Organist Mark Williams 'Inside Music' 1-3pm, Sat 2 Feb

[Keraulophone]

Informator Choristarum at Magdalen College, Oxford since Jan 2017, Mark Williams 'brings his own special insights to a wide range of music'. 'A series in which each week a musician reveals a selection of music from the inside'.

So far, Mark has chosen a Brahms song, a Gibbons In Nomine, a couple of Bach Inventions played by Glenn Gould, the finale of S-S 3rd Symphony, the last movement of Szymanowski's Stabat Mater and 'Yet can I hear that dulcet lay' of Handel sung by his friend at Cambridge Iestyn Davies.

Interesting to hear an organist's choice for a change.

[oddoneout]

I came in at the end of the SS, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the programme. His presenting manner and voice were relaxed and clear, the explanations of the music and particular features straightforward, and there was no gushing or hyperbole, even where it was evident that the music meant a great deal to him personally. There was a lovely tribute to John Scott, and I thought doing a 'handover' to the next presenter in the series(a cellist) by playing a recording of his at the end of the programme was a graceful touch. All in all not only satisfying but also what I had been expecting, but largely missing, of this series.
Mention of the compositional exchange between William Byrd and Phillipe de Monte set me wondering what texts could be set and exchanged in a modern-day post-referendum version.....

[Richard Tarleton]

Agreed, an excellent programme.

[Nick Armstrong]

Agreed, an excellent programme.

Heard most of it and will undoubtedly listen again - high quality programme.