05/12/2024
ORGAN RECITAL by PROFESSOR GRAHAM BARBER
Friday 6th December, 1.00pm - 1.45pm
Admission free, with retiring collection. Big-screen projection. Refreshments and sandwiches served from 12.30pm, by donation. All very welcome.
Graham Barber's programme is as follows:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Three settings of the Advent Choral ‘Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland’ from the Leipzig Autograph: BWV 659, BWV 660 and BWV 661
Josef Rheinberger (1839 – 1901)
Sonata No.20 in F major, Op. 196
I. Prelude
II. Intermezzo
III. Pastorale
IV. Finale
Graham Barber is one of the foremost British concert organists of his generation. He made his début in London at the Royal Festival Hall in 1979 and has subsequently played in most major venues in Britain, as well as in Europe, the Far East, Australia and the United States. Recent concerts have been at Notre Dame (Paris), Westminster Cathedral (London), Mainz Cathedral (Germany), Tchaikowsky Hall (Moscow), St. Paul’s Cathedral (London), the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Shreveport (Louisiana). Recordings have included music by Francis Jackson, Percy Whitlock, 17/18th-century German and Dutch music, British Edwardian Music, J. S. Bach, Georg Böhm, Dieterich Buxtehude, Johann Ludwig Krebs, Max Reger and Franz Schmidt. Recent recordings feature his own transcription of Sigfrid Karg-Elert’s Second Harmonium Sonata Op.46, and organ works by Karl Hoyer, a pupil of Reger, both played at the Pauluskirche, Ulm.
Emeritus Professor at the University of Leeds, Graham Barber has given masterclasses in Weimar, Enschede, Braga, Lisbon, Cologne, Lillehammer, Moscow and Dallas. His DVD Organ Story charting the restoration of the renowned Schulz0e organ at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Armley (Leeds), and featuring a performance of the Reubke Sonata, was widely acclaimed. From 2006 – 2009 Graham Barber held a Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. In 2015 – 2017 he played the complete organ works of Max Reger in 36 concerts. He also features on Maximum Reger, a set of 6 DVDs released by Fugue State Films. In 2019 Graham Barber toured to the U.S.A. where he gave concerts at the East Texas Organ Festival and at Southern Methodist University. In October 2020 he performed concerts in Dortmund, Recklinghausen and Wesel. During the Covid-19 pandemic Graham Barber published numerous organ recitals on YouTube under the title ‘Organcast’ playing his two-manual Goetze & Gwynne house organ, and the Armley Schulze organ, of which he has been custodian since 1986. In 2024, Graham Barber was awarded the Royal College of Organists’ Medal for distinguished achievement in organ performance and scholarship.
