Robert Woolley - Impulse

Latest CD release - click here for information and sound files
	Sweelinck, Works for Keyboard, Volume 2 Chandos Records, CHAN 0758 Follow the link above to hear extracts from Robert Woolley's latest recording of Sweelinck, CHAN 0758
RECENT REVIEWS
A rich, rewarding brew of imaginative harpsichord music, expertly played.....without forcing the pace, he shows brilliant fingerwork in Esce Mars or a piece like the Toccata C2, and achieves clarity and composure in the more melodically driven works. These are pleasingly natural performances. There is not much competition in the world of Sweelinck recordings, but this stands out as an excellent harpsichord release in its own right. The Gramophone, June 2009 Click here for full review
Those who didn't splash out on Radio Netherlands' nine-disc set of Sweelinck's complete keyboard music in 2002 will be watching the development of Robert Woolley's Sweelinck series with interest. The gem of this volume is the "Paduana Lachrymae", its sharp sighs gently yet deliberately laid bare on Adlam Burnett's copy of a 1611 Ruckers muselar virginal. On this and in the grandest Toccatas and the smiling variations of "Die flichtig Nimphae", Woolley's playing is unfailingly illuminating. Reviewed by Anna Picard, The Independent, Sunday 24 May 2009

Click here for a link to a larger image
In 1604 the city organist of Amsterdam, Jan Pietersz. Sweelinck, travelled to Antwerp to order a new clavichord for the town hall from the famous Ruckers family.
Shortly after its arrival, the city council asked Pieter Isaacsz to decorate the instrument. A design for the decoration was commissioned from the author and artist Karel van Mander. At the left of this 'Allegory of Amsterdam as the Centre of World Trade' is the personification of Amsterdam and beside her, Neptune. Two female figures offer her a ship and a string of pearls, symbolising navigation and wealth. She is holding her left hand over a celestial globe. A globe is a sphere representing the earth or one of the planets. A scale model globe would often be mounted on a stand to be placed on a table and turned on its axis., which two sailors at the right are consulting with nautical instruments.

FORTHCOMING AND RECENT CONCERTS
Tuesday 23 February 2010 The Temple Church, Inner and Middle Temple Fleet Street, London EC4Y 7BB
*'The Orpheus of Amsterdam':* Fantasia Cromatica and secular variations by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (on Chandos CD: CHAN 0758) G.F.Handel: Overture from Ottone, two fugues J.S. Bach: Concerto in the Italian Style Scarlatti: Sonatas
Drinks 18:30, Concert: 19:30 The proceeds of this concert will be donated to the Konig Willem Fonds Charity
Booking information is on http://www.koningwillemfonds.org.uk/pupwdw/concert23.html
St. John's, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA Sunday 6 December at 7.30pm - Booking opens 2 November -
THE PURCELL QUARTET & FRETWORK
Membra Jesu Nostri
Emma Kirkby soprano Elin Manahan Thomas soprano Michael Chance countertenor Charles Daniels tenor Peter Harvey bass Weckmann Wenn der Herr die Gefagenen zu Zion; Kommet her zu mir alle Buxtehude Sonata in C; Laudate Pueri; Membra Jesu Nostri	Elin Manahan Thomas soprano
Box Office
£30.00 / £25.00 / £20.00 / £15.00 The Box Office is open for advance booking from 10am-5pm Monday to Friday or until 6pm on concert days. After 6pm the Box Office is open for personal callers for that evening’s concert only. For concerts on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays the box office opens one hour prior to the performance for personal callers for that concert only. Tickets may be booked... In person at the Box Office. By Post enclosing an SAE with applications. Please make cheques payable to 'St. John's, Smith Square'. By Fax +44 (0) 20 7233 1618. Tickets will be held at Box Office for collection. By Secure Online Booking at https://www.sjss.org.uk. Bookings can be made online up until two hours prior to a performance. We regret that subscription discounts are not available when booking online. By telephone +44 (0) 20 7222 1061 during opening hours. Payment for reservations is required within three days. By credit card over the phone or in person. We accept Mastercard, Visa and Maestro.
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Purcell Quartet and Friends - Monday 14th September 2009
Wigmore Hall, London - Henry Purcell Birthday Celebration
SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER 2009 - BRITISH INSTITUTE OF ORGAN STUDIES

THE GEORGIAN PARISH CHURCH ORGAN AND ITS MUSIC 1766 THOMAS PARKER ORGAN AT LEATHERHEAD PARISH CHURCH
Programme - 11.00 Registration & Coffee 11.30 Introduction to the organ and its restoration Linda Heath, Sally Drage and Dominic Gwynn 13.00 Lunch (please specify dietary requirements below) 14.00 The world of the Georgian parish church organist Dominic Gwynn 14.30 The contribution of the organ to congregational singing and parish life in Georgian England Sally Drage (co-editor Musica Britannica vol.85 Eighteenth Century Psalmody) 15.30 Tea 16.00 Organ concert by Robert Woolley 17.00 Close

St Mary & St Nicholas, Leatherhead, Surrey has an 18th Century organ by Thomas Parker (1766) recovered from the remains of the fire damaged 1873 Walker pipe organ (II/14) and restored by Goetze & Gwynn Ltd (2007). The stoplist is based on the surviving Great windchest, and the entry in the Walker shopbooks, when they moved the organ to Leatherhead in 1843.
	Original pipework which has survived has been incorporated. The Trumpet is new, based on the surviving Parker Trumpet in the organ at St Mary's, Barnsley and Church, Spitalfields. The case is new, using the dimensions in the Walker shopbooks, and the sketch in the Sperling Notebooks, with reference to surviving contemporary cases.
Booking form and map etc, is on - http://www.duresme.org.uk/BIOS/Leatherhead.pdf
Further details can be found on - www.goetzegwynn.co.uk/restored/leatherhead.shtml and www.parishchurch.leatherheadweb.org.uk/parkerorgan
	1pm Concert Talk** The Witcombe Cabinet, Matthew Winterbottom, Curator, Holburne Museum of Art** Promenade Concert at the Wallace Collection: Friday 20 March, 2pm to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the birth of Henry Purcell and the restoration of the Witcombe Cabinet c.1695
Music by Henry Purcell and John Blow played by Robert Woolley on a copy by Andrew Garlick of the harpsichord by Antoine Vaudry, 1681 in the Victoria & Albert Museum.
*Free admission*
The Wallace Collection Hertford House Manchester Square London W1U 3BN T 020 7563 9500	www.wallacecollection.org
The Witcombe Cabinet, C.1695, a rare and magnificent English ivory-ground japanned cabinet from c.1700, was recently conserved in the furniture conservation workshop on behalf of one of our regional-partner museums, the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath.
The Cabinet is one of the largest and finest of only a dozen pieces of such furniture to have survived. It is beautifully decorated with flowers, landscapes, figures, birds and insects.
The cabinet came from Witcombe Park, South Gloucestershire and was probably acquired by Sir Michael Hicks (b. 1645) who rebuilt Witcombe Park in the 1690s. The cabinet appears to have remained in the house for over 300 years which probably accounts for its remarkably good condition.
The Witcombe cabinet is a rare example of japanned furniture with an extraordinary silvered stand and crest. All of the visible surfaces of the cabinet are finely decorated with the highest quality “japanning”. Japanning is a form of painting and varnishing that was intended to imitate oriental lacquer; however, the decoration of this cabinet most closely resembles that found on Chinese porcelain.
The Wallace Collection, as a member of the Museum Network, has conserved this cabinet for the Holburne Museum as its regional partner. Conservation and technical analysis have revealed that the main ingredients used to decorate the cabinet, which has an oak carcass, were shellac and lead-white oil paint. The Conservator has made a specially prepared panel based on technical analysis of the cabinet showing the complex build-up of materials used to produce the decoration.
After conservation the Witcombe cabinet formed the centrepiece of the *Chinese Whispers* exhibition at the Brighton Royal Pavilion, but has now returned to the Wallace Collection to feature in a special six month Conservation gallery display.
	Stop Press English Heritage Logo BLUE PLAQUES: JOHN BLOW
Portrait of Blow by John Riley reproduced by kind permission of Helga Blow Perera
"I have been working with English Heritage towards the installation of a Blue Plaque to John Blow at Beveree, his house in Hampton: English Heritage has now shortlisted this for full historical research, including a detailed investigation into Blow's surviving London addresses and their suitability for commemoration. A report will be submitted to English Heritage as soon as possible after this investigation is complete, and will be posted here. Please watch this space !"
Concerts this season include: St John's Smith Square, London; The University Church, Oxford, West Horsley; Robinson College, Cambridge; Internationale Orgelwoche, Waldshut; Kingston upon Thames Parish Church; Ergue Gaberic, Gumiliau, Brittany; Flanders Festival; Dartmouth Festival; Cobbe Collection, Hatchlands Park; Dunblane Cathedral;
Repertoire includes: Louis Couperin - Newly discovered and transcribed organ works Sweelinck - Fantasias, Variations, Toccatas for harpsichord and organ JS Bach - Piece d'Orgue (early version after JJ Walther)
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CDs
ROBERT WOOLLEY WRITES ABOUT HIS FIRST SWEELINCK RECORDING
The recording of Sweelinck I made last summer has been released by Chandos Records. This offers the unique recreation of Sweelinck's soundworld and was made on the magnificent large 17^th century organ built by van Hagerbeer in the Pieterskerk, Leiden, which has recently undergone an enormously complex restoration by Verschueren Orgelbouw back to its original 17^th century form. It is currently the largest organ in the world tuned in meantone temperament, and has some of the earliest speaking pipes in existence, dating from a previous instrument in the Pieterskerk built in 1446.
Click here for more information on this CD
Click on the icons below to hear extracts from Robert Woolley's Chandos Recording of Sweelinck Toccata Psalm 140 Buy this CD or order direct from Chandos 0701
Click here for track information and sound samples
"(Robert Woolley) rises magnificently to all the technical challenges posed by this attractive and well planned programme" Elizabeth Roche - Daily Telegraph - Click here for full review

BACH PARTITAS
Click on the icons below to hear extracts from Robert Woolley's Chandos Recording of Bach Partita No.4 CHAN 0618 Overture Courante Gigue
Buy this CD
Click here for track information
Click here to view a complete list of CDs.


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St. John's, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA Sunday 6 December at 7.30pm - Booking opens 2 November -

THE PURCELL QUARTET & FRETWORK

Emma Kirkby soprano Elin Manahan Thomas soprano Michael Chance countertenor Charles Daniels tenor Peter Harvey bass

Tickets may be booked...

St. John's, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA
Sunday 6 December at 7.30pm - Booking opens 2 November -

Emma Kirkby soprano
Elin Manahan Thomas soprano
Michael Chance countertenor
Charles Daniels tenor
Peter Harvey bass