The E. Power Biggs Memorial

Celebrity Recital Featuring John Scott

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 8:00 PM

Adolphus Busch Hall, 27 Kirkland Street. $15/10 students



Organs aren’t just for hymns and Halloween.

This Tuesday, organ legend John Scott will come to Harvard, drawn by the opportunity to play on the exceptional 1958 Flentrop organ. For those used to the muddy and sometimes overpowering groans of Memorial Church’s giant organ, the bright, clean sound of the Flentrop will be a welcome relief, especially when combined with Scott’s brilliant technique.

Organ recitals have become increasingly rare since the instrument’s modern glory days ending just after the mid-twentieth-century. The recent exodus of British organists to the United States, however, could reverse this unfortunate trend. John Scott is the latest, and the most skilled, of these renowned expat musicians.

Formerly the director of music and organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Scott currently holds the same posts at St. Thomas’s in New York City, perennially one of the best choirs in New York. Over the course of a life devoted to the organ, he has earned an impressive array of awards, including the prestigious International J.S. Bach Organ Competition in Leipzig.

Lauded as “the premier English organist of his generation…in a class of his own,” by the Manchester Evening News, Scott is best known for his virtuosic performances of large-scale Romantic and twentieth century repertoire. He commands an imposing talent, softened by his unassuming demeanor and incomparable musicianship.

As organist for St. Paul’s, he organized a year-long musical celebration for the Cathedral’s tercentenary in addition to the usual seasonal music and daily liturgical selections for which St. Paul’s is famous.

Scott has had many works written for him by composers such as Petr Eben, Charles Camilleri, Kenneth Leighton and William Mathias, among others, and his recordings of twentieth century great Marcel Dupré are considered authoritative. He has recorded two albums for Decca, and his recording at the organ of Southwark Cathedral won the Gramophone magazine’s “Critic Choice Award” in 1983. Recent compact disc releases on the Hyperion, Guild, Nimbus and Priory labels have brought wide critical acclaim.

Program highlights will include Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor and Mozart’s Fantasia in F minor.

Expect a scintillating and nuanced performance on a superb organ from Scott.

—Alexander B. Fabry