti, was made on June 25th, this year, 2017:

Here is a recording of are extracts from the Offertoire of the same set of pieces
which were a commission from Ken Starr of Boston.

We hope you have enjoyed your Concert at Home

For our 12.30 concert on Wednesday August 16th we welcome
Carl Jackson MVO
Director of Music, HM Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace
who will be playing the 2015 Tickell organ
in the (new) Chapel of St John's School, Epsom Road, Leatherhead

Christ Church URC - map

Link to venue
details

Previous Concert

Alice Bishop
soprano
13 July 2017

Next Concert

Hugh Millington
classical guitar
27 Julye 2017

2017 organ diary

Wednesdays at
Christ Church
2017
monthly organ concert
diary

For details of more local and national organ concerts please click on this logo: