www.leedsminster.org
The Friends of the Music of Leeds Minster ~ Registered Charity 1055944
present
Friends and Neighbours
Lunchtime Organ Music
every Friday in
November 2015
at
Leeds Minster
Leonard Sanderman
David Houlder
Dr Anthony Gritten
Alexander Woodrow
organists
All are warmly welcome at Friday Midday Prayers from 12.00 in the Lady Chapel
SOUVENIR PROGRAMME
You are asked to give generously to the Retiring Collection at each Recital –
please complete a Gift Aid Envelope if you are a UK Tax Payer; it helps greatly.
All proceeds are devoted to the tuning and maintenance of the
Minster’s magnificent organ – a task funded on an annual basis by grants from the
Friends of the Music of Leeds Minster.
1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & THANKS
The Friends of the Music express special thanks to all who generously assist in the presentation of lunchtime organ music in general
and this month’s series in particular:
The Artists for very generously giving of their services
David Hawkin for much help with publicity
The Friday “Team” in the Wardens’ Vestry each week offering hospitality and refreshment to our “regulars”
Andrew Carter, A J Carter, Organ Builders ~ Michael Vary & Mark Walker, Allfab Engineering
The Organ of Leeds Minster
The first Organ at Leeds Minster was installed in 1714. Major work on the instrument was
undertaken by Greenwood Brothers of Leeds in 1815 – and again in 1841, when the organ was
moved to the present building in time for the consecration on 2nd September. Additions were
provided by Holt, Hill and Schulze in 1859 and the instrument rebuilt by Abbott & Smith of Leeds in
1883 and 1899, by which time it had five manuals and pedals. The major re-construction of the organ
by Harrison & Harrison of Durham in 1913 gave us the organ as we now know it. Further work by
Harrison took place in 1927 and, importantly, in 1949. Somewhat unusually for a Harrison, the
Leeds organ - though speaking unmistakably with a Harrison voice - incorporates recognisable earlier
pipework by other famous hands: Hill, Schulze, Abbott & Smith and, after 1965, by Wood,
Wordsworth and Stinkens. The Leeds firm of Wood, Wordsworth & Co undertook a major scheme
in 1965 when the pipework of the famous Altar Organ was incorporated into the main body of the
instrument. Several new stops were added and the console re-furbished. The character of the original
pipework was, in general, carefully maintained up to, and during the programme of restoration
recently completed.
The major Restoration Appeal of 1994 here at the Minster provided funds for a substantial and
thorough restoration of the organ, including re-construction of the Blowing Plant, replacement of the
console mechanisms, actions and complete cleaning and overhaul; this work was carried out by A J
Carter Organ Builders of Wakefield, which firm has had the care of the instrument for many years.
The Blowing Plant works were by Allfab Engineering of Methley. The Consultants to the Vicar and
Churchwardens were Dr Noel Rawsthorne of Liverpool [Main Adviser], the Organist and Master of
the Music [Dr Simon Lindley] and the Ripon Diocesan Organ Adviser [Mr Anthony J Cooke].
 A complete history of the organ is in Parish, Past and Present by Dr Donald Webster [£5]
 Recordings of the Organ, Choir and Organists are also available from the Visitors’ Centre
Special Upcoming
Remembrance Sunday 8 November here at the Minster
Remembrance Sunday Morning Service at 10.30
Preacher: The Reverend Professor Simon Robinson, Lecturer
Choral Eucharist of Requiem at 6.30
to the music of Gabriel Fauré
Armistice Day, Wednesday 11 November at 11.00
The Two Minutes’ Silence with Prayer and the National Anthem
Choral Evensong [Men’s Voices] – Plainchant
Advent Sunday 29 November
Traditional Advent Carol Service at 6.30
2
FRIDAY 6 NOVEMBER
Leonard Sanderman
Harrogate, St Wilfrid
Reger
Toccata & Fugue in D minor, Op 59 5 & 6
Improvisation
on Two Poems by Emma Hine:
Monet’s Cataracts – Fire across the water to Cassandra
Reger
Chorale Fantasia: Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott, Op 27
FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER
David Houlder
Leeds Minster
Stanley
Bach
Sark
Mendelssohn
Cockroft
Jackson
Dubois
Voluntary in G major
Sinfonia to Cantata 156
Toccata Primi Toni
Fugue in F minor
Soliloquy – 2010 [dedicated to David Houlder]
Diversion for the Mixtures
Toccata in G
FRIDAY 20 NOVEMBER
Dr Anthony Gritten
London
Kreisler/James
Widor
Kunc
Bach
Roth
Ayres
Liebesfreud No 1 [Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen] – 1910
Symphonie V, Op 42 No 1 – Allegro cantabile
Grand Pièce Symphonique [1901]
Chorale: Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Her, S663
Ave, Maris Stella [2004]
Toccata: Amor satis est [2010]
FRIDAY 27 NOVEMBER
Alexander Woodrow
Bradford Cathedral
Leighton
Bach
Peeters
Bridge
Mendelssohn
Gigout
Toccata on Hanover
Fantasia & Fugue in C minor, S537
Aria
Three Pieces for Organ
Allegro moderato – Adagio – Allegro con spirito
Sonata II in C minor Op 65
Grave/Adagio – Allegro maestoso e vivace – Allegro moderato [Fuga]
Toccata
ADMISSION FREE
RETIRING COLLECTIONS FOR ORGAN MAINTENANCE
Recitals on Friday Lunchtimes in December will be given by Christopher Newton
3
PROGRAMME NOTES
6 November
First issued 115 years ago, the Twelve Pieces, Op 59 of Max Reger [1873-1916]
comprises twelve vividly contrasted pieces of which some are based on plainchant
models – among them the Te Deum and Gloria in excelsis. The fifth and sixth essays of
the set comprise an exciting and episodic Toccata and a noble fugue that unfolds from a
quiet rumbling bass line on the pedals to yield a massive cumulative climax achieved
by increase of momentum as well as texture. Unforgettable!
Emma Hine (born 1990) is a prize-winning, published poet from Austin, Texas.
Having been awarded the Howard Nemerov Scholarship at Washington University, St
Louis, she holds a BA in English from this institution. She studied at Keble College,
Oxford and is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry at New York University.
MONET’S CATARACTS
I took off my glasses in L’Orangerie
while the water lilies curled on the walls
like photographs after a storm.
Removing my own vision
was like blinking on the thick curds of his,
and with the one small motion,
I swept away Impressionism.
Because it turns out that at the end,
Monet painted lilies as he saw them,
lifelike only to his warped view and mine.
Which means his early haystacks, his Parliaments,
his poplar spires at dawn, were each a divination
that the details of his world would dissolve.
Proof that half of a life presages
the moment of tragedy, and the other half
yearns. Tries shakily to approximate
the precious thing, to reconstitute
the loss. Proof that life rotates
on an axis, turning around the moment
when what is necessary falls away.
FIRE ACROSS THE WATER TO CASSANDRA
Of course, the silence began on their first date.
She didn’t say I think if reading wasn’t pointless
I’d read the tragedies. Or An ending grows in each
beginning like a weed. She didn’t say I knew the scrolls
would burn; books of the ships, papyrus, the place of the cure,
flames like blue fish flailing on the pages. When there was
4
nothing left to do, Caesar would burn his ships. When nothing
is left she’ll be standing with her stories still catalogued
and filed, her throat a ladder for them not to climb.
The metrical setting of Psalm 46, Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott is one of the great
hymns of the Reformation. The melody is attributed to Martin Luther himself, no less
and it was probably he who also compiled the words. Reger’s Op 27 is one of his more
concise extended works and is beautifully laid out for the full resources of the king of
instruments.
13 November
Organist of London’s Temple Church for over sixty years, [Charles] John Stanley
[1713-1786] was prodigiously talented from a very early age. His extempore playing
was famous and his keyboard compositions include concertos and “voluntaries”. Of
the latter, there are three volumes of ten each - his Op 5, 6 & 7. This famous G major
essay contains two lively and highly characteristic movements, the second of which is a
carefully crafted essay in fugal style.
A number of the many Church Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach [1685-1750]
unfold from preludial orchestral material, sometimes exultant, sometimes more
reflective in ambience. That to Cantata 156 [Here I stand, one foot within the grave]
designated for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, is also deployed as the slow
movement of the composer’s F minor harpsichord concerto. The off-beat quavers and
other aspects of the accompaniment to the glorious solo line may be intended by Bach
to represent the steady toll of funeral bells.
Einar Trærup Sark [1921-2005] was a concert pianist, organist and composer, who
studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen. His output included orchestral
repertoire, works for piano and organ, choral music and songs. This afternoon’s
Toccata Primi Toni, its composer’s Op 11, is the work by which he is most
remembered today; the brittle, memorable, textures and implied harmonic richness
have made it many friends and its inclusion in examination syllabuses has recently
brought forth many more performances.
Today’s Fugue in F minor written 18 July 1839 arose from a close friendship between
its composer, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy [1809-1847] and English organist, and
composer and leading Bach enthusiast, Samuel Wesley [1766-1837]. The two men had
each written fugues for the other, Mendelssohn writing a theme for one by Wesley in
the Englishman’s visitors’ book. Mendelssohn’s F minor essay – lyrical, powerful,
brooding yet restrained – was first published by the London firm of Hinrichsen in the
English capital fifty-three years ago.
Composed on 5 October 2010, the deeply-felt and expressive Soliloquy by
Huddersfield composer Robert Cockroft [born 1951] is inscribed to today’s recitalist,
David Houlder and was published very soon after its composition by Banks Music
5
Publications of Hovingham near Malton, North Yorkshire. A shifting chordal
accompaniment underpins a solo line of great beauty and flexibility.
Diversion for the Mixtures from the pen of Francis Jackson [born 1917] is, happily,
to be given two airings in our November series. Dr Jackson’s output for the King of
Instruments, beginning with his evocative and finely crafted Impromptu of 1944, a work
created for the 70th birthday of his teacher and mentor, Sir Edward Bairstow, continues
seemingly unabated well into his 90s.
A student of, among others, the celebrated Ambroise Thomas, [François Clément]
Théodore Dubois [1837-1924] succeeded his master as Director of the Paris
Conservatoire. As an organist, he followed Saint-Saëns to La Madeleine. Dubois
published a great amount of organ repertoire – over eighty-eight works in all – most
notably two sets of twelve pieces each. From Douze Pièces of 1886 comes by far the
best-known of Dubois’ works – the effervescent Toccata in G, being the third in the
dozen components. The piece has everything – good humour, a memorable thematic
melody atop the manual textures and harmonic shifts and dramatic rhetoric to enhance
the whole!
20 November
arr Love’s Joy is one of Three Old Viennese Melodies written by the world-famous violinist
Fritz Kreisler [1879-1962] [the other two are Love’s Sorrow and Lovely Rosemary – these
two featured as frequent encores at Kreisler’s concerts. The composer himself issued
piano arrangements in 1911 and the first two were arranged for piano by Rachmaninov
who published his transcriptions in 1931. Celebrater New York-based American
organist Philip James [1890-1975] made the organ solo version of Liebesfreud No 1
[Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen]. James served as Chairman of the Music Department of the
University of New York from 1941 to 1954.
A native of Lyons, educated at the Brussels Conservatoire and taught by the great
Lemmens, from who he derived his lifelong devotion to Bach and his music, CharlesMarie Widor [1844-1937] served as organist of the Parisian Seminary Church of St
Sulpice for 64 years – successor to Léfebure-Wely (of Sortie fame). Widor was, in his
turn, followed by Marcel Dupré and Dupré by the brilliant Daniel Roth. Widor was a
great cosmopolitan – his Bach playing was in the German tradition gained through
Lemmens. Charles’s grandfather was an organ builder of Hungarian ancestry. His son,
the composer’s father – builder and player of and on the king of instruments – was the
young boy’s first tutor in organ. So brilliant was the Widor junior’s progress that he
was School Organist by the age of only eleven. He was permanent Secretary of the
Académie des Beaux Arts from 1914. His contemporaries described him as spirited, witty,
energetic and warm-hearted – though rather shy. Widor was extremely well-read in
many disciplines. As a musician, he was a brilliant extempore player. The combined
improvisatory talents during services at St Sulpice’s in the 1870’s with Fauré at the
church’s orgue des choeurs to the East and Widor at the grands orgues to the West must
have been quite something!
6
Widor is the “father” of the organ symphony, though suite or maybe symphonic suite is
nearer the mark. Though he is remembered today mostly for his organ symphonies, his
work-list includes seven operas, and a vast amount of sacred choral music – also much
instrumental and chamber repertoire. With the great Albert Schweitzer, Widor was
responsible for a complete edition of the organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Symphonie V, Op 42 No 1: Allegro cantabile The vivid variations which comprise the
first movement of the very famous fifth symphony are founded on a theme hallmarked
by infectious and characteristic dotted rhythms – here we perceive Widor’s great debt
to Schumann and his romantic contemporaries. The colours of the organ are exploited
to the full and especially so during the syncopations of a central scherzo at the heart of
this immensely idiomatic writing for the king of instruments.
Pierre Kunc [1865-1941] came from a very musical family. Crowning his long
professional career, Pierre was Choirmaster at the Parisian seminary church of St
Sulpice [alongside organist Widor] between 1928 and 1930, moving in the latter year to
a Parisian suburb as Organist of Villemomble. Among his compositions is this
afternoon’s fine Grand Pièce Symphonique [1901], at one time – along with later
works from 1905 published as Trois Pièces. In common with Franck’s piece of the same
title, Kunc’s Grand Pièce is based in the key of F sharp minor and deploys much
chromatic harmony.
Johann Sebastian Bach [1685-1750] left more settings of the famous chorale Allein Gott
in der Höh’ sei Ehr for organ than of any other. Besides its use in at least ten organ
chorales, Allein Gott is deployed in four of the Leipzig cantatas. Allein Gott in der
Hoh’ sei Ehr is a metrical setting of Gloria in excelsis Deo and was thus, of course,
particularly significant in Lutheran liturgical usage. Allein Gott was especially linked
with the Easter festival, but also used on normal Sundays (every Sunday in worship at
Leipzig, for example when the four verses of this famous hymn would be sung by the
faithful following the pastor’s intonation of the Gloria). The Chorale was invariably
sung congregationally, except on high days and holy days when a musical setting of
the Missa (consisting of Kyrie eleison and Gloria in excelsis Deo) would be utilised. The
music itself is derived from the Plainchant Mass I (Lux et origo) - the Mass proper to
Eastertide or Paschal time. Organist of Luneberg’s Johaniskirche, Böhm’s extensive
output of organ works was probably a substantial formative influence on the
development of Bach’s own musical style.
Daniel Roth [born 1942] is the long-serving Organiste Titulaire at St Sulpice, Paris as
successor to Marcel Dupré. Today’s movement comes from Ave Maris Stella [2014]
Daniel Roth’s magnum opus, Livre d’Orgue pour le Magnificat, of which Dr Gritten gave
the first complete performance in 2012. The music is founded on the ancient
plainchant first mode office hymn office hymn for feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary
sung in English to the words Hail, O Star that pointest t’ward the port of Heaven.
7
Paul Ayres [born 1970], a Londoner by birth, studied music at Oxford University, and
now works freelance as a composer & arranger, choral conductor & musical director,
and organist & accompanist. His compositions usually involve words – solo songs,
choral pieces, music for theatre productions – and he is particularly interested in
working with pre-existing music, from arrangements of folksongs, hymns, jazz
standards and nursery rhymes to ‘re-compositions’ of classical works, as in Purcell’s
Funeral Sentence, 4A Wreck and Messyah. New pieces have been commissioned by the
BBC Singers, the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, Concordia Youth
Choir, The Esoterics, Texas Lutheran University, Wartburg College, Wheaton College
and Alexandria Choral Society. Paul is the regular conductor of City Chorus and the
choirs at London College of Music (University of West London), and he is the
associate accompanist of Crouch End Festival Chorus. He has led many education
workshops for children, played piano for improvised comedy shows and musical
theatre, and has given solo organ recitals in the UK, Scandinavia, Europe, North
America and Australia. Please visit www.paulayres.co.uk to find out more. The
Toccata: Amor satis est [2010] is based on a very well-known theme from a pop “hit”
of yesteryear!
27 November
Kenneth Leighton [1929-1988] produced an extensive output of organ music, with his
interest in the instrument doubtless kindled during his youth as a chorister of
Wakefield Cathedral under Newell Wallbank in 1930s and early 1940s. His
magnificent treatment of the melody Hanover [used universally to the Hymn O worship
the King, all-glorious above – NEH 433] is the final component of its composer’s Six
Fantasies on Hymn Tunes published in 1980 by Basil Ramsey. The original melody by
Dr William Croft [1678-1727] first appeared in print in A Supplement to the New Version
[of The Psalms in metre] printed in 1708. Leighton’s performance direction for the
piece – Presto con bravuro – says it all!
It is not hard to account for the appeal of the key of C for composers for the organ. The
extent of the manual and pedal compass concludes in both cases with low C and the
scaling of pipework of all traditions treats that resonance as profoundly satisfying.
Besides the monumental Passacaglia, Bach’s pieces in C minor feature a fine Fantasia
and Fugue, S537 written either at Weimar in his final years there, or his term of office
at Cöthen. The sustained eloquence of the music of the Fantasia is underpinned by a
deep dolour of expressive power and its closing on a chord of the dominant is highly
characteristic. The Fugue that follows is one of its creator’s most energised such essays.
Not for nothing did Sir Edward Elgar lavish such care upon a transcription of the piece
for full symphony orchestra; originally planned as a joint project with Elgar’s friend
Richard Strauss for the 1921 Three Choirs’ Festival, and the Strauss end of the bargain
being not fulfilled, be it said – Elgar was left to complete things on his own. The
original organ version of the pieces comprises one of their creator’s most compelling
works.
8
Created a Baron by the King of the Belgians, Flor Peeters [1903-1986] was Organist of
Malines (or Mechelen) Cathedral for over sixty years. As a composer, he was
especially prolific in his output for the king of instruments. Among his works are
concertos, both for organ and orchestra and for organ and piano, and organ and
harpsichord. Chosen by Dr Donald Hunt to open the rebuilt organ at Leeds Town Hall
in 1972, Flor Peeters was a regular visitor to the West Riding in his latter years and a
close personal friend of Ilkley-based international tenor James Griffett, founder of Pro
Cantione Antiqua, for whom he composed several works for tenor and organ. The
evocative Aria is an organ version of the slow movement of its creator’s Trumpet
Sonata.
Frank Bridge [1879-1941] is, sadly, known rather more as the teacher of the young
Benjamin Britten than as a composer in his own right. On the evidence of his two sets
of Three Pieces for organ, this neglect of his output is surprising. No one familiar with
his magnificent The Sea would disagree that he is a master of composition. The wellknown and greatly loved Adagio in E unfolds from a hushed opening to yield a
processional of expansive rhetoric which comprises quite one of the most passionate
outpourings in the English repertoire. This glorious piece is enclosed by two other
works of swifter momentum, an Allegro moderato and a jaunty Allegro con spirito.
The tragically early death just over a century and a half ago of Felix Mendelssohn
Bartholdy [1809-1847] was almost certainly brought on by overwork. One of the
earliest of the 19th century’s musical polymaths, he was distinguished equally as
keyboard player, conductor and concert organiser and, pre-eminently, as composer. A
friend of Thomas Attwood, Organist of St Paul’s Cathedral, Mendelssohn used often
to play extempore after cathedral services on his London visits. This practice was
evidently to the delight of the cathedral congregation and to the professional frustration
of the vergers and organ blowers who, understandably, were keen to return home for
their post-Evensong afternoon tea. The main corpus of Mendelssohn’s output for the
king of instruments is contained within his opus numbers 37 & 65. The Three Preludes
and Fugues (Op 37) are dedicated to Thomas Attwood, while his Op 65 comprises Six
Sonatas written in response to a request from a London music publisher. Lovers of the
organ repertoire will not need reminding that the use of the Sonata title is somewhat
misleading, since none contains a single movement in sonata form and the pieces may
properly be thought of as organ suites - the printer had requested voluntaries. The
Second Sonata in C consists of an initial rhetorical Grave and lyrical Adagio succeeded
by two movements in the major – a jolly triple-time segment and a final rambling
Fugue.
Eugène Gigout [1844-1925] achieved early fame as a teenager; while a boy chorister at
Nancy Cathedral, he was to be heard playing regularly for services there. At the tender
age of just nineteen, Gigout gained the prestigious appointment at the Parisian church
of St Augustin, remaining there until his death in office sixty-three years later. It was
Gigout who was chosen to give the first performance of César Franck’s immortal third
9
Choral, heard at the final concert of last month’s recital series here. Gigout’s own
compositions comprise a substantial tally of idiomatic pieces – include a very famous
Toccata underpinned by an infectiously memorable pedal melody and a fabulous
Scherzo (both drawn from his Dix Pièces of 1892).
OUR RECITALISTS
Leonard Sanderman
Born in 1991, Leonard Sanderman is Director of Music (Organist & Master of the
Choristers) in the Parish of St Wilfrid, Harrogate. He was Organ Scholar at
Cheltenham College from 2009-2010, after which he read music and held the Organ
Scholarship for Keble College, Oxford. Between 2011-2013, he combined this with the
post of Resident Organist at Pusey House, Oxford. From 2013-2014 he was Organ
Scholar at Chichester Cathedral. Leonard was taught the organ initially by his father,
and later by Clive Driskill-Smith, Sietze de Vries, Ben van Oosten, and Steven Grahl.
He participated in masterclasses with, among others, Hans Haselböck, Pieter van Dijk
and Peter Williams. Leonard is a commissioned composer, and contributed
significantly to the New Dutch Hymnal. Furthermore, he is currently assistant editor of
another hymnal. He is working on various projects as independent Organ Consultant.
He is internationally active as a performer and conductor, and was recorded for a live
broadcast on BBC 3, as well as multiple CDs. This year, another two CDs featuring his
playing will be released on the label Animato Music Productions. When he is not
working, Leonard enjoys entertaining friends, reading, and can regularly be found
running around a field, surrounded by dogs.
David Houlder
Organist and Associate Conductor of Doncaster Choral Society and chief accompanist
to Halifax Choral Society, David was born in Liverpool but is also a proud Prestonian.
Educated at Preston Grammar School, he studied organ there with John Robinson,
gaining his FRCO at the age of 17. He read music at Gonville & Caius College,
Cambridge, continuing his organ studies with Arnold Richardson in London. He
embarked upon a teaching career as Music Master at Wirral Grammar School for
Boys, and later, from 1981 to 1999 as Director of Music at Liverpool’s historic Blue
Coat School. In 1987 David was appointed Sub-Organist of Liverpool Cathedral,
latterly combining that position with a freelance career, both as recitalist and
accompanist. He has played all of the cathedral organs in England and in 2001 he
enjoyed a stint as Acting-Assistant Organist of York Minster. He played in frequent
concerts in with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, recording
with them on several occasions. More recently, he has appeared with the renowned
Black Dyke Band and played with them in a spectacular concert at Birmingham
Symphony Hall recorded and released on DVD. In November 2003, after nearly thirty
years music-making on Merseyside, David accepted the position of Sub-Organist at
Leeds Minster (then Leeds Parish Church). In addition to accompanying the daily
choral services, he directs two choirs and is organist to St Peter’s Singers with whom he
toured Romania in 2007, Mallorca in 2009 and 2013, Brittany in 2011 and
Germany/Holland in 2015. David specialises in organ and piano transcriptions of
orchestral scores and is in great demand as accompanist to choral societies on both
10
sides of the Pennines. Recent performances have included Bizet: Te Deum, Cherubini:
Mass in C minor, Duruflé: Requiem, Kodaly: Missa Brevis, Puccini: Messa di Gloria,
Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle (Piano and Harmonium parts – though not
simultaneously!), Verdi: Requiem (a work very rarely performed on the organ) plus
Organ Masses by Langlais, Vierne and Widor. His non-musical interests include
shipping, railways and photography.
Dr Anthony Gritten
Anthony is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and studied with Harry Gabb,
David Sanger, and Anne Page. In 2012 he gave the first complete performance of
Daniel Roth’s magnum opus, Livre d’Orgue pour le Magnificat, followed by a recital in St.
Sulpice, Paris as part of Roth’s 70th birthday celebrations and the UK premiere of
Roth’s Christus factus est in Westminster Cathedral. Other projects have included
anniversary performances of the complete works of Buxtehude (a 6½ hour recital),
Tunder, Brahms, and Mendelssohn. Many of Anthony’s recitals are listed at
organrecitals.com/anthonygritten . His next recital is in the National Museum of
Wales in Cardiff, next Friday at 1.00 pm. Anthony was an organ scholar and research
student at Cambridge University, writing his doctorate on Stravinsky. He has worked
at the University of East Anglia and Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music,
and is currently Head of Undergraduate Programmes at the Royal Academy of Music.
His publications include two books on Music and Gesture and essays on Igor Stravinsky
and Frederick Delius. Many of Anthony’s publications can be downloaded from
ram.academia.edu/AnthonyGritten
Alexander Woodrow
Director of Music at Bradford Cathedral since January 2012. He remains the youngest
Cathedral Organist working within an Anglican Foundation. He is also responsible for
the Chamber and Senior Choirs at Bradford Grammar School. With the Cathedral
Choir at Bradford he has toured, recorded and broadcast, for national BBC radio and
television, as both organist and conductor. He read music as Organ Scholar at
Magdalene College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he gave recitals in many of the
College Chapels, including St John’s and King’s Colleges. Other solo recitals have
taken him across the country, including Westminster Abbey and York Minster. After
graduating, he held positions as Organ Scholar at Guildford and St Albans Cathedrals
before being appointed to Hexham Abbey as Assistant Organist. He became a Fellow
of the Royal College of Organists at the age of 19, winning first prizes in all categories,
including the Limpus Prize. He was subsequently awarded the Silver Medal of the
Worshipful Company of Musicians and the Fellowship of Trinity College, London.
Catch St Peter’s Singers in Concert at Fulneck Church
Friday 27 November 7.30 pm: Handel – Messiah
Principals of the National Festival Orchestra
Kristina James – Kathryn Woodruff
Peter Condry – Quentin Brown – Alan Horsey
11
and at Leeds Town Hall with organist David Houlder
on Monday Lunchtime 16 February 2015 at 1.05 pm
BACH CANTATAS
118 – O Jesu Christ, my life and light
159 – Come, let us go up to Jerusalem
68 – God so loved the world
4 – In death’s grim grasp the Saviour lay
PRINCIPALS OF THE NATIONAL FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
Sally Robinson leader
Simon Lindley conductor
Free – Collection
Catch St Peter’s Singers on Compact Disc – an ideal gift for Christmas!
recorded within the sumptuous acoustic of
Leeds’ Victoria Quarter in Summer 2014
Full details from the Website: oneequalmusic.org.uk
12