Andrew Benson-Wilson, organ
Mayfair Organ Concerts
The Grosvenor Chapel
South Audley Street, Mayfair, London W1K 2PA
Tuesday 19 March 2024, 1:10

BEFORE BACH

Andrew’s annual Early Music Day recitals are usually focussed on the music of JS Bach, reflecting the fact that Early Music Day is on 21 March, the date of Bach’s birth under the current calendar. This year, Andrew is giving two Early Music recitals, with the titles of BEFORE BACH and AFTER BACH. This first recital traces the history of German organ music from the Buxheimer Orgelbuch c1460 to Johann Pachelbel, the teacher of Bach’s older brother, Johann Christoph Bach. It seems likely that the 9-year-old Bach met Pachelbel at his older brother’s 1694 wedding.

Other composers represent the south, centre and north of Germany, including Hans Buchner (1483-1538), Hieronymus Praetorius (1560-1629), Mathias Weckmann (1617-74) in his anniversary year, and Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654)) in the 400th anniversary of his Tabulatura nova (1624).

The recital focussed on music written for the Catholic and Lutheran service of Vespers, notably the Magnificat, one of the key musical moments of the service in both churches. We hear versions from five composers, concluding with Scheidt’s Modus Pleno Organo Pedaliter Benedicamus à 6 Voc, composed for the conclusion of a Vespers Service as well as being the final piece in the Tabulatura nova.

Conrad Paumann (c1410-1473) Incipit Fundamentum m.C.p.C;
Magnificat Octavi Toni.
(From the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, c1460)

Hans Buchner (1483-1538) Magnificat anima sexti Toni.

Hieronymus Praetorius (1560-1629) Magnificat Tertii Toni.

Mathias Weckmann (1617-74) Magnificat II. Toni.

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) Fantasia in G; Three Fugues from the Magnificat tertii Toni

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654) Benedicamus à 6 Voc. 1624

The second Early Music Day recital, AFTER BACH, is on Sunday 24 March and includes music from England, Germany and France composed in the years immediately following Bach’s death in 1750, played on an organ dating from 1760.

The Grosvenor Chapel organ is the 1991 instrument by the distinguished
organ builder, William Drake, based on the 1732 Abraham Jordan organ,
Further details here –
http://www.grosvenorchapel.org.uk/music/william-drake-organ/

A link to the programme notes will eventually be posted here.

Admission is free, with a retiring collection.
Part of the Mayfair Organ Concerts series.