Wednesday 19th June

12.30 Lunchtime Concert



Guest organist:

Marion Bettsworth

Assistant Director of Music, St Michael’s Church, Highgate
Organ Scholar, Alexandra Palace
Accompanist, Enfield Choral Society.

Sponsors:
Julie West Solicitor

Supported by:
Leatherhead Concert & Arts Society

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Programme

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Prelude and Fugue in C major BWV 545

Cecilia McDowall (b 1951)
Church bells beyond the stars (2013)

Edward William Elgar (1857-1934)
Cantique Op 3 No 1 (1912)

Sir James Loy MacMillan (b 1959)
Offertorium (1986)

Johann Sebastian Bach
from the Leipzig Chorales
Fantasia super Komm, Heiliger Geist BWV 651
    Come, Holy Ghost

Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)
from 12 Choral-Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes Op 8 (1947)
Toccata on Veni Creator



Concert duration: 35 - 45 minutes

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

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Marion Bettsworth

Marion Bettsworth at the console of the restored Alexandra Palace, 1873 Father Willis organ

Marion Bettsworth is currently Assistant Director of Music at St Michael’s Church, Highgate, North London. She also holds the organ scholarship at Alexandra Palace, and is Accompanist for Enfield Choral Society.

Inspired to take up the organ in her final years of school, Marion was awarded an organ scholarship at Lancaster Priory in 2008. She went on to read Music at Lincoln College, Oxford, where she held the organ scholarship and studied with Steven Grahl. She also directed the college’s chapel choir for two years, performing with them in venues including St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and several UK cathedrals.

After graduating she spent a year as Organ Scholar at St Marylebone Parish

Church, London, and became an Associate of the Royal College of Organists in 2016. Marion currently studies with Stephen Farr.

Alongside her organ playing, Marion works in arts administration and is one of three volunteers who organise the Stroud Green Festival, a community music festival in north London.

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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. 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

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Next month's guest organist, on Wednesday July 17th, will be Timothy Guntrip, Organist & Asst Director of Music, to both cathedral choir Stag Montem Chorem and to Holy Cross Parish Church, Uckfield,
and one of the tuners of this organ

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Concert at Home
Here are some links to online recordings of works that feature in Katherine Dienes-Williams' concert:


Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Prelude and Fugue in C major BWV 545

This recording is by the young Dutch organist Jos Maters, playing the 1686 Bosch/Schnitger organ in Vollenhove Great Church. Vollenhove used to be a seaside town, but not since they drained the North-West Polder!
Jos is studying organ and harpsichord at the Prins CLaus Conservatorium in Groningen and is organist of Bunschoten's Reformed Church, and of Hilversum's Bethlehem or Southern Church.

Cecilia McDowall (b 1951)
Church bells beyond the stars (2013)

I have not been able to locate a recording of this piece, so here instead, to give a flavour of Cecilia McDowell's work, is her Three Antiphons for organ with trumpet.

Edward William Elgar (1857-1934)
Cantique Op 3 No 1 (1912)

This is Darren Williams on the rarely recorded Schultze organ in Doncaster Minster:

Sir James Loy MacMillan (b 1959)
Offertorium (1986)

Again I was unable to find a matching recording. So let's hear one of the Scottish composer's short choral works, Ave maris stella, sung by the choir of Truro Cathedral:

Johann Sebastian Bach
from the Leipzig Chorales • Fantasia super Komm, Heiliger Geist BWV 651 • Come, Holy Ghost

Last month we ended with recordings from Notre Dame de Paris. Today our recording on the cathedral's great Cavaillé-Coll instrument is this Bach chorale, performed by Liudmila Matsyura, who is currently Titular Organist of the Cathedral-Magistral, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, and the founder and Artistic Director of the International Organ Festival “Alcala Cathedral”:

Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968)
from 12 Choral-Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes Op 8 (1947)
Toccata on Veni Creator

On youtube this organist is know as 8FussPrinzipal, so we don't have a name and we don't know which instrument is being played. However, the music makes a good finish to our concert!

We hope you have enjoyed your Concert at Home

Might you join us on Friday evening ... ...

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Also this week, a Friday evening concert to celebrate

International Make Music Day

Please join us on 21st June, at 7.30pm,  in Christ Church, Epsom Road, Leatherhead, for a concert to celebrate

International Make Music Day

and to raise funds for NewSPAL, the charity taking over Surrey's Performing Arts Library from the Council

click on the poster to find out more:

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Christ Church URC - map

Link to venue
details

Previous Concert

Music on Thursdays at LMC
Rachel Watson, cello
plays Bosmans & Britten
with Thomas Ang, piano
12.30 lunchtime
13th June 2019

Next Lunchtime Concert

Music on Thursdays at LMC
Inna Montesclaros, piano
courtesy of the Royal Academy of Music
12.30 lunchtime
27th June 2019

2019 organ diary

Wednesdays at
Christ Church
2019
check out this year's varied rota of organists

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

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