Lfbm 2026: Passacaglia
Sinfonia Smith SquareSmith Square, Westminster
Thu 29 Oct · 13:05
About this event
At the programme’s centre stand two monumental passacaglias: Bach’s famous Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor and the powerful Passacaille by Swiss composer Frank Martin (no relation to our soloist!) Written nearly two centuries later, Martin’s work refracts Bach’s great work through a twentieth-century harmonic language. The programme also highlights links within the French organ tradition. While Nicolas de Grigny ’s colourful setting of the hymn Verbum supernum influenced his German contemporary J.S.Bach , Gaston Litaize ’s lively Reges Tharsis, also based on plainchant but written in 1984, was clearly inspired by de Grigny. Two lighter English works, Peter Hurford’s Two Dialogues and a Bach-inspired chorale prelude by the recitalist, offer moments of contrast before the programme concludes with Bach’s extraordinary Contrapunctus XI from The Art of Fugue.
