'Redcliffe Experience' - new organ recording

Aim

Be a part of our next exciting recording in our organ Experience series!

"...he refuses to rush the monumental dynamics of what can too easily become a clutter of bravura dynamics." - Organists' Review of Gloucester Experience

After the success of Gloucester Experience, Jonathan Hope returns to Willowhayne Records to record the 7th CD in our Experience series. Having previously released recordings of the organs of Gloucester, Cape Town, Arundel, Hereford, and St Asaph Cathedrals, (the latter currently in production) Jonathan will be playing the stunning Harrison & Harrison organ of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol.

The programme continues our tradition of combining world premiere recordings with well-known repertoire, Jonathan's programme comprising:

Johannes Brahms, arr. Jonathan Hope: Tragic Overture, Op.81

Neil Cox: Creation Dance

Camille Saint-Saëns, arr. Émile Bernard: Adagio (Symphony No.3, 'Organ')

Sergei Rachmaninov, arr. Louis Vierne: Prelude in C sharp minor, Op.3 No.2

Cecilia McDowall: Sacred and Hallowed Fire 

Alfred Hollins: Concert Rondo

Edward Elgar, arr Jonathan Hope: In the South (Alassio), Op.50

All links above will play audio excerpts from the recording sessions.

Jonathan Hope is quickly gaining a reputation at home and abroad as one of the most dynamic young organists of his generation. Educated at George Abbot School in his hometown of Guildford, he studied initially with Stephen Lacey, John Belcher and David Sanger, and then at the Royal College of Music, London with Margaret Phillips and Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin.

Jonathan became Assistant Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral in March 2014, where he is the principal organist for the cathedral services, director of the Cathedral Youth Choir, accompanist to the Gloucester Choral Society, Musical Director of the Saint Cecilia Singers, and Accompanist to the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival Chorus. Choir tours have recently included visits to Canada and Sweden with the Cathedral Choirs, and Bavaria with the Gloucester Choral Society. In November 2015 Jonathan accompanied the choirs of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester Cathedrals and the Three Choirs Festival Chorus in an anniversary concert at Buckingham Palace, in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales. The 2016 Three Choirs Festival (held at Gloucester) was Jonathan’s first time as Festival Organist - involving performances of Elgar’s The Kingdom, the Enigma Variations and Mahler’s 8th Symphony (Symphony of a Thousand) amongst others. In the same festival, Jonathan conducted the Saint Cecilia Singers in a performance of Howells’ Requiem and the world première of Philip Lancaster’s War Passion.

Increasingly in demand as an organ recitalist, Jonathan’s concert career to date has taken him throughout the UK, as well as France, Germany, Italy, the USA and Australia. He has performed solo recitals at Westminster Cathedral, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Saint-Sulpice, Paris. Jonathan also regularly improvises to silent movies, which have recently included Lon Chaney’s The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the latter in the 2016 Three Choirs Festival), Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last and Cecil B. DeMille’s The King of Kings. Jonathan has arranged many orchestral works for the organ, including Brahms’ Academic Festival and Tragic overtures, Elgar’s In the South, and other orchestral works by Dvořák, Dukas, Glinka, Mascagni, Rossini and Stravinsky.

Through his work in the Three Choirs Festival, he has played with the Philharmonia Orchestra and worked with guest conductors such as Simon Halsey, Martyn Brabbins, Sir Andrew Davis and Edward Gardner. Recently, he has played in performances of Bach’s St. John Passion, Elgar’s The Apostles, Duruflé's Requiem and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms at Gloucester Cathedral, and often plays with the BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales at the Wales Millenium Centre and St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. He often broadcasts live as a performer on both BBC Radio 3 and 4 and BBC Radio Gloucestershire. Jonathan is also Area Chair of the Royal School of Church Music Gloucester Area.

The recording will take place during the evenings of 15th, 16th and 19th February 2019, with a release date of September 2019, followed by a CD launch concert at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, UK in October 2019.

This project successfully funded on 16th April 2019