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CHRISTOPHER HERRICK - INTERNATIONAL CONCERT ORGANIST 'He is a virtuoso, no question. He was at the peak of his considerable form, combining precision with panache, interpretive freedom with sheer joy in virtuosity. The playing was, in a word, triumphal.' The New York Times critic wrote this review after hearing Christopher Herrick play the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach during the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival. The invitation to undertake this challenging project - to give fourteen concerts on fourteen consecutive days - came directly because of the success of his complete Bach organ works recordings for Britain's finest classical recording company, Hyperion Records. 'The freshness and simple joie de vivre that Herrick brings to all Bach's music makes this cycle a winner,' says the Gramophone review of this sixteen-CD set. 'Christopher Herrick and the Hyperion team deserve the warmest praise for devoting the past decade to a Bach cycle that has provided such scintillating and compelling listening.' These CDs are all recorded on Metzler organs in Switzerland: 'Herrick has been presenting a different instrument from this fine builder in each of his Bach recordings and every one is a revelation,' says the BBC Music Magazine's Top 1000 CDs Guide. The Good CD Guide in turn describes his playing as 'scholarly, erudite, infinitely rewarding and so easily communicative one is barely aware one is absorbing some of the most complex and intellectually demanding ideas.' These discs, originally issued separately, are also available as a 16-CD box set. The Organ Fireworks albums, recorded on great organs all over the world, continue to fascinate organ lovers and critics with their 'varied mix of familiar and unfamiliar repertoire'. The Gramophone continues: 'the strengths of this hugely enjoyable and downright spectacular series lie in consistently first-rate recordings of some of the world's most aurally stunning instruments, and Herrick's playing, which can only be described as unfailingly brilliant.' During Herrick's ten years at Westminster Abbey he played for many Royal and State occasions, including the state funeral of Lord Mountbatten, the funeral service for Herbert Howells, and for both the 80th birthday concert and the funeral service of Sir William Walton. Since 1984, he has enjoyed a highly successful career as an international concert organist. Highlights include playing Bach's complete organ works during the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival in New York, his own 'Organ Prom' in the BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, giving the opening concert at the Stockholm International Organ Festival and three inaugural concerts on the Rieger organ in Christchurch Town Hall, New Zealand, as well as dedicating numerous organs in North American, including the Létourneau organ at Edmonton's Winspear Centre Concert Hall. During 2009 he made two recordings for Hyperion: first, in the Buxtehude series, volume 2 was made in Trondheim Cathedral, Norway on the 1741 Wagner organ, restored in 1994 by Ahrend; and second, in the Organ Fireworks series, volume 14 was made in Melbourne Town Hall, Australia on the mammoth 1929 Hill, Norman and Beard organ, rebuilt and enlarged in 2001 by Schantz. These two discs are due for issue in January and June 2010. In April 2010 he will record the third Buxtehude volume on the beautiful new Aubertin organ in St Louis en l'Ile, Paris. He also has a full concert schedule in Europe and North America.
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