Robert Woolley - Impulse

FORTHCOMING AND RECENT CONCERTS
	Recital of music by Sweelinck Saturday, 11 August 2012 at 16:30 Performed on the 1624 Scherer organ at St Stephan's Church, Tangermunde, not far from Berlin. Sankt Stephan Tangermünde \| 39590 Tangermünde \| Pfarrhof 6, Specification on http:// www.schererorgel.de/
	I am looking forward very much to giving a recital next month on the new Goetze and Gwynn organ at All Saints church, Odiham Hampshire. It is based on early 18th century English organs, mainly the Bernard Smith organs at St Mary Finedon in Northamptonshire and Great St Mary's in Cambridge, and the Gerard Smith organ at St Lawrence Whitchurch in Middlesex. The case design is derived partly from the 1662 organ case formerly in Lincoln Cathedral (thanks to Robert Pacey who first gave us copies of the drawings of this case). The programme will include works by John Blow, Purcell, Roseingrave, Handel and Nares. The recital, part of the day organised by the British Institute of Organ Studies, is on Saturday 21 July at 11am. Admission is free (for recital only).
All Saints Church, 2 Church St, Odiham, Hook, Hampshire RG29 1LU
Specification on http://www.goetzegwynn.co.uk/newchurch/odiham.shtml

London Handel Festival Recital
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Wednesday, 28 March 2012 at 7.00pm. St George's Hanover Square, George Street, London, W1S 1FX
Talk by Dominic Gwynn on the chamber organ in Georgian musical life. Organ Recital by Robert Woolley
The organ is based on the chamber organs of Richard Bridge and Thomas Parker, who built the organ which belonged to Charles Jennens, the librettist of Messiah, which still exists close to its original condition.
The programme will include works by: Handel Thomas Roseingrave (organist of St George's 1725-1737) William Walond Maurice Greene John James Starling Goodwin and James Nares
Tickets: £12 unreserved seating; students free - buy on the door and please give details of your student card. Subscription discount if booked for your use before 14 March - 3 or more concerts - see option below. You can also buy on the door from 6.15pm on the day if you haven't booked in advance. Doors open at 6.15pm.
Choosing your ticket: Please locate your login details or register if you are a new customer. Choose your seat when you arrive. General note: Some seats that appear to be reserved have been blocked off for postal and telephone bookings but until we have done the final processing they will not appear as sold on the plan. For detailed booking information please go to the Booking Information page. If you book 4 days before this performance tickets will probably not be sent out. Please bring your email confirmation on the day, for all performances, in case there has not been time to print out your tickets.
Booking starts on Wednesday 25th of January 2012 at 10:00 AM
JS Bach: The Well Tempered Clavier Book 1 Robert Woolley, clavichord
Played on a clavichord by Karin Richter copied from an anonymous unfretted clavichord c.1730 from the Dresden region.
MUSICAL POINTERS REVIEW
J S Bach Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 Robert Woolley, clavichord October 29 2011, Quaker Meeting House, Oxford
The clavichord is a demanding instrument: to produce a good sound, one must think carefully about each note, and play it with just the right amount of pressure. So playing 24 preludes and fugues in one afternoon is a major task requiring the utmost concentration. It was triumphantly accomplished by Robert Woolley on October 29 in the Quaker Meeting House. Hearing Book 1 as a whole was a revelation. The preludes are all so different, and so beautiful; and the fugues help to bind the preludes together into a single structure of alternating formal and informal pieces. Though, Bach being Bach, the formal-informal alternation is not quite regular; for example, Prelude 7 is in fact a toccata and fugue - and a substantial 4-part fugue at that - while Fugue 7 is light and scherzo-like. The different characters of the pieces were well brought out in this performance. Each musical line was clear, intelligible, and beautifully shaped, even in the complex four- and five-part fugues, and the structure of each piece was made clear by subtle pauses for breath at key points - yet the feeling of forward movement was never lost, even in the more thoughtful cantabile pieces. I particularly enjoyed the last few bars of each item; there are so many ways of approaching the end: various degrees of slowing down, perhaps followed by a crisp cadence, or going full speed to the end, to name but a few. Woolley used a great variety of approaches, always beautifully managed, making me smile every time. The Karin Richter clavichord 2009 (copied from an anonymous unfretted clavichord c.1730 from the Dresden region) sounded clear and beautiful in the wood-panelled Meeting Room, and it was an ideal medium for this music. A harpsichord can sound ravishingly beautiful, but it’s arguable that the Well-Tempered Clavier is better served by a less strongly flavoured sound. I was reminded of the old saying “with the harpsichord you listen to the instrument; with the clavichord you hear the music”. David Griffel
British Clavichord Society Event

Anonymous clavichord from the Dresden area c.1730, Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Keyboard Instruments.
SUNDAY 10 JULY 2011 - ST GEORGE'S SOUTHALL
Robert Woolley ~ Organ ~ St George's, Southall Organ by Abraham Jordan 1723, restored by Mander Organs 2009
*‘The Georgian Organ’* *Music by Handel, Maurice Greene, William Boyce, Thomas Roseingrave, John James, William Walond, Starling Goodwin.*
Sunday 10 July at 12.45pm
Admission free – retiring collection Light lunch included and available from 12.15pm St George's Church, Lancaster Road, Southall, Middx. UB1 1NP
Click here for more information
SUNDAY 5 JUNE 2011 - CHRIST'S CHAPEL, DULWICH
Robert Woolley ~ Organ ~ Christ's Chapel, Dulwich Organ by G.P.England 1760, restored by William Drake
	The Georgian Organ Handel: Fugues, Jesu, Meine Freude, a Voluntary on a Flight of Angels, & Voluntaries by James Nares, Thomas Roseingrave & William Walond
Sunday 5 June at 7.45pm
Admission free – retiring collection Christ's Chapel, Gallery Road, Dulwich, London SE21 Nearest mainline: North Dulwich - 12 minute walk, West Dulwich - 15 minute walk Nearest bus stop: P4 College Road - 30 second walk
Road map here: http://www.stbarnabasdulwich.org/map.htm
WEDNESDAY 1 JUNE 2011 - ST BOTOLPH'S ALDGATE
Robert Woolley ~ Organ ~ St Botolph's, Aldgate Organ by Renatus Harris 1702, restored Goetze & Gwynn 2005-6
	Programme includes: Handel: Overture from Ottone (arr Handel), Fugues, Jesu, Meine Freude, A Voluntary on a Flight of Angels, & Voluntaries by Boyce, Roseingrave, Starling Goodwin, Greene, Kendall , Roseingrave, Nares, Walond.
Wednesday 1 June at 7pm
Admission free – retiring collection St Botolph’s Aldgate, Aldgate High Street , London , EC3N 1AB Nearest tubes: Aldgate, Aldgate East
Information and map on http://www.organrecitals.com/1/recitals0.php?venue=aldgate
Details of the organ and recorded interviews with Dominic Gwynn about the restoration of the organ on: http://www.goetzegwynn.co.uk/restored/aldgate.shtml
Click here to see flyer


The Queen's Medal for Music
	Dame Emma Kirkby has been awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music for 2010. She will be presented with the Medal at a private audience with the Queen later this year.
Dame Emma is the sixth winner of the award which was introduced in 2005 and is made annually to an individual (or group of musicians) judged to have had a major influence on the musical life of the nation. Previous winners are Sir Charles Mackerras (2005), Bryn Terfel (2006), Professor Judith Weir (2007), Kathryn Tickell (2008) and Sir Colin Davis (2009).
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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.

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
WEDNESDAY 1 JUNE 2011 - ST BOTOLPH'S ALDGATE
Robert Woolley plays Handel, Boyce, Goodwin, Kendall, Nares, Walond on the Renatus Harris Organ, 1702
Click here to read concert information

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
	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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Played on a clavichord by Karin Richter copied from an anonymous unfretted clavichord c.1730 from the Dresden region.