Sunday 16 October 2022 at 8:00 PM
Eccles Organ Festival Recital
Simon Johnson
Westminster Cathedral, London (UK)
Eccles Organ Festival Recital
Simon Johnson
Westminster Cathedral, London (UK)
Program
Sir Alfred Herbert Brewer (1865 – 1928)
Marche Héroïque
A. H. Brewer
Meditation on BACH
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 547
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) / Rudolf Lutz (1951)
Sonata in D minor "O Haupt voll blut und wunden"
Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)
Präludium und Fuge über den Namen BACH (S. 260)
César Franck (1822 – 1890)
Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18
Maurice Duruflé (1902 – 1986)
Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d'ALAIN, Op. 7
Sir Alfred Herbert Brewer (1865 – 1928)
Marche Héroïque
A. H. Brewer
Meditation on BACH
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 547
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) / Rudolf Lutz (1951)
Sonata in D minor "O Haupt voll blut und wunden"
Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)
Präludium und Fuge über den Namen BACH (S. 260)
César Franck (1822 – 1890)
Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18
Maurice Duruflé (1902 – 1986)
Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d'ALAIN, Op. 7
Program Notes
by Dr. Kenneth Udy, University of Utah
Sir Alfred Herbert Brewer lived his entire life in Gloucester, England. As a young chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, he studied organ with the cathedral organist and eventually assumed the post there in 1896. Known for his organ transcriptions of orchestral music, Brewer also composed original music, including his most popular organ piece, Marche Héroïque (1915), possibly written as wartime propaganda. It is in the style and form (ABAB) of the British orchestral march genre popularized by Elgar (Pomp and Circumstance, 1901). The rousing opening section in E-flat major provides one of the earliest examples of alternation between full organ and a chordal solo tuba. The softer B section (trio) contains the customary two statements of an exceptionally attractive legato e cantabile tune. The A section returns but not before a broken chord idea is developed in a series of modulating sequences and antiphonal effects. The piece concludes with a triumphant Largamente appearance of the trio melody.
In his Art of Fugue Bach introduced his “signature” motif: the notes B-flat, A, C, B-natural which correspond to the German note names B, A, C, H. The first half of the 19th century saw a Bach revival endorsed by many great romantic composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt, whose Prelude und Fugue is featured in this evening's program, who paid homage to the master with music using the BACH motif. Likewise, in 1916 Brewer produced the brief Meditation on the Name of BACH—a quiet, lilting Larghetto in 6/8 time in the vein of benign character pieces of the period.
Throughout his life Bach developed the organ prelude and fugue, perfecting the form in Leipzig at the end of his career. A case in point is the joyful Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 547, nicknamed “9/8” for its engaging dance meter. The entire musical fabric of the prelude is presented in the first eight measures with an ascending scale theme in the manual juxtaposed against a descending pedal theme. The themes are taken through various keys, often in quick succession, and then a sustained pedal note and several detached chords announce the final statement of melodic ideas that close the prelude. The subject of the five-voice fugue is but only one measure and appears no less than 46 times. Atypically, Bach withholds the pedal until the end of the fugue when it splendidly enters with the subject in augmentation. The detached chords of the prelude return and the fugue ends with a pedal point on Bach’s beloved low C.
In an effort to integrate their family into the European community, Mendelssohn's parents abandoned Judaism and had their children baptized and raised Lutheran. Throughout his short life, Mendelssohn often used Lutheran chorales in his music. An interesting example surfaced in the late 1970s when a few fragments and early sketches of Mendelssohn’s organ music were discovered in manuscripts originally housed in the Berlin State Library but moved to Cracow for safekeeping during World War II. Among the discoveries was a fragment scholars believe originated with Mendelssohn's legendary (and only German) organ recital at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on August 6, 1840. Schumann’s review of the recital described the concluding improvisation as a chorale fantasia based on O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden [O sacred head now wounded] into which Mendelssohn afterward introduced the BACH motif and a fugal movement. On the fragment Mendelssohn copied out the entire chorale in all four parts, followed by a 27-bar elaboration of the chorale. The fragment was “completed” in 1993 as Chorale and Variation by Christoph Albrecht, and later in 2007 as Sonata in D Minor by Swiss organist Rudolf Lutz.
Liszt’s landmark and oft-played Prelude and Fugue on BACH was commissioned for the September 26, 1855 inauguration of the largest organ in Germany at Merseburg Cathedral but was not completed in time. (It was eventually premiered there May 13, 1856 by its dedicatee, Liszt’s 21-year-old pupil Alexander Winterberger.) Liszt produced a revised version in 1870 which is mostly heard today. Instead of glorifying Bach with contrapuntal devices (like Schumann), Liszt offers a dazzling work in which the two descending half steps of the theme lend themselves to his chromatic language. The prelude begins by forcefully announcing the BACH motif in the pedal followed by long and short chords, ostinatos, and arpeggios. A calm Andante section forms a bridge to the fugue. The bifurcated fugue subject uses eleven different pitches of the scale. The exposition fades into development of the opening notes of the subject. A concluding Allegro then recalls the flare of the Prelude, with sequences amplified by bits of the fugue subject or its episodes. After going through a complex circuit of minor keys (G, C, F-sharp, B, E), dazzling octave lines, and stormy pedal trills, the epilogue finally concludes solemnly in B-flat major.
In 1866 Liszt heard Franck play and declared that Franck's works bore comparison with those of Bach. Franck was born 200 years ago in Liège, Belgium, but he became a French citizen and spent most of his life in Paris. In 1858 he was appointed as organist at the newly completed church of Sainte-Clotilde where he played the rest of his life. The “exquisite” (in the words of Bizet) Prélude, Fugue et Variation was originally a piano-harmonium duet which Franck subsequently arranged as an organ solo and dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns. It was included as the third of Six Pièces first performed by Franck November 17, 1864 at Sainte-Clotilde and later published in 1868. It now stands as Franck’s most popular organ work. The Prélude’s opening melancholy melody in B minor is repeated three times, and following a second theme, it returns to close the movement in the dominant. A short Lento using four-part homophony transitions into the Fugue. After a classic tenor, alto, soprano, bass exposition, the Fugue eventually ends on a dominant pedal to segue directly into the Variation’s elegant pianistic 16th-note accompaniment which combines with a verbatim reprise of the B minor melody and pedal parts from the Prélude.
In 1929 Duruflé was appointed organist of the Parisian church of Saint Etienne-du-Mont, a post he held for the rest of his life. He was highly self-critical and left only 14 opus numbers. The Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain is a tribute to Duruflé’s fallen friend and colleague, Jehan Alain, who was killed in World War II. Duruflé arrived at the theme for this work by extending the musical alphabet past H (the German equivalent for B natural) (A=I, B=J, C=K, D=L, E=M, F=N, etc.) such that ALAIN comes out as ADAAF, heard as a syncopated theme in the perpetuum mobile Prélude. In the final section of the Prélude, Duruflé quotes Alain’s Litanies. The double fugue (a fugue based on two separate subjects) is a stunning example of contrapuntal writing. The first subject is quiet and based on the ALAIN motive. This gives way to the contrasting second subject in sixteenth notes. Both themes are then masterfully combined to bring the work to a triumphant and brilliant climax.
by Dr. Kenneth Udy, University of Utah
Sir Alfred Herbert Brewer lived his entire life in Gloucester, England. As a young chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, he studied organ with the cathedral organist and eventually assumed the post there in 1896. Known for his organ transcriptions of orchestral music, Brewer also composed original music, including his most popular organ piece, Marche Héroïque (1915), possibly written as wartime propaganda. It is in the style and form (ABAB) of the British orchestral march genre popularized by Elgar (Pomp and Circumstance, 1901). The rousing opening section in E-flat major provides one of the earliest examples of alternation between full organ and a chordal solo tuba. The softer B section (trio) contains the customary two statements of an exceptionally attractive legato e cantabile tune. The A section returns but not before a broken chord idea is developed in a series of modulating sequences and antiphonal effects. The piece concludes with a triumphant Largamente appearance of the trio melody.
In his Art of Fugue Bach introduced his “signature” motif: the notes B-flat, A, C, B-natural which correspond to the German note names B, A, C, H. The first half of the 19th century saw a Bach revival endorsed by many great romantic composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt, whose Prelude und Fugue is featured in this evening's program, who paid homage to the master with music using the BACH motif. Likewise, in 1916 Brewer produced the brief Meditation on the Name of BACH—a quiet, lilting Larghetto in 6/8 time in the vein of benign character pieces of the period.
Throughout his life Bach developed the organ prelude and fugue, perfecting the form in Leipzig at the end of his career. A case in point is the joyful Prelude and Fugue in C Major, BWV 547, nicknamed “9/8” for its engaging dance meter. The entire musical fabric of the prelude is presented in the first eight measures with an ascending scale theme in the manual juxtaposed against a descending pedal theme. The themes are taken through various keys, often in quick succession, and then a sustained pedal note and several detached chords announce the final statement of melodic ideas that close the prelude. The subject of the five-voice fugue is but only one measure and appears no less than 46 times. Atypically, Bach withholds the pedal until the end of the fugue when it splendidly enters with the subject in augmentation. The detached chords of the prelude return and the fugue ends with a pedal point on Bach’s beloved low C.
In an effort to integrate their family into the European community, Mendelssohn's parents abandoned Judaism and had their children baptized and raised Lutheran. Throughout his short life, Mendelssohn often used Lutheran chorales in his music. An interesting example surfaced in the late 1970s when a few fragments and early sketches of Mendelssohn’s organ music were discovered in manuscripts originally housed in the Berlin State Library but moved to Cracow for safekeeping during World War II. Among the discoveries was a fragment scholars believe originated with Mendelssohn's legendary (and only German) organ recital at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on August 6, 1840. Schumann’s review of the recital described the concluding improvisation as a chorale fantasia based on O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden [O sacred head now wounded] into which Mendelssohn afterward introduced the BACH motif and a fugal movement. On the fragment Mendelssohn copied out the entire chorale in all four parts, followed by a 27-bar elaboration of the chorale. The fragment was “completed” in 1993 as Chorale and Variation by Christoph Albrecht, and later in 2007 as Sonata in D Minor by Swiss organist Rudolf Lutz.
Liszt’s landmark and oft-played Prelude and Fugue on BACH was commissioned for the September 26, 1855 inauguration of the largest organ in Germany at Merseburg Cathedral but was not completed in time. (It was eventually premiered there May 13, 1856 by its dedicatee, Liszt’s 21-year-old pupil Alexander Winterberger.) Liszt produced a revised version in 1870 which is mostly heard today. Instead of glorifying Bach with contrapuntal devices (like Schumann), Liszt offers a dazzling work in which the two descending half steps of the theme lend themselves to his chromatic language. The prelude begins by forcefully announcing the BACH motif in the pedal followed by long and short chords, ostinatos, and arpeggios. A calm Andante section forms a bridge to the fugue. The bifurcated fugue subject uses eleven different pitches of the scale. The exposition fades into development of the opening notes of the subject. A concluding Allegro then recalls the flare of the Prelude, with sequences amplified by bits of the fugue subject or its episodes. After going through a complex circuit of minor keys (G, C, F-sharp, B, E), dazzling octave lines, and stormy pedal trills, the epilogue finally concludes solemnly in B-flat major.
In 1866 Liszt heard Franck play and declared that Franck's works bore comparison with those of Bach. Franck was born 200 years ago in Liège, Belgium, but he became a French citizen and spent most of his life in Paris. In 1858 he was appointed as organist at the newly completed church of Sainte-Clotilde where he played the rest of his life. The “exquisite” (in the words of Bizet) Prélude, Fugue et Variation was originally a piano-harmonium duet which Franck subsequently arranged as an organ solo and dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns. It was included as the third of Six Pièces first performed by Franck November 17, 1864 at Sainte-Clotilde and later published in 1868. It now stands as Franck’s most popular organ work. The Prélude’s opening melancholy melody in B minor is repeated three times, and following a second theme, it returns to close the movement in the dominant. A short Lento using four-part homophony transitions into the Fugue. After a classic tenor, alto, soprano, bass exposition, the Fugue eventually ends on a dominant pedal to segue directly into the Variation’s elegant pianistic 16th-note accompaniment which combines with a verbatim reprise of the B minor melody and pedal parts from the Prélude.
In 1929 Duruflé was appointed organist of the Parisian church of Saint Etienne-du-Mont, a post he held for the rest of his life. He was highly self-critical and left only 14 opus numbers. The Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain is a tribute to Duruflé’s fallen friend and colleague, Jehan Alain, who was killed in World War II. Duruflé arrived at the theme for this work by extending the musical alphabet past H (the German equivalent for B natural) (A=I, B=J, C=K, D=L, E=M, F=N, etc.) such that ALAIN comes out as ADAAF, heard as a syncopated theme in the perpetuum mobile Prélude. In the final section of the Prélude, Duruflé quotes Alain’s Litanies. The double fugue (a fugue based on two separate subjects) is a stunning example of contrapuntal writing. The first subject is quiet and based on the ALAIN motive. This gives way to the contrasting second subject in sixteenth notes. Both themes are then masterfully combined to bring the work to a triumphant and brilliant climax.
|
Simon Johnson is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation, successfully combining life as a virtuoso organist with extensive work in choral direction, composition and arrangement.
In September 2021 Simon Johnson became Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, responsible for its world-famous choir. For 13 years he was the Organist and Assistant Director of Music at St Paul's Cathedral, and was involved in all the national occasions that took place there. Previously he enjoyed a distinguished tenure as Director of St Albans Abbey Girls’ Choir, leading them in several highly-acclaimed recordings and tours. Recitals have taken him all over the USA and Europe, including a Royal Festival Hall debut in 2017. In 2018, St Paul’s was sold out for his performance of Holst’s The Planets with link-ups to NASA and the International Space Station. As a Director, Simon has played an important role in St. Paul’s ongoing partnerships with leading orchestras in London, conducting many significant works from the repertoire by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Bruckner, Saint-Saëns, Strauss, Gershwin, Poulenc, Duruflé and Messiaen. |
|
