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NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS AND DONORS
OCTOBER 2009
OPENING CELEBRATIONS CONFIRMED
THE RESTORED AUCKLAND TOWN HALL ORGAN WILL BE INAUGURATED ON 21 MARCH 2010
- the 325th birthday of the great organist and composer, Johann Sebastian Bach.
The celebration begins at 4:30pm with a civic ceremony hosted by his Worship the Mayor of Auckland, John Banks.
Then follows a concert that will demonstrate the organ in its major roles: as a solo instrument, with choir, and with orchestra.
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SOLO ORGAN
Included in the organ solo part of the concert will be the premiere of a major new work commissioned by the Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust from Auckland City Organist, Dr John Wells. The organ’s unique Maori stops
( Pukaea and Koauau) will be highlighted in this work.
ORGAN and CHOIR
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Three of Auckland’s leading choirs will combine for the choral items in the programme. Musica Sacra, The Graduate Choir and Viva Voce will provide a chorus of more than one hundred voices to match the grandeur of the restored organ.
ORGAN and ORCHESTRA
The Auckland Youth Orchestra under Anton Poljanich and Organ Scholar Paul Tarling will perform Symphony No 1,
Op 42 by Alexandre Guilmant. Many of the city’s promising young musicians will be given a personal experience of the King of Instruments.
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AUCKLAND PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA.
The APO is a strong supporter of the town hall organ restoration project. The landmark instrument will be the highlight of its concert on Thursday March 25 when leading British organist, Thomas Trotter joins the APO for Poulenc’s Concerto for Strings, Tympani and Organ, and Saint-Saens Third Symphony – the Organ Symphony. Walton’s Crown Imperial will open the concert which begins at 8pm.
THOMAS TROTTER IN SOLO RECITAL
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On Sunday March 28 at 2.30pm, the Auckland Town Hall Organ Trust will host Thomas Trotter’s solo concert on the restored organ.
Trotter is considered by many critics to be Britain’s leading concert organist.
He is Birmingham City Organist and organist of St Margaret’s Church Westminster, London. He is in demand as an international concert organist. In 2004, following the release of his CD on the new Klais organ in the Birmingham Symphony Hall, the BBC Music Magazine said:
“This is unquestionably one of the finest organ recordings I have ever heard and confirms Thomas Trotter as one of today’s greatest living organists.”
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THIS MONTH’S PICTURES
1. Flashback I: The opening of the Auckland town hall and its grand organ on 14 December 1911. Photo; courtesy of Auckland City Library Archive.
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2. Flashback II: City Organist Dr John Wells at the console of the 1970 organ.
3. Work continues day and night inside the town hall organ. Organ building apprentice Lukas May, near the ceiling on top of the solo organ, hands new pipes down to organ voicer Markus Linden for installation and voicing.
4. Dr Antony Ernst, the APO’s Manager of Artistic Planning, admires the restored organ's handsome oak and irvory console.
5. Thomas Trotter, the celebrity organist who will make his first New Zealand visit for the inauguration of the restored Auckland town hall organ.
6. Markus Linden listens to the sounds he is giving the pipes of the town hall organ.
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