Edward Bairstow - Prelude on 'Vexilla Regis' - Ben Bloor

Prelude on 'Vexilla Regis' by Sir Edward Bairstow performed by Ben Bloor on the 49 stop 1904 Norman & Beard/2009 Klais Orgelbau organ of the St Anne's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Leeds in a live recital on Monday 25th March 2024 as part of the Leeds International Concert Season.
A Yorkshireman through and through, Bairstow was born in Huddersfield, and held organist posts at both Leeds Parish Church (now Leeds Minster) and York Minster, where he was Master of Music for 33 years. Despite not being a Catholic, he wrote a number of works based on Gregorian chant, most famously his choral anthem 'Blessed City, Heavenly Salem' which is founded on 'Urbs beata'.
This prelude takes its cues from the vespers hymn for Palm Sunday 'Vexilla Regis'. From soft beginnings, the piece builds pace and climaxes with the tuba in the final bars.
Many thanks to Darius Battiwalla for the invitation to play at Leeds Cathedral, and to the Leeds International Concert Season team for use of the livestream footage.
Ben Bloor is Organist at the London Oratory Church and School Organist at Westminster School. For more information, please visit www.benbloor.com
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[@JohnCavicchio]

Beautiful, Ben. Keep up the great playing

[@mspg2]

I had a strong connection with Huddersfield - this piece is very moving Ben. Thanks for playing it.

[@grahamtwist]

The sheer gravitas of this Prelude by Bairstow is captured brilliantly by you, Ben, on the magnificent Norman & Beard/Klais Orgelbau Organ at St Anne's Cathedral: bravo! In the 1999 'Cambridge Companion to the Organ', this work has been described by Andrew McCrea in chapter 19 as belonging to "some of the most powerful expositions on liturgical melodies in the British repertoire" - and I have to agree, having now heard your awesome rendition in this fabulous upload.
Having been born just eight miles from where Bairstow started his life as a 'through and through' Yorkshireman in God's own County, you may wish to set the Yorkshireman's Motto in plainsong style and compose a 'Bairstowesque' Prelude on: "ear all, see all, say nowt; eat all, sup all, pay nowt; and if ivver tha does owt fer nowt - allus do it fer thissen." Or as the more erudite would have it:
audi omnia, vide omnia, taceo
omnia comede, omnia bibe, nihil redde
et, si umquam pro nihilo quicquam -
semper faciam tibi