Leonard Sanderman (UK) performs English organ repertoire and an original work at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem's Old City

 

© 2022 Leonard Sanderman 

It is rare to hear English organ music of the late 19th century-early 20th century on these shores. In his recital on July 23rd 2023 in the Jerusalem Lutheran Church of the Redeemer's annual July International Organ Festival, Leonard Sanderman (UK) presented works of this very repertoire together with a work of his own. The Right Rev. Joachim Lenz of the Redeemer Church welcomed the audience, commenting on the fact that the evening's program would be well suited to the church's Karl Schuke organ.

 

Prof. Sanderman spoke of English organ music as having gone through periods of popularity and times when it was less so. He spoke of the late 19th century as having produced a surge of organ music in Britain - not necessarily church music, but several ceremonial works and those written for entertainment. Opening the program with "Marche Héroïque" (1915) by Gloucester Cathedral organist Sir Alfred Herbert Brewer (1865-1928), Sanderman gave bold expression to the composer's most highly-favoured organ piece (possibly written as wartime propaganda!), its forthright opening section giving way to attractive cantabile moments, as the artist highlighted the work's antiphonal effects and Brewer's rich use of harmony. Although Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848-1918) had a lifelong love of the organ, an instrument he had played from childhood, his most significant solo organ works for the instrument were written in the last few years of his life. Parry's most substantial organ work, the Toccata and Fugue "The Wanderer" (1912), of which we heard the Toccata at the Jerusalem concert, was named by Parry after his yacht. Sanderman's playing of the piece gave prominence to the work's  rich "orchestration" and sudden changes of mood and texture, indeed, to music suggesting the unsettled nature of wandering. It was also a reminder of the beauty, power and emotional content this forgotten English Romantic composer had incorporated into his fine compositional style. And to the opening Allegro Maestoso movement of Organ Sonata in G (1895) of Sir Edward William Elgar (1857-1934), a work that has been referred to as one of the most outstanding works of English Romantic organ repertoire. Sanderman met the high challenges of the piece, his performance not only portraying its vivid canvas and the scale and dexterity of the pipe organ, but also offering touching moments in his playing of its finely-shaped high-register personal melodic utterances. A felicitous opportunity to hear a movement of this far too-little-known masterpiece.

 

Moving into the 21st century for a short hiatus, the program included a composition of the artist himself - "An Harrogate Fanfare" for organ solo (2014) - commissioned and published by De Orgelvriend, a Dutch journal. Brimming with radiant organ timbres, this hearty, tonal piece spoke of joy and positive energy.

 

Of the program's works of a decidedly light-hearted nature, we heard A.H.Brewer's appealing and delicate (at times mysterious) arrangement of the Prelude to Act 3 of Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan's incidental music to Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Composed when Sullivan was 20, his Op.1 a set of movements for the play, its success quickly brought him to the attention of the musical establishment in England. The name Berthold Tours (1838-1897) does not ring British. The Netherlands-born violinist/organist and music editor, however, moved to London in 1861. Sanderman bedecked the various sections of Tours' charming, up-beat "Allegretto Grazioso" with a variety of delectable timbral hues. Originally written for piano and violin, Elgar's "Chanson de Matin" was arranged for organ by Herbert Brewer. Sanderman's uncluttered reading of it was sensitive, beautifully contrasted and poetic. For an encore, the artist played a delightful improvisation in appreciation of the young woman who was his page-turner at the recital!

 

Initially taught the organ by his father, Leonard Sanderman (Holland, 1991) performs internationally. He is a prize-winning, commissioned composer and a published author on church music and the organ. His PhD focuses on issues in the historiography and canonisation of liturgical music in high church parishes between 1827 and 1914. A senior lecturer in Organ and Historical Musicology at Leeds Conservatoire, he also teaches Harmony and Counterpoint at the University of York. This was Prof. Sanderman's second visit to perform at the Jerusalem Redeemer Church.

 

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