Wednesday 11 June 2025 at 1PM – Organ Recital performed by Melanie Plumley
Joseph Rheinberger (1839–1901)
Organ Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 27
1. Grave II. Andante III. Finale
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
Selections from Music for the Royal Fireworks
La Réjouissance, Menuet
Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941)
Solemn Melody
Samuel Wesley (1766–1837)
Anapaest (arr. Pearce)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Rhosymedre
(from Three Preludes Founded on Welsh Hymn Tunes)
Karel Boleslav Jirák (1891–1972)
Prelude and Fugue No. 1
Hendrik Andriessen (1892–1981)
Thema met variaties
Melanie Plumley first had lessons in the mid 1960s as an organ scholar at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Darlington with Hector C Parr. She later studied under Dr Conrad Eden at Durham Cathedral and was probably among his least adequate pupils. Mel has entered major organ playing events with one of her greatest achievements being elimination in the first round of the 1971 Cambridge Competition. She has held organ playing positions and given concerts in a number of churches in the UK and overseas for over half a century and has not been summarily dismissed from an organ playing residency since early 1977. Now retired from a long and mostly enjoyable professional career in audio engineering and broadcasting, she focusses on freelance service and concert playing. Audiences leaving her occasional recitals have been overheard to say “I’ve never before heard anything like it”.
