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The Guardian
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
King of Kings: Orchestral Transcriptions of Bach by Andrew Davis album review – the late conductor's first love
Long before he became a conductor, Andrew Davis was an organist. As a teenager he had played the organ at the Palace theatre, Watford, and in the 1960s studied at the Royal College of Music before becoming organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge; he began his professional career as the keyboard player for the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. In the last two years of his life, Davis returned to the music that had been his first love by making orchestral versions of some of JS Bach's organ works. In 2023, he began to record a selection of his orchestrations with the BBC Philharmonic for Chandos, but when he died in April last year just four arrangements had been recorded, and Martyn Brabbins stepped in to complete the project with the orchestra the following September. The result is a sequence that begins with the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which Davis has orchestrated in a relatively restrained way, especially when compared with the spectacular version that Leopold Stokowski famously concocted for Walt Disney's Fantasia, and it ends with the E flat St Anne Prelude and Fugue, while in between there is a series of chorale preludes, arranged like the bigger works in an unshowy but always thoroughly musical way: for instance, the Trio super Herr Jesu Christ, Dich zu Uns Wend becomes a busy instrumental movement that could have come out of the Brandenburg Concertos. The most interesting of the arrangements, though, is the one that Davis made a decade earlier than all the rest, of the great Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, whose more fastidious, almost pointillist orchestration recalls Webern's famous version of the six-part ricercare from Bach's Musical Offering. Modest these pieces may be, but they are a touching memorial to a fine, much missed conductor. This article includes content hosted on We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify
Scoop
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Sunday Concerts Presents Solo Pianist John Chen
Press Release – Wellington Chamber Music Sunday Concerts presents the John Chen at 3 pm on Sunday 15 June 2025 at St Andrews on The Terrace, Wellington. Having become the youngest ever winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2004, at the age of 18, Chen has performed with most of the major symphony orchestras in Australia and New Zealand. He presents an all-French programme that is a celebration of the beautiful simplicity and melodic romanticism that a solo piano can achieve. The programme of this concert features Poulenc's Three Novelettes, Duparc's Four Melodies, Franck's Prelude Chorale and Fugue, Fauré's Theme and Variations op. 73, and Saint-Saëns' 6 Etudes Op. 111 John Chen studied with Rae de Lisle at the University of Auckland, where he obtained his Master of Music, followed by an Artist Diploma at Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles under John Perry. Reflecting a passion for 20th century French music, he has made recordings of works by Henri Dutilleux, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel for Naxos and ABC Classics. For more information see or Eventfinda for bookings. Tickets are $40 or $10 for those under 26. School students are free if accompanying an adult. This concert is presented in association with Chamber Music NZ and is part of a 13-concert tour by Chen. Background information Wellington Chamber Music was formed in 1945 and has been presenting Sunday Concerts since 1982. The concerts feature top NZ artists and most concerts are recorded by RNZ Concert for later broadcast – often heard in the 1-3 pm slot on RNZ Concert. Ticket prices are modest as the organisers are unpaid volunteers, though the artists receive professional fees.
Scoop
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Sunday Concerts Presents Solo Pianist John Chen
Sunday Concerts presents the John Chen at 3 pm on Sunday 15 June 2025 at St Andrews on The Terrace, Wellington. Having become the youngest ever winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition in 2004, at the age of 18, Chen has performed with most of the major symphony orchestras in Australia and New Zealand. He presents an all-French programme that is a celebration of the beautiful simplicity and melodic romanticism that a solo piano can achieve. The programme of this concert features Poulenc's Three Novelettes, Duparc's Four Melodies, Franck's Prelude Chorale and Fugue, Fauré's Theme and Variations op. 73, and Saint-Saëns' 6 Etudes Op. 111 John Chen studied with Rae de Lisle at the University of Auckland, where he obtained his Master of Music, followed by an Artist Diploma at Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles under John Perry. Reflecting a passion for 20th century French music, he has made recordings of works by Henri Dutilleux, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel for Naxos and ABC Classics. For more information see or Eventfinda for bookings. Tickets are $40 or $10 for those under 26. School students are free if accompanying an adult. This concert is presented in association with Chamber Music NZ and is part of a 13-concert tour by Chen. Background information Wellington Chamber Music was formed in 1945 and has been presenting Sunday Concerts since 1982. The concerts feature top NZ artists and most concerts are recorded by RNZ Concert for later broadcast – often heard in the 1-3 pm slot on RNZ Concert. Ticket prices are modest as the organisers are unpaid volunteers, though the artists receive professional fees.
