Nicola Lisle talks to Queen’s College Organist Professor Owen Rees about a special anniversary

Over the next six months, The Queen’s College will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its organ with a series of recitals that will cover the entire organ works of J.S. Bach.

In addition to the college’s usual Wednesday lunchtime series, there will be a series of Saturday evening recitals, starting on January 31 and running through to June 13.

“One of the challenges and pleasures of putting the recital series together was working out how Bach’s entire output of organ works can be fitted into this number of recitals that cohere,” says Prof Owen Rees, the Organist at The Queen’s College and director of the choir.

“So within each recital we’ve tried to include some of the larger scale works such as the fugues, alongside the smaller scale works such as the settings of the chorales.

“For the Wednesday recital series each player will play a selection of works by Bach, but alongside that some pieces that are relevant to Bach, by composers that influenced Bach and by composers who Bach influenced. So audiences will hear in the Saturday concerts these longer recitals, consisting entirely of Bach, and in the Wednesday recitals this mixture of Bach alongside pieces that are in some way relevant.”

An impressive line-up of soloists has been gathered together for the recitals, many of them with Oxford connections. The Saturday evening series features former Queen’s organ scholar Matthew Owens, internationally-acclaimed organist Thomas Trotter and Robert Quinney, the recently-appointed Director of Music at New College.

Current Queen’s organ scholars Harry Meehan and Rebecca Baker feature in the Wednesday series, as well as former Queen’s organ scholar David Bednall, former New College organ scholar Ben Bloor and current assistant organist at New College Tim Wakerell.

The festival will come to a grand finale on June 13 with organist Stephen Farr and the Choir of The Queen’s College. The choir will perform two cantatas and a motet, while the solo organ selection will include the world premiere of a work commissioned for the anniversary from Danish composer Poul Ruders.

The involvement of a Danish composer is appropriate; the organ was built by Danish firm Frobenius, after being selected by the then organ scho-lar, James Dalton, with work being completed in the summer of 1965.

“It was then a very innovative decision to use a continental organ builder for an English church or college chapel,” says Owen. “The instrument was extremely influential in the UK, because it was the first instrument of its type that looked to restore some of the principals of organ building that were found in the 18th century.

“It’s not based on a particular 18th- century instrument — it was designed for tonal beauty — but once it had been installed it had a very long-lasting, widespread influence on organ design, particularly in this country.

Fifty years on, that influence remains. “It’s widely regarded by players as one of the most tonally beautiful instruments in the country,” says Owen. “It’s perfectly matched to the chapel and the acoustic of the chapel, and it’s very successful in a strikingly wide variety of repertoire, because it’s so well designed tonally. It’s very flexible and it’s remarkable what a variety of colours one hears organists derive from it.”

More information from queens.ox.ac.uk/events/frobenius-at-50

Frobenius at 50 Organ Festival
* Chapel of The Queen’s College, Oxford
* Various dates from January 21 to June 13
* Tickets: Call 01865 305305 or ticketsoxford.com