The first piece in Christopher Herrick's collection of seasonal music is David Johnson's Trumpet Tune in F ('Trumpet Melody in F Major'), a piece from a collection. Pachelbel's 'Prelude on Vom Himmel hoch' sets the melody in the pedals against two manual voices that treat each line of the chorale in dialogue. High-pitched registers emphasize the dance-like character of the piece, while the angels' message to the shepherds is greeted by the nightingale on the final note, a fittingly festive jeu d'esprit.
While Pachelbel's setting evokes an exquisite medieval illumination, the sparkling exuberance of the 'Toccata Vom Himmel hoch' by the American organist-composer Garth Edmundson, a student of Bonnet, is more like a vast and sumptuous stained-glass window. The continuous figuration of the first three verses gives way in the last to dotted rhythms for the chorale lines, similar to Bach's 'In dulci jubilo'.
While Pachelbel's setting is reminiscent of an exquisite medieval illumination, the sparkling exuberance of the 'Toccata Vom Himmel hoch' by the American organist-composer Garth Edmundson, a student of Bonnet, is more akin to a vast and sumptuous stained-glass window. The continuous figuration of the first three verses gives way in the last to dotted rhythms for the chorale lines, much like in Bach's 'In dulci jubilo'.
Christopher Herrick is renowned for his interpretations of Bach's organ music. He recorded the complete organ works on seven Metzler organs in Switzerland between 1989 and 1999, compiled on 16 CDs for Hyperion. Bach's complete organ works were subsequently performed in two marathon events: first in 1998 at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, where he played on the Kuhn organ in Alice Tully Hall for fourteen consecutive days, and again in 2014 at the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, this time with twelve concerts over a longer period of five months.
Bach's complete organ works were subsequently performed in two marathon events: first in 1998 at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York, where he played on the Kuhn organ in Alice Tully Hall for fourteen consecutive days, and again in 2014 at the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, this time with twelve concerts over a longer period of five months.
... Hyperion followed the 1984 Organ Fireworks CD from Westminster Abbey with 13 further discs, culminating in Organ Fireworks 14, recorded in 2010 at Melbourne's Town Hall on the 1929 Hill, Norman & Beard organ—significantly enlarged and rebuilt by the American organ builder Schanz in 2001. In contrast to the more flamboyant Organ Fireworks CDs, Hyperion also released four discs titled Organ Dreams.
Since the mid-1990s, Herrick has made acclaimed recordings on European organs of works by other composers, including Louis-Claude Daquin, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Josef Rheinberger, and in 2007 began a five-year project to record the complete organ works of Dieterich Buxtehude.
From the mid-1990s onward, Herrick made acclaimed recordings on European organs of works by other composers, including Louis-Claude Daquin, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, and Josef Rheinberger, and in 2007 began a five-year project to record the complete organ works of Dieterich Buxtehude.
. 1984, Hyperion released the Organ Fireworks CDs in Melbourne on the Town Hall in Melbourne on the 1929 Hill, Norman & Beard organ— which was significantly enlarged and rebuilt by the American organ builder Schanz in 2001. Two more recent recordings for Hyperion were 'Power of Life', recorded in 2015 on the Metzler organ in Poblet Monastery in Catalonia, and 'Northern Lights', recorded in 2020 on the Steinmeyer organ in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway.