Listen & tracks

1 of 23 tracks have a preview · 10 works · 73:53

1 The Magic Flute Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Overture 7:08
2 Concerto for Two Violins in D minor Johann Sebastian Bach 1st movement 4:13
3 Suite bergamasque Claude Debussy Clair de lune 4:41
Organ Sonata in D minorWilliam Thomas Best 3 movements16:02
1. 4 Adagio, Allegro and Maestoso 7:05
2. 5 Romanza 3:46
3. 6 Finale 5:11
7 Symphony No. 9 in E minor (From the New World) Antonín Dvořák Largo 9:31
Organ Concerto No. 2 in B-flat majorGeorge Frideric Handel 3 movements13:36
1. 8 Andante maestoso and Allegro 8:40
2. 9 Adagio 1:05
3. 10 Allegro, ma non presto 3:51
11 Autumn Song William Faulkes 3:50
12 London Symphony in D, No. 104 Franz Joseph Haydn 1st movement 8:50
13 The Flight of the Bumblebee Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1:29
14 Concertstück Edwin Henry Lemare Tarantella 4:33

Masterpieces performed on one of Australia’s most famous romantic organs — St John’s Church, Toorak, Melbourne.

In 1997 Thomas Heywood founded a series of annual Grand Organ Concerts at St John’s, presenting programmes drawn exclusively from the concert organ repertoire. The works on this recording come from that first season.

The Music

The St John’s organ is a versatile instrument, and the music here is chosen to show its full range. Romantic organ works sit beside virtuosic transcriptions of music first written for other forces, among them the Overture to The Magic Flute, Debussy’s Clair de lune, the Largo from Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Flight of the Bumble Bee, and Lemare’s Concertstück.

The Organ

The Hill organ on the cover was built by William Hill & Son in 1913. A 1961 rebuild altered it heavily against the original design. In 1994 Peter D.G. Jewkes Pty Ltd of Sydney began a restoration to Dr Hill’s 1913 concept. Over fourteen months a new console was built, pipework and internal layout were returned to their original configuration, the case was restored, and the façade pipes were stencilled and gilted by Marc Nobel.

The restored instrument suits Romantic repertoire and ranks among the finest organs in the country. In Melbourne’s largest Edwardian church it remains a splendid vehicle for recitals and a resource for the parish and the wider community.

Reviews

Good marks for original programming. The organ's sound is good ... the notes are excellent

— The Delian, USA

unashamedly Romantic…a particularly satisfying experience

— Organists’ Review, UK

Heywood’s playing is versatile and vigorous … powerful yet subtle, sonorous yet never overwhelming.

— The Melburnian

Artists

Thomas Heywood

organ

Thomas Heywood is one of Australia’s most sought-after concert organists, with an enviable reputation as a leading interpreter of the large-scale romantic and transcription repertoire on grand historic instruments.

Johann Sebastian Bach

composer

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer and organist of the late Baroque. His sacred and secular music for choir, orchestra, organ and solo instruments remains among the foundations of the Western concert and church repertory.

William Thomas Best

composer

William Thomas Best's organ scores favour the grand recital manner: a Sonata in D minor, Concert Fantasia on a Welsh March, variations on national airs, wedding marches and transcriptions that turn the console into a one-player orchestra.

Claude Debussy

composer

Claude Debussy (1862–1918) was a French composer whose harmony, colour and flexible sense of key reshaped European music at the turn of the twentieth century. Piano, orchestral and chamber works from his maturity remain central to the repertoire.

Antonín Dvořák

composer

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) was a Czech composer whose music fused the folk rhythms and melodies of Bohemia and Moravia with the Romantic symphonic tradition, earning lasting international renown.

George Frideric Handel

composer

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) was a German-born Baroque composer who settled in London and became a naturalised British subject. He is celebrated for his operas, English oratorios, organ concertos and orchestral works.

Franz Joseph Haydn

composer

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period, central to the making of the symphony, the string quartet and the piano trio. A vast body of chamber, orchestral and sacred music from his long career shaped the language of his age.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

composer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He wrote over 600 works, many of them pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music, and remains among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

composer

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote orchestral music steeped in Russian folk colour and fairy-tale narrative, with a gift for bright, precise orchestration. Short showpieces such as The Flight of the Bumble Bee and Song of India travel easily into arrangements for almost any instrument.

Alexandre Cellier

composer

William Faulkes

composer

William Faulkes (1863–1933) was an English organist and composer, best known for more than five hundred published organ works for church, wedding and concert use.

Edwin Henry Lemare

composer

Edwin Lemare wrote and transcribed for the late-Romantic concert organ: display pieces and orchestral arrangements built to show the colour, weight and theatre of the great town-hall instruments. His Toccata di Concerto and Concertstück still light up grand-organ programmes.