The Union Chapel in Islington is celebrating the completion of restoration of their remarkable 1877 Henry Willis organ with an week of events in which the organ takes centre stage. The events started on 14 July and continue until 20 July. Tonight, 16 July, the Norwegian film-score composer Rebekka Karijord will be joined by the Icelandic record label/collective Bedroom community, Swedish fantasy-pop cellist Linnea Olsen and Small Feet. Wednesday 17 July sees the organ used as accompaniment to a screening of Carl Dreyer's 1928 silent film, the Passion of Joan of Arc, with new music by Irene Buckley plus soprano Emma Nash and James McVinnie at the organ. Then on 18 July there are the London premieres of new organ works by John McLeod, Paul Mealor and Bill Thompson plus music by Judith Weir, James MacMillan and Ligeti, played by the Aberdeen based organist Roger B Williams. Finally on 20 July the Paradisal Players, comprising members of top London orchestras alongside brilliant amateurs conducted by Samuel Burstin, play music for organ and strings including a new work by Claire M Singer, the music director of the Union Chapel organ project.
This is a highly eclectic programme which takes the organ way beyond what I imagine that Henry Willis envisioned for it. The organ was designed integrally with the architecture and installed behind the screen so that the source of the sound is not visible but is diffused into the chapel. It has an important surviving mechanism which include a rare hydraulic blowing system, which had not been used since the 1930's
Further information from the Union Chapel website.
Tuesday 16 July 2013
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
Gilbert & Sullivan: Ruddigore - Dominic Sedgwick - Opera North, 2024 (Photo: © Richard H Smith) Gilbert & Sullivan: Ruddigore : Amy...
-
Bernstein: A Quiet Place - Henry Neill, Elgan Llyr Thomas - Royal Ballet & Opera (Photo: Marc Brenner/ROH) Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti...
-
Wagner: Die Walküre - The London Opera Company, November 2023 London Opera Company presented a full-scale performance of Wagner's Die ...
-
Judith Weir: Blond Eckbert - English Touring Opera Do not take my story for a fairytale , Judith Weir: Blond Eckbert ; Abigail Kelly, Amy J...
-
Slide Action (Photo: Matt Jolly) Formed in 2018, the trombone quartet Slide Action (Huw Evans, Jamie Tweed, Benny Vernon and Josh Cirtina) ...
-
What about blowing the box to pieces: composer Eímear Noone on writing for video games, films and TVEímear Noone (Photo: Andy Paradise) Dublin and LA-based composer Eímear Noone is known for her scores for video games, films and TV. She re...
-
Britten: The Turn of the Screw - Ailish Tynan - English National Opera, 2024 (Photo: Manuel Harlan) Britten: The Turn of the Screw ; Ailish...
-
Title page of the "Bassus Generalis" for one of the partbooks in which the Vespers were published in 1610 Monteverdi: Vespers of 1...
-
Jake Heggie (Photo: James Niebuhr) Jake Heggie 's song cycle for soprano, violin and string quartet, Intonations : Songs from the Violin...
-
Philip Glass: Akhnaten - English National Opera, 2016 (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith) Philip Glass: Glassworks plus excerpts from Satyagra...
No comments:
Post a Comment