Music at St John’s

St John the Evangelist, Hollington, Saturday 10 November 2108

Andrew McGregor from St John the Baptist, Sedlescombe, was the guest organist last Saturday bringing a programme fitted to the remembrance weekend.

He opened with a bright reading of Bach’s Fantasia in G followed by a tribute to Hubert Parry. Three short pieces written in memory of the composer were sandwiched between the more triumphalist Hymn Preludes on Dundee and St Anne.

A set of French pieces opened with Faure’s familiar Pavane in an arrangement for organ, followed by two short works by Jeanne Demessieux based on Gregorian Chant. The French section ended with an arrangement of Charpentier’s Prelude to a Te Deum, with the rhythms sounding more Handelian than French.

The final three works were all equally familiar but none the less welcome. Mendelssohn’s War March of the Priests lifted the spirits, only to be calmed again with Bach’s Choral Prelude on Liebster Jesu, before Walton’s popular Crown Imperial.

The concert was one of a series of events to mark the 150th anniversary at St John’s – the next of which will be given by the Treble Clefs on Thursday 6 December.