Judith Bingham: Heaven and Earth & Other Works Tom Winpenny & Johan Hammarström

• Judith Bingham (b. 1952):
• 1Bingham: Heaven and Earth07:30
• Vanished London Churches:
• 2Bingham: Vanished London Churches: Opening (Candlelight)01:38
• 3Bingham: Vanished London Churches: I. St. Michael's, Crooked Lane in Candlewick Ward02:29
• 4Bingham: Vanished London Churches: II. St. Swithin, Candlewright Street (London Stone)01:57
• 5Bingham: Vanished London Churches: III. St. John Zachary (Midsummer's Day)02:21
• 6Bingham: Vanished London Churches: IV. The First St. Stephen, Walbrook, Invisible Above the Ruins of the Mithraeum02:31
• 7Bingham: Vanished London Churches: V. The Body of St. Edmund Is Brought to St. Gregory by St. Paul's for Safety, in 101601:22
• 8Bingham: Vanished London Churches: VI. Old St. Paul's, 1666 (Firelight)02:56
• Judith Bingham:
• 9Bingham: Bright Spirit (Arr. T. Winpenny & J. Bingham for Organ)07:12
• 10Bingham: Kalmar Rising: I. The Past Beneath Our Feet06:57
• Daphne's Room:
• 11Bingham: Daphne's Room: I. —03:06
• 12Bingham: Daphne's Room: II. —01:57
• 13Bingham: Daphne's Room: III. —01:44
• Roman Conversions:
• 14Bingham: Roman Conversions: I. San Clemente (A Mithraic Temple Lies Under Two Medieval Churches)04:29
• 15Bingham: Roman Conversions: II. Bernini's Daphne and Apollo03:40
• 16Bingham: Roman Conversions: III. The Sleeping Hermaphrodite02:32
• 17Bingham: Roman Conversions: IV. William Shelley, Son of an English Poet Is Transformed into Seed and Flowers04:46
• 18Bingham: Roman Conversions: V. Porta Alchemica03:54
• Judith Bingham:
• 19Bingham: Mountain Music06:33
• 20Bingham: Missa Brevis V "Behold the Sea": Voluntary "Eternal Procession"03:31
• Total Runtime01:13:05

Info zu Judith Bingham: Heaven and Earth & Other Works

Judith Bingham is established as one of the foremost British composers writing for the organ. The powerfully atmospheric and evocative music in this recording richly demonstrates her gift for creating compelling works which draw inspiration from a broad range of historical, literary and artistic sources. The Åkerman & Lund organ of Västerås Cathedral is the perfect vehicle for this colourful programme, and both Heaven and Earth and Eternal Procession for two organs also feature the cathedrals Fredriksborg choir organ. Tom Winpennys acclaimed recording of Binghams Jacobs Ladder and other works for organ can be heard on Naxos 8.572687.

"Back in June 2011, I was welcoming Tom Winpenny’s first volume of organ music by Judith Bingham, one of England’s most outstanding composers of liturgical music.

Here she sheds those restraints and moves into works that have a more secular nature and explore the full extent of the four manual organ in Sweden’s Vasteras Cathedral. Its origins go back to 1898, and with the most recent review coming in 2009, the extensive range of colours available is immediately in evidence for the ‘tone poem’, Heaven and Earth, the church’s Choir Organ added almost in the role of an echo. The six churches visible in a 19th century painting by George Scharf, but sadly no longer with us, were the inspiration for the 2019 Vanished London Churches, the ghostly atmosphere carefully ‘nurtured’ until we reach the blaze that gutted the ‘old’ St. Paul’s in 1686. That score shares the major part of the disc with Roman Conversions, the picture-painting here a little more tangible with ‘all the stops pulled out’ finale for Rome’s Piazza Vittorio. Winpenny has arranged Bingham’s Bright Spirit, originally scored for wind instruments, and now recreated for the resources of the cathedral’s organ. More programmatic scenarios in Kalmar Rising and the unnerving sounds in Daphne’s Room, the mood continuing inthe opening of Mountain Music, the disc closing with an outgoing and valedictory Voluntary, Eternal Procession. This is not a dramatic programme, but the muted colours are beautifully captured by Winpenny in an excellently focused recording." (David's Review Corner)

Tom Winpenny, organ
Johan Hammarström Choir
Johan Hammarström, organ (tracks 1, 20), Bell (track 10)

Tom Winpenny
is Assistant Master of the Music at St Albans Cathedral where his duties include accompanying the daily choral services and directing the acclaimed Cathedral Girls Choir. Previously, he was Sub-Organist at St Paul's Cathedral, and during this time he performed with the Cathedral Choir at the American Guild of Organists National Convention, performed in Mahler's Symphony no. 8 with Valery Gergiev and the LSO, and played for many great state occasions. He has broadcast regularly on BBC Radio and regularly featured on American Public Media's Pipedreams. He is also Musical Director of the London Pro Arte Choir. ​

He began organ lessons under John Scott Whiteley while a chorister at York Minster, and continued as a Music Scholar at Eton College under Alastair Sampson. After holding the post of Organ Scholar at Worcester Cathedral and then St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, he was for three years Organ Scholar at King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in music. With the Choir of King's College, he gave concerts in the USA, Hong Kong and throughout Europe, in addition to appearing as their accompanist on CD releases on EMI Classics. ​

He has taken part in the first performance of works by Judith Weir, Cecilia McDowall, Judith Bingham, Carl Rütti, Jonathan Dove, Paul Mealor, Francis Grier, Alec Roth and Francis Pott. He has studied with Thomas Trotter and Johannes Geffert, and won First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2008 Miami International Organ Competition. ​

In recent years he has given recitals in Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), Birmingham Town Hall, Salisbury Cathedral, Trinity Cathedral (Phoenix), Hildesheim Cathedral (Germany) and Kristiansand Cathedral (Norway). He has also featured as organ soloist in John Rutter’s Christmas celebration concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and recently performed Francis Pott's monumental organ symphony Christus. ​

His many solo organ recordings include Olivier Messiaen’s cycles L’Ascension and La Nativité du Seigneur (Naxos), discs of music by Peter Racine Fricker, Malcolm Williamson and John Joubert (Toccata Classics), music by Lennox and Michael Berkeley, John McCabe and Charles Villiers Stanford (Resonus Classics), and music by Judith Bingham (Naxos). His recordings of Messiaen’s Les Corps Glorieux/Messe de la Pentecôte and Livre d'Orgue (Naxos) were each awarded five-star reviews both in Choir and Organ magazine (the magazine's Star Choice for Livre d'Orgue) and in the French journal Diapason.

Johan Hammarström
began his studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 1997, graduating with both a master’s degree in church music and postgraduate diploma in organ. His teachers included Torvald Torén and Erik Boström for organ studies, and Stefan Parkman, Per Andersberg and Anders Eby for conducting.

Since the autumn of 2003, Hammarström has worked at Västerås Cathedral where in 2014 he was appointed director of music. He is responsible for the cathedral’s extensive music department and conducts the Cathedral’s Motet Choir. He is also president of the annual Västerås Organ Festival, which he initiated in 2009. An important element in Västerås Cathedral’s music life is commissioning new music, a project that Hammarström established in 2006, and has subsequently been a driving force in developing. So far, it has resulted in 35 commissions by both Swedish and international composers.

Between 2009 and 2012 he held a position as lecturer in choral conducting at the School of Music, Theatre and Art at Örebro University. Since 2013 he has served as a lecturer at the Academy of Music and Opera at Mälardalen University.

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