In last night’s post, I neglected to write about the concert we heard after Evensong, performed by the BBC Singers. On one hand, it is a human impossibility to attend every single event of the Festival because many events occur simultaneously. On the other hand, it’s impossible to write about every single concert and every single Evensong we are attending here at the Three Choirs Festival.

But last night at the BBC Singers concert, we heard yet another work from superstar Dame Judith Weir, who this year celebrates her 70th birthday.

Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. She went on to Cambridge University, where her composition teacher was Robin Holloway; and in 1975 attended summer school at Tanglewood, where she worked with Gunther Schuller. After this she spent several years working in schools and adult education in rural southern England; followed by a period based in Scotland, teaching at Glasgow University and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

She studied composition with John Tavener, Robin Holloway and Gunther Schuller. Her operas have received performances in the UK and abroad, and she has also created several opera films. As resident composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, she wrote several works for orchestra and chorus which were premiered by the orchestra’s then Music Director Simon Rattle. She has been commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, among others. As Associate Composer with the BBC Singers she completed two oratorios: In the Land of Uz and blue hills beyond blue hills. She has written music for national and royal occasions, and is Master of The King’s Music. Weir was awarded a Damehood in the 2024 New Year Honours list.

I think my introduction to Judith Weir’s music was when we learned Illuminare, Jerusalem (1985) written for Stephen Cleobury and the choir of King’s College Cambridge. And one of the most challenging pieces for me was learning her Ascending to Heaven, which was almost impossible to play on the 56-note Beckerath organ, requiring me to jump octaves while simultaneously pushing a piston to change the pitch to 4′ in order to play the piece.

Last night we heard In the Land of Uz, “a dramatised reading of the biblical Book of Job, from which all the text is taken, in the musical form of a cantata, or short oratorio. The majority of the music is sung by the chorus, but there are also ‘obbligato’ roles for a small group of instruments which appear singly or in pairs: viola, double bass, soprano saxophone, trumpet, tuba and organ. Job appears from time to time as a solo tenor; his thoughts are also represented by the viola. Although the bulk of the storytelling is undertaken by the chorus, a speaking narrator also makes occasional appearances.“

The other superstar we heard was organist Anna Lapwood, “brilliant, history-making organist, TikTok star, and director of music at Pembroke College, Cambridge.” Anna is one of classical music’s biggest stars, coined by the New York Times as “the world’s most visible organist”. She regularly brings in million of views on TikTok with her late-night practice videos at the Royal Albert Hall, where she is an associate artist.

Anna is a terrific protagonist for her instrument, the organ. She is a natural communicator and reaches a huge audience through her concerts and via social media with over 1 million followers across all platforms, amassing tens of millions of views in a short space of time. Anna’s passion for the organ is matched by her mission to support girls and women in music. She was the first female in Magdalen College Oxford’s 560-year history to be awarded the Organ Scholarship and since then has run regular organ workshops for young players around the country, hosted the Cambridge Organ Experience for Girls and organised an annual 24-hour ‘Bachathon’ for to raise money to support musicians in Zambia.

A strong advocate for music education at home and abroad, Anna is dedicated to bringing music to children of all backgrounds. Her commitment to equality and diversity is evident in almost every aspect of her life and work, and new music that she has commissioned features in her recitals across Europe and North America.

Having spent some years being encouraged to “play like a man”, Anna is proud and humbled to see so many adopt her hashtag #playlikeagirl.

Anna Lapwood, teeny-tiny in a red suede jacket, flaxen-braid and dark-rimmed specs, is fast becoming the face of classical music – or classical music’s answer to Taylor Swift, depending on which way you look at it. Like Swift, Lapwood is a once-in-a-generation talent: she’s irreverent, charismatic, a born performer and a whip-smart communicator. Dispel all your preconceptions about what an organ recital might ordinarily entail. (Tatler)

Tonight we heard Anna play her own transcription of Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, where she demonstrated her complete mastery of the art of transcription as well as registration. As she explained: There are several moments in this movement where the left hand, right hand, left foot and right foot are all going at full pelt with completely different ideas (most notably in the final build-up), but that is part of what makes the movement rather fun to play. I spent several hours trying to figure out the best way to replicate a harp glissando. Glissandi themselves are one thing, but this glissando really had to be in D major – this is easy to achieve on the harp through changing the pedal setting, but much harder on the organ (without tearing your fingers to shreds). I eventually found a way to fake this effect by playing a glissando in D major for the first octave before switching to C major as the glissando sped up, using my other hand to pick out a couple of key notes that sustained the effect of D major all the way to the top. The other tricky moment was at the very end of the movement, taking the organ from pianissimo to triple forte in the space of just twenty-five bars. Whilst this is just about possible without a registrant there to press buttons, it involves quite a lot of gymnastics!

In this concert, Seascapes, by Kristina Arakelyan (b. 1994), for unaccompanied choir, was commissioned by the BBC Singers as companion music to the Four Sea Interludes by Benjamin Britten. Both compositions evoked undulating waves with impressionistic strokes.

Most unfortunately, we were sitting in the middle of the nave, and were unable to see the video monitors with closeups of the organist. But I was able to take this photo of Anna embracing Sofi Jeannin, the conductor of the BBC Singers.