St Michael & All Angels church in Bedford Park will be marking its
125th anniversary later this month with a very special gift – a new
chamber organ. The organ was specially commissioned for the unique series
of Bach Cantata concerts, which take place in the church eight times
a year.
The organ will be blessed at a service on Sunday April 17th, at 10am,
commemorating the church’s consecration 125 years ago. The celebrant
will be the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross - the Rt Revd Paul Colton
- and the choir will sing a Solemn Mass, composed by Vierne for two
organs.
That evening, at 7.30pm, the first Bach Cantata concert of the year
will take place, with the West London Bach Consort and Players, conducted
by BBC Radio 3's Sandy Burnett.
The organ was given to St Michael and All Angels in memory of Adrian
Doran, a dedicated singer and viol player of early music, who with his
wife Ruth began the ambitious project to perform the entire series of
200 Bach sacred cantatas at St Michaels.
Though the cycle began six years ago and is halfway to completion, it
has lacked the perfect continuo instrument. With the expert help of
organ builder Neil Richerby, this has now been put right, and the organ
will feature in the remaining cantatas. It will also serve as a permanent
memorial to Adrian’s name and great love of music. The carving on the
case includes an angel for St Michael’s and a viol player for Adrian.
The organ will also give St Michael’s a much-needed instrument to support
the choir when singing away from the church’s main organ.
Says conductor Sandy Burnett: “It is wonderful that those close to Adrian
Doran have been able to give St Michael’s this magnificent instrument,
which will be such an addition to the project which was so dear to his
heart”.
Says Father Kevin Morris, vicar of St Michael’s: “This is an inspired
way to mark this memorable series of performances of all of JS Bach’s
great sacred cantatas, which so many people have come to enjoy on a
Sunday evening. Happily there are many more to come, over several years.
All of us at St Michael’s are thrilled.”
The project has clocked up precisely 100 cantatas so far. For a second
year, the performances will be raising money through a retiring collection
for the Upper Room’s UR4Kids project for disadvantaged children in Shepherd's
Bush.
The cantata to be performed on April 17th is a doubly appropriate one.
BWV 146, Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes
eingehen, is a cantata that Bach composed for this very date in the
Church calendar, the third Sunday after Easter. It is also a work which
fittingly places the organ in the spotlight, with elaborate solo writing
in the first two movements.
The Bach cantata cycle at St Michael’s will continue with performances
at 7.30pm on the following Sunday evenings: 8th May, 12th June, 10th
July, 11th September, 9th October, 6th November, and 11th December.
December 11th , 2006