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CHRISTOPHER HERRICK - INTERNATIONAL CONCERT ORGANIST
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 Herrick's Complete Bach 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 now also available as a 16-CD box set. The twelve 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.' The year 2003 saw the fruition of a special Herrick/Hyperion project to record the keyboard works of Holland's greatest composer, Sweelinck. The recording on two CDs was made in Sweden on a breathtaking, scholarly reconstruction of the 17th-century Stockholm German Church organ. During Herrick's ten years at Westminster Abbey he played for many Royal and State occasions and gave over 200 recitals. Since 1984 he has enjoyed a highly successful international career as a freelance concert organist, performing to enthusiastic audiences and critical acclaim worldwide. Recent highlights include the New York complete Bach 14-day marathon, his own 'Organ Prom' in the BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, giving the opening concert at the Stockholm International Organ Festival, giving three inaugural concerts on the Rieger organ in Christchurch Town Hall, New Zealand, and dedicating numerous organs in North America, including the Létourneau organ in Canada at Edmonton's new Winspear Centre Concert Hall, where he later recorded Organ Fireworks X, He returned in New Year 2004 playing two Organ Concertos with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra to launch the new Fireworks CD. 2007 was a busy year with tours in USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Poland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Two new CDs were recorded at two different Danish Cathedrals, namely Organ Fireworks XII in Haderslev Cathedral, due for release in February 2008, and a Buxtehude recording in Helsingør Cathedral, due for release in May 2008. The Buxtehude recording is the first of five CDs to be recorded over the next five years. Organ Fireworks XIII will be recorded in Västerås Cathedral, Sweden in 2008 and the second Buxtehude CD in Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim in early 2009. Since 1983 the Herrick/Hyperion collaboration has produced almost 40 discs. Paul Spicer has been the Producer for all but one of them.
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