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Jonathan Scott Organ Recital at the RAH

Live from Â鶹ԼÅÄ Proms: Jonathan Scott takes control of the Royal Albert Hall’s mighty organ playing his own arrangements of works including Saiint-Saëns’s dramatic ‘Organ’ Symphony.

Live from Â鶹ԼÅÄ Proms: Jonathan Scott organ recital.

Presented by Georgia Mann

In the vast space of the Royal Albert Hall, Manchester-born Jonathan Scott sits alone at the 70-foot-tall Henry Willis organ – an instrument Scott describes as ‘one of the greatest concert organs in the entire world’. Here he exploits the full possibilities of the musical beast’s four manuals, 147 stops and 9,999 pipes, to bring to life his own symphonic arrangements of colourful orchestral classics.

Scott’s selection opens with the overture to Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie, its famous snare drum exchanged for bellowing pedals. (Scott’s footwork has been said to put Gene Kelly to shame.)

After the serene, reflective Intermezzo from Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria rusticana comes Dukas’s mischievous trainee wizard, whose attempt to make light work of filling a cauldron with pails of water backfires, resulting in a rising tide of chaos. The concert’s climax is the ‘Organ’ Symphony by Saint-Saëns, commissioned by London’s Philharmonic Society and first performed at St James’s Hall, Piccadilly, a couple of miles from the Royal Albert Hall. With Scott taking on the roles of both solo organist and orchestra, it’s a fitting tribute to the French composer, who was himself was among the first to play the Royal Albert Hall’s mighty organ when it was completed in 1871.

Rossini: Overture to The Thieving Magpie
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana - Intermezzo
Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Saint-Saens: Symphony No.3

2 hours, 29 minutes

Last on

Sat 29 Aug 2020 19:30

Music Played

  • Gioachino Rossini

    The Thieving Magpie - overture

    Performer: Jonathan Scott.
  • Pietro Mascagni

    Cavalleria Rusticana - Intermezzo

    Performer: Jonathan Scott.
  • Paul Dukas

    The Sorcerer's Apprentice

    Performer: Jonathan Scott.
  • Camille Saintâ€Saëns

    Symphony No. 3 in C minor, 'Organ'

    Performer: Jonathan Scott.
  • Edward Elgar

    Enigma Variations 'Nimrod'

    Performer: Jonathan Scott.
  • Anton Bruckner

    Psalm 112

    Choir: Corydon Singers. Orchestra: English Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Matthew Best.
    • Hyperion.
  • Anton Bruckner

    Ave Maria

    Choir: Tenebrae. Conductor: Nigel Short.
    • SIGNUM.
  • Anton Bruckner

    Os Justi

    Choir: Tenebrae. Conductor: Nigel Short.
    • SIGNUM.

CLICK BELOW FOR PROGRAMME NOTES

Broadcast

  • Sat 29 Aug 2020 19:30

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