Michael Bacon: Organ Recital

Saturday 16 November, 7:30pm

Marking Max Reger's centenary. Programme includes Reger's 'Halleluja! Gott zu Loben', Chorale Preludes by Bach and new pieces from The Orgelbuchlein Project, together with music by Howells and Bridge.

Free admission. Retiring collection.

Michael Bacon read Music at Liverpool University, where he studied the organ with Terence Duffy, Organist of the Metropolitan Cathedral. Subsequently taking lessons with Thomas Trotter and Anne Marsden, he was for ten years Director of Music at King Charles the Martyr, where his performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Nativité du Seigneur was a feature of the Christmas celebrations. He is now Principal Organist at King Charles, and has given many recitals at the church and elsewhere, notably two concerts in France on Classical French organs in conjunction with the King Charles Singers, and as accompanist of that choir he has also become accepted to play for Evensongs at Westminster Abbey - a carefully guarded honour! In November 2013 he concluded a journey through the complete Bach organ works, having played all 300+ pieces at concerts or services. As a Sound Engineer for Radio 3, Michael has recently had particular responsibility for organ music, as well as specialising in recording early music performances.

Howells Requiem: 13 November

Sunday 13 November, 6:30pm
Evening Service for Remembrance Sunday
The King Charles Singers

Herbert Howells’ Requiem is a short work, composed in 1932 or 1933. Howells used elements of it for his Hymnus Paradisi, a much larger-scale work which he wrote in response to the death of his son Michael, aged nine, in 1935; but the Requiem itself remained unpublished until 1980, three years before the composer’s own death. The music and the choice of texts express a sense of deep sense of loss as well as hope. The climactic moments occur at ‘lux perpetua’. In the third movement, the words shimmer in chord clusters like light through stained glass. Then, in the fifth movement, the mood of solemnity is broken by a bright declamation, leading to a sense of utter peace in the final movement.

This is a church service and not a concert, but followers of Music at King Charles may be interested in attending. There is no charge for entry.