Music at St Stephen Walbrook - not to be missed!

 

One of the great joys of being at St Stephen Walbrook is the quality of music that can be enjoyed. The next few days, however, are of particular note.

Tonight, the Italian classical pianist Claudio Crismani is in concert at 7.00pm. On this his second visit to St Stephen Walbrook, Claudio will play a selection of works by Bartok and Chopin on a Fazioli piano. Free admission with a retiring collection in aid of St Stephen Walbrook. For the full programme and a biography click here.

On Thursday at 12.45pm St Stephen's Voices will lead worship at our regular lunchtime Eucharist. The celebrant and preacher will be The Revd Sally Muggeridge.

Then, on Friday, we will enjoy not one, but two, Organ Recitals with the second being given by The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor, Alderman Dr Andrew Parmley.

At 12.30pm, as part of our regular programme of Friday lunchtime Organ Recitals, David Chan will perform a programme including pieces by Bach, Langlais, Wesley and Widor, among others. David Ho-Yi Chan is a young composer, conductor and organist born in Hong Kong whose music seeks to enrich the beauty of simplicity. Click here for more about David and his recital.

At 5.30pm, as the fourth in our new series of Free Music Recitals on the last Friday of the month (St Stephen's Serenades), The Lord Mayor will perform a programme which includes:

• Prelude and Fugue in F minor, BWV 534 Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750
• Voluntary III in C William Boyce 1711–1779
• Toccatina Pietro Yon 1886–1943
• Carillon-Sortie Henri Mulet 1878–1967
• Psalm Prelude, Set 1, No 1 Herbert Howells 1892–1983
• Sortie in E Louis-James-Alfred Lefébure-Wely 1817- 1869

As with all our events, all are most welcome. More information about The Lord Mayor's recital can be found by clicking here.

Those visiting will also be able to view 'Crucifixions: Francis Bacon' which ends on Friday when we close at 4.00pm. Catalogues for the exhibition are available, priced £10, with a donation coming to St Stephen Walbrook. Exhibition information can be found by clicking here.

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Claudio Crismani plays Franz Liszt, Csardas Macabre 2.

Discover & explore, Fire & Phoenix, St Stephen's Serenades

We have another significant week in the life of St Stephen Walbrook with the final service in our current series of Discover & explore services, a performance of Fire & Phoenix, a new play about the Great Fire of London, and the first in a new series of monthly recitals entitled St Stephen's Serenades and featuring at 5.30pm the music of Michael Butten.

Monday's Discover & explore service at St Stephen Walbrook, 1.10 - 1.50pm, will be on the theme of Security and will include a reflection from myself. Featured music from the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields will include: O nata lux - Tallis; Psalm 121 - Rose; The Beatitudes - Pärt; and Ubi Caritas - Duruflé.

Fire & Phoenix is a new play to mark the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London. The play opens in the bakery of Thomas Farynor, King's Baker, just before midnight on 1 September 1666. It's a swelteringly hot night. There has been no rain for months. Thomas assures his daughter that he has checked the fires...

The fire starts within hours; for three days it rages terrifyingly, helped by a ferocious East wind. Lord Mayor Bludworth is useless. Samuel Pepys takes practical measures, and liaises with the King, Charles II. The people lose everything and camp out at Moorfields. Foreigners and 'papists' are blamed for the fire and so are ferociously attacked. People are hysterical. St Paul's burns: a vision of Hell.

A Frenchman is hanged for starting the fire, but was he really guilty? What about Farynor? Pepys has his suspicions...

Despite the toll of 89 churches, 1300 houses and 200,000 people made homeless, Christopher Wren, in a moving final scene with Pepys, has a strong sense of hope, and believes that London, like the Phoenix, will rise from the ashes.

Historia Theatre Company is Registered Charity 1099807, founded in 2003 to put on plays that have their source in or inspiration from history. Previous productions include Evelina (2004), Five Eleven (2005), An African’s Blood (2007-8), Judenfrei: Love and Death in Hitler’s Germany (2010-11), The Sound of Breaking Glass (2012-13), Queen Anne (2014), Magna Carta (2015).

Fire & Phoenix is at St Stephen Walbrook on Wednesday 23 November, 7.30pm. Tickets £15 (£12 concessions) available on the door. To reserve places, email priest@ststephenwalbrook.net.

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Michael Butten - Lennox Berkeley - Sonatina, 1st movement Allegretto.