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Organ Music by Bach

12 September

On Friday evening there was an excellent organ recital in Speech Room by a few boys and

DNW. All of the music was composed by J.S.Bach (with perhaps one exception) and the

performances made for a wonderful evenings listening.

Joshua Simoes, The Head masters, began the recital with Fantasia in G minor BWV

542. I think anyone would struggle to find a more apt word to describe this piece than

simply fantastic. It is a piece in which we can clearly see Buxtehudes influence on Bachs

composition and also many other contemporary composers. Joshua played this piece with

real feeling and brought the complex harmonies to life on the Speech Room organ.

Following Joshua was Ashley Chow, Rendalls, and he played the Adagio from Trio

Sonata 1 BWV 525. The trio sonatas are essentially the touchstone of organ music. The fast

movements of these trio sonatas are used in the Cambridge organ scholar auditions and are

perhaps the most difficult pieces ever composed for the organ. Ashley created a lovely

serene atmosphere with this piece. The lovely dissonances were played with great

composure and the performance was a delight to listen to.

After Ashley, DNW played two pieces: Prelude and Fugue in B minor BWV 544 and

Choral Partita Sei Gregrsset BWV 541. Prelude and Fugue in B minor contains lots of

improvisation on its theme with very complex harmonic ideas. DNW communicated all

these ideas excellently and with tremendous panache. Chorale Partita Sei Gregrsset is

essentially just a group of variations written on a chorale. Some of the variations were very

soft and rapturously ethereal, whilst others were incredibly loud and awe-inspiring. This was

a completely new work of music to most of the people in the room, and DNW made

fiendishly difficult passages seem effortless.

The final performer of the evening was Justin Stollery, The Knoll. His first

performance was of the Pedal solo in G minor BWV 598 and there are many ambiguous

debates about whether or not Bach did compose this piece. This piece is played using only

the feet, and Justin played it with exceptional musicianship. He then moved directly into his

second piece which was Little Fugue in G minor BWV 579. This was performed with

incredible vigour and it was a joy to hear such amazing harmonies. After this we heard

another movement from a trio sonata, this time a Largo. Like Ashleys performance, this one

also captured an incredible sense of serenity and stillness. To end the program with a huge

contrast, Justin performed the Prelude in G major BWV 541, which is a joyous romp of a

piece, and this ended the evenings concert splendidly.

It was a terrific evening of performances and so our thanks goes to all who played.

Thank you also to all the beaks who helped to prepare and arrange this concert.