Transcriptions from Truro David Briggs & Rupert Marshall-Luck

• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958): 5 Variants of Dives & Lazarus (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ):
• 1Williams: 5 Variants of Dives & Lazarus (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ)16:00
• The Lark Ascending (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ & Violin):
• 2Williams: The Lark Ascending (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ & Violin)15:09
• Symphony No. 5 in D Major (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ):
• 3Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D Major (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ): I. Preludio13:32
• 4Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D Major (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ): II. Scherzo. Presto misterioso05:35
• 5Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D Major (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ): III. Romanza. Lento12:35
• 6Williams: Symphony No. 5 in D Major (Arr. D. Briggs for Organ): IV. Passacaglia. Moderato13:35
• Total Runtime01:16:26

Info for Transcriptions from Truro

Albion Records presents a disc of organ transcriptions recorded on the renowned 'Father Willis' organ of Truro Cathedral in August 2021.

David Briggs is an internationally renowned organist whose performances are acclaimed for their musicality, virtuosity, and ability to excite and engage audiences of all ages. David is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City. In addition to his performing abilities, he is renowned as an arranger of orchestral works for the organ, and The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society commissioned three new transcriptions for this recording.

We begin with Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus, a rhapsody developed by Vaughan Williams in 1939 around a folk tune that he loved all his life, which 'came from the soil of England, ageless and anonymous'.

David is joined by the acclaimed violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck for another popular piece: The Lark Ascending. This was often performed with violin and organ 75 to 100 years ago (by violinists such as Albert Sammons, Sybil Eaton and Jelly D'Aranyi, with organists including Herbert Sumsion, Edward Bairstow and Hubert Hunt); this recording is the first modern revival of that tradition. Hailed by BBC Music Magazine for his "handsome tone and laser-like tuning", Rupert Marshall-Luck appears as soloist and recitalist at major festivals and venues throughout the UK and internationally.

The Fifth Symphony was completed in 1943. It is, perhaps, the warmest of the nine symphonies, clearly influenced by the unfinished opera Pilgrim's Progress, famously dedicated 'without permission' to Jean Sibelius. Written in wartime, it is described as expressing 'not mere resignation under disaster, but hope during adversity'. In the booklet notes, David Briggs tells us that the transcription, made at the height of the Covid pandemic, proved to be something of an emotional lifeline for him."

"A splendid reimagining of some Ralph Vaughan Williams orchestral masterpieces for organ." (Tony Way, limelightmagazine.com.au)

"David Briggs delivers expressive performances of his own transcriptions of three seminal works, all ringing true with authenticity." (5 Stars, Choir and Organ Magazine)

David Briggs, Father Willis-Organ Truro Cathedral
Rupert Marshall-Luck, violin

David Briggs
Known for his unbridled virtuosity and passion for making organ music vibrant and accessible to a wide and diverse audience, David is one of the most sought after concert organists of his generation. ​

At the age of 17, David obtained his FRCO (Fellow of the Royal College of Organists) diploma, winning the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. From 1981-84 he was Organ Scholar at King’s College Cambridge, during which time he also studied with Jean Langlais in Paris.

He teaches performance at Cambridge University, frequently serves on international organ competition juries, and gives master classes at colleges and conservatories across the U.S. and Europe.

David has held numerous positions in North America and the U.K. He is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.

Rupert Marshall-Luck
Hailed by BBC Music Magazine for his “handsome tone and laser-like tuning”, and acclaimed by audiences and critics alike for the verve, commitment and intelligence of his performances, Rupert Marshall-Luck appears as soloist and recitalist at major festivals and venues throughout the UK as well as in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. His extensive discography includes many World Première recordings as well as conspectuses of the complete music for violin and piano of Herbert Howells and C. Hubert H. Parry; and his solo performances have been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3, ABC Classic FM (Australia), RTÉ (Ireland), SABC (South Africa), Radio Suisse Romande (Switzerland), and in Canada, France, New Zealand and the USA. His recordings have attracted glowing critical acclaim from the international musical press, including BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, International Record Review (“We have music of distinction and performances to match. A decisive view of how the structures must knit together and considerable mental stamina from both players are firmly implanted into the performances”), MusicWeb International and The Strad; a recent five-star review of Joseph Holbrooke’s F-major Sonata in the French music publication Classica stated “The perilous double-stopping passages are overcome by Rupert Marshall-Luck with an athletic ease; while his warm tone is marvellous in the elegiac lyricism of the slow movement”. A disc of John Pickard’s chamber music for Toccata Classics (TOCC 0150) was also praised by Fanfare in the USA, being highlighted as “a compact disc not to be missed”.

As well as his busy schedule as a soloist and chamber musician, Rupert is active as a writer and speaker on the performing aspects of music, and he has presented lecture-recitals, seminars and masterclasses at the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford; at Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and the Royal Academy of Music; and at University College London. His radio broadcasts include several appearances on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune and a programme for Radio 4’s series Tales from the Stave; and his article Volksmusik, Landschaften und Turbulenzen: Die Lieder und die Kammermusik von Vaughan Williams (Folktunes, Landscape and Turbulence: the Songs and Chamber Music of Vaughan Williams) was published in edition text + kritik (Richard Boorberg Verlag) in December 2018. His scholarly-critical edition of Elgar’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, op.82, was published in 2019 by G. Henle Verlag of Munich; this forms part of a series of editions for the publisher which together will comprise the complete violin music of Elgar.

Rupert plays a violin by Charles Jean Baptiste Collin-Mézin of 1899. Collin-Mézin won several medals and prizes for his instruments, and received accolades from many prominent violinists, including Joseph Joachim, some considering a Collin-Mézin violin to be equal to a Stradivari for flexibility of sound – indeed, he has been referred to as “the French Stradivari”. He uses a bow by Eugenio Praga, a highly-respected nineteenth-century Genoese maker who was appointed as a custodian of Paganini’s 1743 Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ violin; and a newly-commissioned bow by the British archetier Timothy Richards.

Booklet for Transcriptions from Truro