On Tuesday 25 January, St Martin’s Church, Brasted, with its fine organ and sympathetic acoustic, was once again the venue for a second concert entitled the ‘King of Instruments’.

An annual showcase for the school’s organ pupils, one hopes that it will become sufficiently established to merit the description of a series, even if only occurring once a year. A school without a chapel, and perhaps a daily service with its attendant organ solo and organ-accompanied music, is somewhat deprived of exposure to the music of this most varied of instruments, whose greatest champion, Johann Sebastian Bach, was the chosen focus of this year’s concert. Fittingly, the concert opened with Bach‘s magisterial and exacting Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, which received an assured and well-paced performance from the hands, and not least the feet, of Alexander Ying, the organ-scholar elect of St Catherine’s College, Cambridge.

A retiring collection was taken in aid of Hospice in the Weald.

World Premiere

The first half of the concert ended with the world premiere of Concert Study for Organ, written by local composer and former Sevenoaks School teacher Peter Young. The piece was written for Peter’s former student Alex Ying, following last year’s King of Instruments concert, and Alex fittingly gave its first performance. In the tradition of the French school of organist-composers, in particular Maurice Durufle, the piece combined a toccata-like opening, chorale-like sections and bravura improvisatory gestures with fugal counterpoint and chromaticism, leading the audience to the composition’s momentous close, the brilliance of the organ’s mixtures underpinned by a final flourish from the pedals. A workout for both organ and organist, the piece was a fitting celebration and demonstration of the ‘King of Instruments’.

Read the full report.