The Royal Festival Hall organ will sound its voice in public for the first time in almost ten years at the launch of the Pull Out All The Stops organ festival tomorrow.
On Tuesday 18 March, celebrated organists John Scott, Isabelle Demers, Jane Parker Smith and David Goode will perform alongside trumpeter Alison Balsom and the brass sections of the Southbank Centre’s resident orchestras, the Philharmonia Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The concert will feature the world premieres of two works composed especially for the occasion by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and the late Sir John Tavener.
The festival will run from 18 March to 26 June 2014 and will showcase organ masterpieces such as Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, in a celebration of the 60 years since the organ first sounded in 1954.
It also includes an extensive learning and participation programme that aims to get as many people to interact with the instrument as possible.
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre said: ‘The full restoration of the Royal Festival Hall organ is a historic moment and everyone from young children to the keenest organ scholars will be able to enjoy this much-loved instrument again’.
An interactive exhibition will tell the story of this iconic organ with contributions from young poets, musicians, families and school children (18 March – 13 April).
Holly Harrison