Healey Willan News
Anglo-Canadian composer and organist
- pipe organ
- opera
- United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Canada
- conductor, composer, music teacher, choir director, organist
Last update
2024-03-24
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2023-12-03 09:15:00
Norwich-based music writer, Tony Cooper, offers an account of Organ Re-born! a mini-concert series mounted in celebration of the return and rebirth of Norwich Cathedral’s organ.
[…] the inaugural recital comprising an eclectic and entertaining programme that opened with JS Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor and Guilmant’s Marche Funèbre et Chant Séraphique, a piece boldly showing off the instrument’s dynamics ranging from the softest and most delicate of sounds to such thrilling, majestic and expressive sounds ending the composition on a high. Trotter also tucked in a rather nice lively piece he commissioned from Jonathan Dove (The Dancing Pipes/1959) while Willan’s Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue and Karg-Elert’s Valse Mignonne added so much to the overall pleasure of the programme which ended with a majestic reading of Mendelssohn’s Overture to St Paul. And for an encore Trotter blazed away at the console ripping through the exciting score of Charles-Marie Widor’s ‘Toccata’ from Organ Symphony, No.5, in F major with no holds barred! A challenging and exciting piece, it ‘blew’ the place apart in an organ recital […]
2023-09-21 03:30:00
Recent Releases No. 58 (CD Reviews)
by Karl NehringWhat Music Tells Me. Beethoven: Egmont Overture; Wagner (1813-1883); Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral (from Lohengrin); Messiaen: Apparition de L’eglise Éternelle (Apparition of the Eternal Church); Healey Willan (1880-1968): How They So Softly Rest; William C. White (b.1983): Flood of Waters (Noah and the Flood); Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn (“St. Anthony Variations”); Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” – Urlicht, Finale (Andante). Chicago Brass and Organ Ensemble; Stephen Squires, conductor. MSR Classics MS 1750 This is one of those releases that on first glance, I simply did not quite know what to expect. Having grown up in northwest Indiana I was familiar with the gargoyles that look down upon downtown Chicago pedestrians, so the name of the ensemble struck me as perfectly appropriate, but the musical program, although intriguing, left me hesitant as to how it would come across when played by organ and brass. Well, only one way to find out, so I stuck the disc […]
2023-07-23 08:07:00
No one thought there was a market for the Beatles
[…] is simply terrible - it couldn't be worse. I know that it knocked some of them - the countertenor James Bowman for instance - absolutely for six. He couldn't sing for quite a long time afterwards; he was absolutely devastated by it, and i am not surprised. BS: And the news of his death came totally out of the blue. CB: Completely, one day I had a phone call from John Willan who had taken over producing his recordings towards the end of his time, and John said: "You will never guess what has happened, the little blighter has killed himself" and I knew exactly who he meant. I said "you mean David" and he said "yes". It was really absolutely frightful. BS: He was just thirty-three when he died. If that tragedy hadn't happened what do you think he would have gone on to […]
2022-10-07 04:00:00
Grace Williams: Sea Sketches & Orchestral Works (Charles Groves, David Atherton & Roy Goodman)
Grace Williams (1906 - 1977):01 Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes * (1940) [11'03]02 - 05 Carillons for Oboe & Orchestra * (1965 rev. 1975) [10'31]06 - 09 Penillion ~ (1955) [15'49]10 - 12 Trumpet Concerto * (1963) [13'27]13 - 17 Sea Sketches (1944) ^ [18'55]Anthony Camden- oboe, Howard Snell- trumpet; London Symphony Orchestra * and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ~ conducted by Charles Groves; English Chamber Orchestra ^ conducted by David AthertonLyrita SRCD323 [recorded May 1971~ and November 1973* for EMI; January 1970^ for Decca; this compilation issued 1995][CD-rip; flacs, booklet, cover and inlay scans]Recording venues: Abbey Road Studios, London, Afan Lido, Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales and Kingsway Hall, LondonRecording engineers: Robert Gooch, Stuart Eltham and James Lock; Producers: John Willan, Brian Culverhouse and James MallinsonFor anybody who caught the British music concert conducted by Andrew Manze at this year's Proms, here is one of the very few recordings of the Welsh […]
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