If you missed Laurence’s recital yesterday evening, or if you just thought it was so amazing that you’d like to relive the experience, you can see it at 7.30 this evening (Sunday 26th July) when it premieres on YouTube in a specially edited version. It will, of course, be available any time after that.
Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back and relax – and no false starts this time!
There is no charge for this recital but it is a fundraising event. A great deal of hard work has gone into make it what we hope will be an enjoyable experience. We hope you’ll consider donating to the maintenance and development of the fabric of St Mary’s.
This is Laurence’s third summer recital at St Mary’s. His two previous concerts were near sell outs and attracted 300 music lovers from all over Herefordshire and surrounding counties.
Laurence said: “Though churches are now open for public worship, social distancing restrictions are still quite severe and effectively mean that holding a recital in the church itself is not a realistic possibility. So the concert is being streamed live on the internet and will still be available for viewing at home for some time afterwards.”
Laurence is also breaking with tradition in another way. “Organists generally tend to compile their own recital programmes. But this time I wanted to give audience members a relatively rare opportunity to select their own favourite pieces of music. We’ve had many requests and I’m afraid I’ve not been able to include them all, so please accept my apologies if your piece has not made it.”
Five years ago, Laurence, who was then a sixth form pupil at Hereford Cathedral School, became possibly St Mary’s youngest ever organist in the church’s 700-year history.
He subsequently went on to become organ scholar at Hereford Cathedral where, on occasions, he also conducted the cathedral choir and once played a fanfare for the arrival of the Duke of Kent.
For the past three years he has been an organ scholar and music student at The Queen’s College Oxford. During this time he has accompanied the college’s world famous choir on BBC Radio Three’s Choral Evensong, played at a Westminster Abbey Eucharist, with a congregation from all over the world, and toured with the choir in the United States, Spain and Portugal.
PROGRAMME
Litanies — Jehan Alain (1911–40)
Noël Variations — Louis-Claude Daquin (1694–1772)
Hornpipe from Water Music — G.F. Handel (1685–1759)
Three pieces based on hymn tunes
Rhosymedre — Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Ar Hyd y Nos — Welsh traditional (arr. Laurence John)
Nun danket alle Gott — Siegfried Karg-Elert (1877–1933)
Carol from Five Bagatelles — Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
Postlude in D minor — C.V. Stanford (1852–1924)
Nimrod from Enigma Variations — Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Toccata from Symphonie V — Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937)
The Ross Parishes: Ross-on-Wye, Walford & Brampton Abbotts 