Encore: The Organ Curator's Annual Concert

The annual celebration of Christchurch's iconic Rieger pipe organ in concert played by international concert organist and Christchurch Town hall organist Martin Setchell.

The usual varied and entertaining programme, appropriately beginning with his arrangement of the March from the Ode for the King’s Birthday 1769, written for King George III by William Boyce. This is from a new volume of Boyce’s music, featuring his transcriptions of his delightful symphonies and overtures, soon to be published by Butz Publishers in Bonn, Germany.

The programme will also include Bach’s great Toccata, Adagio and Fugue BWV 564, Léon Boëllmann’s puckish Ronde francaise, Josef Rheinberger’s Cantilena (often heard on Radio NZ Concert with cellist Julian Lloyd-Webber), a new Toccata giocosa by Hans-André Stamm and Paul Spicer’s Kiwi Fireworks, a set of witty variations on God defend New Zealand, appropriate for a NZ national holiday! (This was written for Christopher Herrick, who played it when he opened the Christchurch Town Hall Rieger pipe organ in 1997. Its registrations can now be enhanced by the new stops added in 2019 so it’s well worth repeating.)