Hi all,

Just been looking through the lineup of organ-featuring music for this year's Proms at the RAH. Not as much as last year but potentially some quite good stuff including a couple of Solo concerts:

Sunday 01st August, 4:00pm (Prom 20)
Wagner, arr. Lemare - Overture: The Mastersingers of Nuremburg
Wagner, arr. Lemare - Overture: Tannhäuser
Wayne Marshall - Improvisation on themes from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde"
Wagner, arr. Lemare - The Ride of the Valkyries
Wayne Marshall (organ)

Wednesday 04th August, 10:00pm (Prom 25)
Bach - Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch", BWV 769
Bach, arr. Stravinsky - Chorale Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch"
Stravinsky - Threni
Daniel Hyde (organ), Hillary Summers (mezzo), Alan Oake & Andrew Kennedy (tenors), David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), John Tomlinson (bass), BBC Singers, London Sinfonietta / David Atherton.

Saturday 14th August, 5:00pm (Prom 38) - Bach Day
Bach - Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV582)
Bach - Chorale Prelude: "Wachet Auf, ruft uns die Stimme" (BWV 645)
Bach, arr. Stainton B. Taylor - Aria: Schafe können sicher weiden (Cantata no. 208)
Bach, arr. Virgil Fox - Chorale: "Komm süsser Tod" (BWV478)
Bach, arr. David Briggs - Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D (BWV 1068)
David Briggs (Organ)

Note: Prom 39 (14th August, 7:30pm) features orchestral arrangements of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV565, arr. Stokovski) as well as BWV645 and BWV582, of which the latter two are in the lineup for David Briggs' concert as organ solos.

Tuesday 17th August, 10:15pm (Prom 43)
Arvo Pärt - St. John Passion
Andrew Kennedy (Pilate), Brindley Sherratt (Jesus)
Iain Farrington (organ), Endymion, BBC Singers, conductor David Hill.

And that, from what I have to hand, appears to be that. Some good stuff there IMO. I think an RAH debut for Iain Farrington (Prom 43) as I don't recall hearing of him in any previous lineups. How well known is he?

Cheers,

Dave

Excellent former John's, Cambridge organ scholar. Seek and ye shall find here.

Wayne Marshall, again! *groan*

I turned on R3 last night in time to hear a thrilling organ entry in the Finale of Tschaikowsky's Manfred Symphony. I suspect it might have been particularly loud for the other members of the orchestra.

I was standing in the Arena. I could see the string players scraping away like crazy on their instruments, but couldn't hear a thing from them. However, in the RAH what you hear depends on exactly where you are so others would have heard the strings more and the organ less.

For the record, the organist was Graham Eccles - currently acting DOM at Bangor according to Google.

Ian

Won't take long (at his speed)

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I have never been moved, but I have been frequently alarmed and disturbed.

MM

It's alright, he's not playing a note of actual organ music. It seems to be a concert for those who like the noise it makes rather than those who appreciate it. I'm sure they will enjoy it hugely.

I see David Briggs is playing mainly arrangements of non-organ works by Bach. I can't quite see who that's targeted at.

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I actually think it is very interesting; especially since the orchestral concert at 7.30pm includes organ-works transcribed for orchestra, and David Briggs, at 5pm, is playing two organ works which are heard later in transcribed form. So there is an interchange of transcriptive skills from some of the best; David Briggs being no exception.

Say what you will, but the Stokowski arrangements fed a whole generation in America, and that found its' natural extension with Virgil Fox and other American organists.

It could almost be targetted at me personally, because I'm interested in that cultural interchange, which I think I have dubbed the "expressionist romantic" style previously.

My only regret is that they didn't invite the "Black Dyke Mills Band" to show them how best to do it!

We've all become conditioned to the historically informed, but have perhaps forgotten the emotionally performed, and for that same reason, I rather enjoy listening to the big "Cecil B de Mille" versions of "Messiah" with full orchestra, a big concert organ and 500 voices.

I must be getting old and whistful. I'll be enjoying Herbert Howells next.


MM