STJOHNPASSION JSBACH
PROGRAMME £1 Lincoln Cathedral Choir, 19 March 2011
2 Welcome to Lincoln
Cathedral
For more than 900 years there has been a choir of men and boys in Lincoln Cathedral. Since 1995 there has also been a line of girls’ voices. Each line has a distinctive sound, but it is always enjoyable for the two lines to sing together with the men for larger festivals, recordings, broadcasts and concerts such as this evening’s. With a wide repertoire of sacred choral music, the choir’s fundamental role is to provide the music for the daily office of the Cathedral, but in the largest Diocese of the Church of England, there are many additional services for both county and diocese. In recent years the choir has toured to Prague (2003), Haarlem (2007) and the Loire region (2009). Two recordings of the choir: Hail Mary (music devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary) and O be joyful in the Lord (Psalms and choral settings of Psalm texts) are available from the Cathedral shop. The choir also broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio and Television.
Your role in tonight’s performance It is very likely that early congregations would have joined in with the Chorales which interpolate the St John Passion - used by Bach as a deliberate means of connecting the listener to the story. Tonight, you are invited to do the same, and join the choir and orchestra during numbers 3, 11, 17 and 26 which are printed in this programme at the appropriate point in the running order. Although tonight’s performance will for the main part be sung in its original language of German, these chorales will be sung in English. A live projected translation of the text will also be provided.
Lincoln Cathedral Music Appeal The Lincoln Cathedral Music Fund (Registered Charity no: 1033089) aims to build up an endowment fund which has as its objective the support of all the Cathedral's music and historic instruments. It directs a substantial portion of its annual income towards the scholarships awarded to boy and girl choristers (who receive a fifty per cent scholarship or, in special cases, more). For more information please contact Fiona Howick at the Fundraising Office on 01522 561626 or email fundraisingassistant@lincolncathedral.com • • • •
Toilets are located off the cloister, which is accessed via the north-east transept (to the left of the screen). Facilities are available on both floors In the unlikely event of it being necessary to evacuate the building, please follow the directions of the stewards Please refrain from taking photographs at any stage Please refrain from smoking in any part of the Cathedral building or grounds
By kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln Screens and projection by ‘AndyCam’ Translation presentation operated by Janet Trim Chamber Organ provided by Kenneth Tickell English translation by Daniel Brittain Programme design by Nick Edmonds Poster design by Will Harrison Thanks to Mrs Micky Philp for coordinating publicity Refreshments provided by Lincoln Cathedral Choir Association Thanks also to Very Revd Philip Buckler, Canon Gavin Kirk, Canon Dr Mark Hocknull, Mr N and Dr C Perry, Dr E Bonnel and Dr A Moreno, Mr and Mrs R Mair, Mr John Campbell and the Vergers’ Department, Miss Anne James and Miss Fiona Howick.
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Johannes-Passion: 1724
J
ohann Sebastian Bach’s extraordinary compositional output reveals a panoramic grasp of national musical styles and includes works in all the major forms and genres of the day, with one exception: opera. The ‘Coffee Cantata’ has sections of dialogue recitative, but it is Bach’s two substantial settings of the Passion narrative (St Matthew and St John) that offer the strongest clues about what a Bach opera might have been like. The Passion stories, with their extremes of emotion and violent content, offer material as striking, dramatic and varied as any opera libretto. Bach’s musical response to the text was driven by conflicting motives. His contract with the Leipzig church authorities required him to provide liturgical music which ‘should not last too long, and should be of such a nature as not to make an operatic impression, but rather incite the listeners to devotion’. His deeply held Christian faith would have urged him to offer the best to God: the most advanced, finely-wrought and modern music, as well as an honest, personal response. And Bach’s own professional pride would not readily have permitted him to play down, for the sake of piety, the musical potential inherent in such a dramatic text. The structure of Johannes-Passion (1724) has theatrical echoes. Two long choruses stand at each
end of the work: the first portentously sets the scene, asking for understanding of the grim events about to be unfolded; the last, with its resigned, drooping Ruht wohl motif, is a farewell to the crucified Jesus, and a prayer that by his death, the gates of heaven will be opened. Scattered throughout the action are chorales, which provide a rather detached commentary on the narrative, as if from a remote stand-point. The congregation at the first Leipzig performances may well have joined in with the singing of these chorales, as with four numbers this evening, but even if they had not, the familiarity of these cherished texts and melodies would have had the effect of involving them in the story. The chorus also provides brief turba (‘crowd’) passages. The screams of ‘Kreuzige! Kreuzige!’ (‘Crucify! Crucify!’) have surely some of the most chilling music ever crafted; angular motifs are crammed together, and crusty consonants erupt in ever-angrier bursts. With only four vocal lines, Bach gives a compelling impression of a large and increasingly bellicose crowd. Equally sinister is the chorus Wäre dieser (16b), where repeated ascending chromatic patterns, and a perilous stretching of tonal boundaries depict the crowd’s gathering bloodthirstiness, and their mounting impatience with Pilate’s indecision.
4 The ‘action’ of the story is carried by recitative, accompanied by ‘cello and keyboard. The demanding Evangelist part is given to a tenor, while Christ’s words are afforded the extra gravitas of a bass. There are small parts for Peter, for the bystanders who identify him as Jesus’s disciple, and for Pilate. The recitative (an operatic style) is generally straightforward, moving efficiently through the text, but rises to higher levels of word-painting when the narrative requires it. Early in the story, Jesus twice asks ‘Whom do you seek?’; the rising interval in the music is subtly inflective of the text, like a musical question mark. The cock-crow (imitated in the ‘cello) reminds Peter of his earlier denial of Jesus, and his bitter weeping finds expression in a long, chromatic melisma. The scourging of Jesus is matched by the Evangelist’s fast, savage rhythms, and the slow, descending scale used for Jesus’s last words (‘Es ist vollbracht’) suggests a final, agonising breath. Eight arias, two for each of the soloists, introduce a contemplative element into the telling of the Passion story. They are remarkable for their range of expression, and for the variety of their instrumentation. The subtle colourings of the viola d’amore, lute and bass viol (instruments probably thought of as obsolete when the work was composed) supplement those of the standard orchestra (trumpets and drums would have been considered inappropriate for a Passion setting). Some of the instrumental introductions allude to images in the arias’ texts: Ich folge (no 9) opens with off-beat pairs of bass quavers, hinting at the ‘joyful footsteps’ (freudige Schritte); and in Erwäge (no 20), the assortment of unusual stringed instruments echoes the colours of the rainbow mentioned in the text, while the shape of the opening motif is
suggestive of the rainbow’s arc. The chorus is involved in the two bass arias: such is the span of Mein treuer Heiland (no 32) that it absorbs a chorale with a conflicting time signature; Eilt, eilt (no 24) has repeated interjections of ‘Wohin? Wohin?’ (‘Where? Where?’) as the soloist beckons the listeners to Golgotha. In his History of Church Ceremonies in Saxony (1732), the theologian Christian Gerher bemoans the loss of the old humble and reverent musical settings of the Passion story, quoting an elderly widow’s reaction to a new, elaborate rendering: “God save us my children! It’s just as if we were at an opera!” Musical procedures such as recitatives, da capo arias, and brief, dramatic choral interjections must have smacked of the (secular) opera house. Perhaps the sheer visceral power and emotional range of Bach’s music was also unsettling: it is all too easy to become weary of a familiar story (even a grim one), and this setting certainly casts a stark light on the sheer horror of the Passion. But here too are consolation, hope and expectation, musical expression drawn from the spring of Bach’s profound Christian faith, and from the countless sorrows and joys of his everyday life. It is deeply honest, human music, albeit of an almost super-human musical mind. Johannes-Passion was first performed on Good Friday, 7 April, 1724. The opening bars, thick with surging semiquavers, must have quickly convinced the congregation of the sheer magnitude and modernity of what they were about to experience. I hope that this evening we might join in spirit with that first audience, to wonder anew at the comprehensive brilliance of the music, and the mystery of the story it carries.
Charles Harrison
5 Conductor Charles Harrison
Soloists
Tenor: Alexander Sprague Bass/Jesus: Robert Rice Evangelist: Richard Roddis
Soprano: Carys Lane Countertenor: Aric Prentice
Lindum Baroque Violin Nicolette Moonen (Leader) Bethan Morgan Stephen Pedder Sophie Barber Continuo Benjamin Chewter (organ) Kinga Gaborjani (violoncello)
Viola/Viola d’amore Rachel Stott Nicola Blakey
Oboe Cait Walker Stephanie Oatridge
Violoncello Natasha Kraemer
Flute Eva Caballero Marta Goncalves
Double Bass Liz Bradley
Bassoon Robert Percival
Lincoln Cathedral Choir Girl choristers Rebeca Bonell-Moreno, Georgina Cohu, Zoe Dawson, Anya Ertmann, Ffion Frazher, Ruby Gale, Fientje van der Kaaij, Phoebe Kirrage, Matilda Mair, Araminta Perkins Ray, Shania Thompson, Sophie-Dominique Waddie, Bryony Waddingham, Poppy Wells, Mary Wilson, Emily Zehetmayr Tenor Benjamin Clark Keith Halliday ¥ Nick Perry Edward Rimmer Thomas Wilson
Alto David Bennett Daniel Brittain William Harrison Richard Lindsay Jim Newton
‡ Peter
Boy Choristers Lucas Brown, Lincoln Cupples, Hugo Dodsworth, George Faulkner, Jefferson Feerick, Rory Feerick, Oliver Jones, Geert van der Kaaij, Charlie Kirk, Scott Milne, Stuart Milne, Oliver Page, William Parlby Neale
† Pilate
Bass William Burn Stephen Clay Philip Craven Nick Edmonds ‡ Timothy Salisbury Bozidar Smiljanic † ¥ Servant
* Maid
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Part 1 1. Chorus:
Herr unser Herrscher
2a. Evangelist, Jesus:
Jesus ging mit seinen Jüngern
2b. Chorus:
Jesum von Nazareth
2c. Evangelist, Jesus:
Jesus spricht zu ihnen
2d. Chorus:
Jesum von Nazareth
2e. Evangelist, Jesus:
Jesus antwortete
3. Chorale:
O wondrous love (please join in)
4. Evangelist, Jesus:
Auf daß das Wort erfüllet würde
5. Chorale:
Dein Will gescheh
6. Evangelist:
Die Schar aber und der Oberhauptmann
7. Aria:
Von den Stricken (Alto)
8. Evangelist:
Simon Petrus aber folgete Jesu nach
9. Aria:
Ich folge dir gleichfalls (Soprano)
10. Evangelist, Maid, Peter, Jesus, Servant: Derselbige Jünger war dem Hohenpriester bekannt 11. Chorale:
Who was it, Lord, did smite Thee? (please join in)
12a. Evangelist:
Und Hannas sandte ihn gebunden
12b. Chorus:
Bist du nicht
12c. Evangelist, Servant, Peter:
Er leugnete aber und sprach
13. Aria:
Ach, mein Sinn (Tenor)
14. Chorale:
Petrus, der nicht denkt zurück
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Interval - 20 minutes Part 2 15. Chorale:
Christus, der uns selig macht
16a. Evangelist, Pilate:
Da führeten sie Jesum
16b. Chorus:
Wäre dieser nicht ein Übeltäter
16c. Evangelist, Pilate:
Da sprach Pilatus zu ihnen
16d. Chorus:
Wir dürfen niemand töten
16e. Evangelist, Pilate, Jesus:
Auf daß erfüllet würde das Wort
17. Chorale:
Ah, Mighty King (please join in)
18a. Evangelist, Pilate, Jesus:
Da sprach Pilatus zu ihm
18b. Chorus:
Nicht diesen, sondern Barrabam
18c. Evangelist:
Barrabas aber war ein Mörder
19. Arioso:
Betrachte, meine Seel (Bass)
20. Aria:
Erwäge, wie sein blutgefärbeter Rücken (Tenor)
21a. Evangelist:
Und die Kriegsknechte flochten eine Krone
21b. Chorus:
Sei gegrußet, lieber Jüdenkönig
21c. Evangelist, Pilate:
Und gaben ihm Backenstreiche
21d. Chorus:
Kreuzige, kreuzige!
21e. Evangelist, Pilate:
Pilatus sprach zu ihnen
21f. Chorus:
Wir haben ein Gesetz
21g. Evangelist, Pilate, Jesus:
Da Pilatus das Wort hörete
22. Chorale:
Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn
23a. Evangelist:
Die Jüden aber schrieen und sprachen
23b. Chorus:
Lässest du diesen los
23c. Evangelist, Pilate:
Da Pilatus das Wort hörete
8 23d. Chorus:
Weg, weg mit dem
23e. Evangelist, Pilate:
Spricht Pilatus zu ihnen
23f. Chorus:
Wir haben keinen König
23g. Evangelist:
Da überantwortete er ihn
24. Aria:
Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen (Bass, Chorus)
25a. Evangelist:
Allda kreuzigten sie ihn
25b. Chorus:
Schreibe nicht
25c. Evangelist, Pilate:
Pilatus antwortet
26. Chorale:
Within my heart’s recesses (please join in)
27a. Evangelist:
Die Kriegsknechte aber
27b. Chorus:
Lasset uns den nicht zerteilen
27c. Evangelist, Jesus:
Auf daß erfüllet würde die Schrift
28. Chorale:
Er nahm alles wohl in acht
29. Evangelist, Jesus:
Und von Stund an nahm sie der Jünger
30. Aria:
Es ist vollbracht (Alto)
31. Evangelist:
Und neiget das Haupt
32. Aria/Chorale:
Mein teurer Heiland / Jesu der du warest tot (Bass, Chorus)
33. Evangelist:
Und siehe da
34. Arioso:
Mein Herz, indem die ganze Welt (Tenor)
35. Aria:
Zerfließe, mein Herze (Soprano)
36. Evangelist:
Die Jüden aber, dieweil es der Rüsttag war
37. Chorale:
O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn
38. Evangelist:
Darnach bat Pilatum Joseph von Arimathia
39. Chorus:
Ruht wohl
40. Chorale:
Ach Herr, laß dein lieb Engelein
Richard Roddis
Charles Harrison (Conductor) is Assistant Director of Music and Sub Organist of Lincoln Cathedral, posts he has held since 2003. At Lincoln, Charles directs the choir of boys and men, and plays for many of the Cathedral’s services. He is also busy as a teacher (of organ, harpsichord, harmony and counterpoint), and as a continuo and orchestral keyboard player. Charles was a chorister and later organ scholar at Southwell Minster, then organ scholar of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took a degree in music, and studied organ with the late David Sanger. During his second year at Cambridge, Charles won the Turpin and Durrant prizes for his performance in the Fellowship examinations of the Royal College of Organists. Charles went on to win prizes in the international organ competitions at St Albans and Odense; these successes have led to a busy programme of engagements, including concerts at many of the celebrated venues in Britain, and solo performances in France, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, USA, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Iceland and Poland. Concerto work has included performances with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra, both broadcast by the BBC. In 2006, he was invited by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to join them for a recording and broadcast of works by Florent Schmitt. As accompanist and continuo player, Charles has worked with many leading soloists, conductors and ensembles, including Roy Goodman, Steven Isserlis, Stephen Cleobury, the BBC Singers and Andreas Scholl. In 2010, he appeared with the Ulster Orchestra at the BBC Proms, playing the mighty organ of the Royal Albert Hall. His solo performances on recent recordings from Lincoln have been reviewed as ‘authoritative’, ‘exemplary’ and ‘stunning’.
Charles Harrison
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Richard Roddis (Evangelist) won joint First Prize for his Lieder singing in a national competition staged by the London Lieder Group, in December 2001. The event attracted 265 entrants, from whom eight Finalists were judged by Graham Johnson and Anthony Rolfe Johnson. Richard graduated in Music at Exeter University and held a Choral Scholarship at the Cathedral. He now combines a career as a solo singer in Oratorio and Recital, with the directorship of several choirs and a busy teaching practice. He is on the peripatetic music staff at Nottingham High School and Trent College. Richard is well known across the country for his oratorio solo work, having sung for numerous Choral Societies nationwide. Recent and forthcoming concert engagements show his range of repertoire, including the Bach Passions (Evangelist), Britten’s St Nicolas and Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis. As a recitalist, Richard has made a speciality of German Lied. Since teaming up with Clive Pollard in 1997, he has performed Schubert's song-cycle Die schöne Müllerin a number of times around the Midlands (on the first occasion as part of the composer's bicentenary celebrations). Richard has made CD recordings and BBC broadcasts with several professional choirs, including the BBC Northern Singers, the Britten Singers, Cappella Nova, Canzonetta, and the Cathedral choirs of Lincoln, Lichfield and Southwell. He has toured abroad to Europe, Israel, Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand. Richard is much in demand as a choral conductor, and directs four choirs in the East Midlands, including Derby Bach Choir, for whose Golden Jubilee he composed a largescale work Lauda Creatoris, premiered on 4th April 2009.
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Aric Prentice (Countertenor) has been Director of Music in Lincoln Cathedral and Lincoln Minster School since January 2003. He began his musical training as a chorister in Durham Cathedral, moving to Trent College as a music scholar in 1985. In 1990, he went up as an instrumental exhibitioner to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he read Music and Theology and in his final year sang as a choral scholar in St John’s College Cambridge, recording and broadcasting extensively. Aric is now regularly in demand as a soloist, accompanist and conductor. Solo countertenor roles have included Handel’s Messiah and DIxit Dominus, Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions and Mass in B minor, the part of Micah in Handel’s Samson, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, and Purcell’s Come, ye sons of art. He is currently studying singing with Robert Rice. Under Aric’s direction the Cathedral Choir has made two recordings on the Guild record label: Hail Mary and O be joyful in the Lord, this latter being reviewed as ‘rousing’ and ‘first class’ and recently a Christmas CD on the Cantoris label. In 2005/6 both the Cathedral and Minster School Chamber Choirs were involved in the filming of three episodes of BBC’s Songs of Praise including the 2005 Christmas episode. Forthcoming projects include two more performances of Bach's St John Passion and new works by Gabriel Jackson and Howard Goodall.
Nicolette Moonen (Leader) grew up in Amsterdam and studied violin with Jaap Schröder and Sigiswald Kuyken. Early encounters with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt inspired her to make a career in Early Music. She has played with most of the major baroque orchestras in continental Europe and in the UK, and has been invited to lead ensembles such as Collegium Vocale Gent, La Chapelle Royale, and English Touring Opera. In 1996 Nicolette founded The Bach Players. The ensemble has toured all over the UK and beyond and has a regular concert series in Norwich and London. In 2008 it started a series of CD recordings of these concert programmes on the label Hyphen Press Music. She teaches at the Royal Academy of Music in London and directs the baroque orchestra at Dartington International Summer School.
Nicolette Moonen
Aric Prentice
Car ys Lane
Carys Lane (Soprano) is a versatile soprano combining a career of solo and consort singing which embraces music from Hildegard of Bingen to the present day. On the concert platform, Carys has performed for such conductors as Sir Roger Norrington, Ivan Fischer, Harry Christophers. Her work with Paul McCreesh has included Handel’s Solomon, Carissimi’s Jepthe, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, performances throughout Europe of Purcell’s Fairy Queen, King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas, Monteverdi’s Combatimento di Tancredi e Clorinda in Venice, and two appearances at the Proms in Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Monteverdi’s Lamento della Ninfa. She has appeared for The Opera Group, creating the role of ‘Crow’ in Edward Dudley Hughes’ opera, The Birds, at the Buxton Festival. She was part of the celebrated production, The Full Monteverdi, directed by John la Bouchardiere, a DVD of which was released to critical acclaim. As a solo artist, Carys has recorded the Mozart Requiem for Warner Classics, Purcell and Vivaldi for Naxos, and Vaughan Williams for Chandos. She recorded the role of First Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for Chandos and has made over 90 discs with ensembles such as The Sixteen, The Tallis Scholars, and The Cardinall’s Musick who this year won Gramophone’s disc of the year.
Alexander Sprague
11 Alexander Sprague (Tenor) is currently studying with Ryland Davies and Iain Ledingham on the Opera Course at The Royal Academy of Music where he is supported by the Josephine Baker Trust. Alexander is the recipient of the Grant McCann Prize and the Kohn Bach Foundation scholarship, performing tenor arias in the Academy’s Bach Cantata series. Forthcoming performances include working with John Butt, Rachel Podger and Peter Schreier. Alexander’s operatic experience is ever increasing, most recently he understudied Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni (Longborough Festival Opera) and was the recipient of The Haskell Family Foundation Scholarship to perform scenes as Ferrando, Cosi Fan Tutte at The Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. As a member of Royal Academy Opera, Alexander has performed the roles Ferrando Cosi Fan Tutte, Demo Il Giasone, The Mayor Albert Herring, Don Eusebio L’Occassione fa il Ladro and Apollo, Semele, working with conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Dr Jane Glover and directors John Copley and John Cox. Alexander has made numerous solo appearances across the country on the oratorio stage, his most recent roles include Mozart Requiem in St Martin in the Fields, London, Evangelist St John Passion in Bristol Cathedral, and with the Northern Sinfonia in Durham Cathedral. Also a consort singer, Alexander regularly appears with The Monteverdi Choir (for which he has also performed as a soloist) under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, touring across the UK, Europe and USA, performing at venues including Carnegie Hall, New York and Opera Comique, Paris.
R o b e r t
R i c e
Among the younger generation of British baritones, Robert Rice (Bass) has established a reputation as an insightful interpreter of challenging repertoire. He is a valued collaborator and creator of roles in modern chamber opera and music theatre, as well as a concert singer of distinction. Having been a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, and a postgraduate at the Royal Academy of Music under Mark Wildman, he continued his studies with Richard Smart and Sheila Barnes. As a concert artist Robert undertakes a wide variety of repertoire. Concerts in 2010 included Elgar's The Kingdom in Sherborne Abbey, Mendelssohn's Paulus at Snape, Carmina Burana and semi-staged opera in Srebrenica and Vienna. This season he also sings Bach's St John Passion in Chichester and Chelmsford Cathedrals, and gives recitals for York Late Music and the London English Song Festival. His stage work often involves contemporary music: he has toured Bosnia, Scotland and England with Opera Circus, appearing as Hasan in Nigel Osborne's well-received Differences in Demolitions, and in their previous production Arcane, with music by Paul Clark. Further stage appearances include Demas The Pilgrim's Progress (Sadler's Wells/Hickox), Sailor Dido and Aeneas (Chatelet/McCreesh), Herakles The Birds and Tempter The Martyrdom of St Magnus (both for The Opera Group). Robert has recorded Judas The Apostles with Canterbury Choral Society and the Philharmonia Orchestra. He is also featured on Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with the Southern Sinfonia and the Rodolfus Choir. His recording of Cornelius’ Die Drei Könige (The Three Kings) with the choir Polyphony is a favourite on both Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 whenever Christmas approaches. A skilled arranger of vocal music in many genres, he is published by Novello & Co. Ltd.
ORGAN RECITALS 2011 Sundays at 5.30pm (Admission £5) NB
There will be no March recitals this year while the organ is undergoing some minor repairs
12 June
Benjamin Chewter (Lincoln Cathedral)
18 December
Colin Walsh (Lincoln Cathedral) Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur
Mondays at 7pm (Admission £5) 2 May
Roberto Marini (Teramo, Italy)
30 May
Dr Francis Jackson CBE (Organist Emeritus, York Minster)
27 June
Joseph Nolan (Perth, Australia)
11 July
Michael Eckerle (Pforzheim, Germany)
8 August
Huw Williams (St James’s Palace, London)
29 August
Colin Walsh (Lincoln Cathedral)
For details:
01522 561600 visitors@lincolncathedral.com www.lincolncathedral.com