Organ Music @ The Meeting House February 2026

Wednesday 25 February @ 12 noon
Organ Music @ The Meeting House 

Bach
Rheinberger
Prokofiev 

The Six Schübler Chorale Preludes, BWV645-530
Sonata No.19 in G minor, Op.193
The Love of Three Oranges, Op.33:  3. March
Four Pieces, Op.4: 4. Suggestion diabolique
Romeo & Juillet, Op.64: 13. March of the Knights & Capulets 
Toccata, Op.11 

The Schübler Chorale Preludes – known as such because it was Bach’s friend, Johann Georg Schübler, who published them having asked Bach to make a collection of arrangements of favourite arias from his cantatas - have great charm and offer moments of reviving personal relfection. The first, Watchet auf! (‘Sleepers Wake’) is one of the composer’s most widely known preludes.

Once described as the most important organ music since Mendelssohn’s sonatas, and during the first half of the 20th century probably the backbone of any serious English organist’s concert repertoire, Rheinberger’s 20 organ sonatas have fallen from favour and are largely overlooked, if not completely unknown to young organists. Such a pity when so much of their music is really rather splendid displaying both the composer’s great knowledge of those he admired – among them Schubert, Schumann and Brahms. His Sonata No. 19 was written on 3 days in April 1899 and is the largest-scale and perhaps most demanding of all his sonatas.  The second movement features a popular song by Guillaume de Machaut. 

And then there’s Prokofiev… one of the great composers of the 20th century. Russian to the core – his music sizzles with vibrancy and explosive passion. We visit the opera with the most popular movement of his Love of Three Oranges opera, we witness the strutting energy of the Dance of the Knights from his ballet Romeo and Juillet  (the ballet – one of my great passions) – and also hear two of his somewhat demonic piano pieces – Suggestion diabolique and the famous Toccata which both take me back to my early days as a very serious pianist; it was (and is) so thrilling to unleash one’s energies on such dramatic pieces ! 
 

Hear the music :     
Rheinberger Sonata No.19 performed on the splendid Binns organ in Rochdale Town Hall : https://youtu.be/jivRy1bOEII

Admission is free: there is a retiring collection. These concerts are now fully self-funded: they rely on your generous support to continue.

The series of Organ Music @ The Meeting House continues:  March 25  :  April 29  :  May 27