Christmas gets underway at Hereford Cathedral this weekend when Peter Dyke will perform his annual Christmas Sparkle Organ Concert on Saturday 1 December at 1:15pm.
Free Entry with retiring collection.
The lunchtime concert, which starts at 1.15 pm, features a selection of Advent and Christmas favourites played on the cathedral’s world-famous 4,000-pipe organ. Peter, who as Assistant Director of Music can be heard playing the organ for the cathedral’s daily services throughout the year, will be visible to the audience on a large screen, and has promised that the organ console will be festively decorated for the occasion.
This year’s programme will feature excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, but also, more poignantly, a short Christmas piece by Ernest Farrar, a composer tragically killed on the Western Front near the end of World War One.
Peter said “Christmas is a time of year when music really comes into its own. The organ at Hereford Cathedral is one of the finest instruments in the country and you’ll hear some of its full range of colours while recognising some of our best-loved carols too. I look forward to this event every year!”
The concert, which has become a firm favourite of the cathedral’s Christmas programme, is free to attend but there will be a retiring collection in aid of the Hereford Cathedral Perpetual Trust, which helps to support the cathedral’s various projects as well as the upkeep of the cathedral’s Father Willis organ.