Stephen Cleobury has recently played in venues as diverse as the Cultural Centre, Hong Kong, the Conference Centre of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, Salt Lake City, and Haderslev Cathedral in Denmark. Among the UK venues he visited last season were Leeds Town Hall, Lincoln Cathedral, and St David’s Cathedral, Pembrokeshire. Engagements in the present season include concerts at the Turner Sims Hall, Southampton University, Birmingham Town Hall, Westminster Cathedral, and the Temple Church, London; at the American Guild of Organists’ Convention in Minneapolis-St Paul, he will give the première of Judith Bingham’s Organ Concerto. In broadcasts and recordings he has recorded Bach Clavierübung Pt 3 and the Leipzig Chorale Preludes for BBC Radio 3; discs on the organ of King’s College, Cambridge, where he has been Organist and Director of Music for 25 years, include albums of music by Howells and Elgar. In February 2008 he will perform Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur in King’s Chapel, inaugurating a complete Messiaen cycle he has designed for the composer’s centenary year. The series will be completed by his most recent organ scholars.

Stephen began organ lessons at the age of 13, studying with Douglas Guest and then Christopher Robinson. In his later teens he became an Associate and then a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, being awarded the coveted Limpus Prize for gaining the highest marks in organ playing in both diplomas. He was subsequently Organ Student at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he was a soloist and accompanist under the direction of George Guest. At this time he studied organ with Arthur Wills, and was awarded a W.T. Best Scholarship by the Worshipful Company of Musicians, enabling him to study in Germany with Arno Schönstedt.

He has also engaged in teaching; many of today’s leading British organists have worked under him as organ scholars at King’s. On the administrative side, after serving the RCO for nearly ten years as Hon. Secretary, he was President from 1990-2. He is due to undertake a second presidential term from 2008-10.

…Cleobury’s playing was distinguished throughout by an attention to clarity.  At the same time, the music felt astonishingly alive….  Human emotions came enhanced through this aliveness… one needed no title to hear sadness, even grieving in the music, and thoughtfulness and helpfulness as well, through Cleobury’s interpretation.  Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C… was an essay in heartfelt joy and overflowing happiness.  Majesty, smoothness, sonorousness and depth made their appearance, too – qualities one expects from a great organ – but Cleobury often achieved them without resorting to the loudest stops on the instrument.  He did, though, use the softest, and it was amazing to hear this huge organ sounding so gently, floating the tone.  The sound of one of the lowest stops on the organ opening Rheinberger’s Introduction and Passacaglia… could have been a bear stirring from sleep.  The soft, furry, deep notes of the phrase continued, then repeated themselves in endless permutations as the harmonies built up in a fabulous structure overhead, all made clear for the listener to follow and understand.  This is at least part of Cleobury’s art.  He elucidated the music for us.

The first Ulster organ recital of the New Year brought a visit from Stephen Cleobury....  The evening got off to a brilliant start with the ever-popular Liszt Prelude and Fugue on B.A.C.H., a performance that immediately raised the spirits …  Some of the finest playing of the recital came ... with Franck’s well known third Choral, followed by a really atmospheric and splendidly played account of Messiaen’s Dieu parmi nous.  Here the full gamut of the instrument’s possibilities was fully explored.

As the series of celebrity organ recitals gets underway – this latest by Stephen Cleobury... – more and more facets of this fine instrument are revealed.  … from the very first notes, the all-enveloping directness and power of the new organ was immediately apparent. ... Kenneth Leighton’s Prelude Scherzo and Passacaglia... felt just right.  …Jongen’s Sonata Eroïca.  A real virtuoso showstopper whose ever-present theme is subjected to increasingly extravagant variations.  Just when you think that the organ simply can’t get louder, it does, producing sounds that go straight to the backbone and make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up on end.

The present season of organ recitals reached a splendid climax last night when Stephen Cleobury, Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge, gave a memorable recital in St Anne’s Cathedral.  It is to Mr Cleobury’s credit that he overcame all problems of organ placement and echo with surprising ease, while his handling of the resources was exemplary.  Indeed, not since the splendid recital on this organ in its old position many moons ago by Jeanne Demessieux, has any recitalist been so successful in this respect.  …The evening reached a superb climax in the Liszt Prelude and Fugue, a spectacular performance by any standards.  Technically, this was masterly and the rising excitement and thrust of this virtuoso account of a masterpiece rightly aroused the audience to a high degree of enthusiasm.

Never one to miss an opportunity to hear two of my favourite artists, Stephen Cleobury, organist of King’s College, Cambridge, and the Jaques Loussier Plays Bach Trio, even if performed simultaneously, the problem was solved by first hearing the former on the Ulster Hall’s Mulholland Organ and then migrating to the Opera House in time to take in the second part of the Loussier programme.  Cleobury’s excellent programme embraced both popular and lesser played works, with a common denominator with Loussier in the presence of a major work by Bach, in this case the Prelude and Fugue in G, a performance that displayed both music and player to best possible advantage. Gigout’s Toccata in B minor demands brilliant treatment and this was a stirring performance.  There was a suitably relaxed contrast in Jongen’s charming Chant de Mai, while the dissonance of Messiaen’s La banquet célèste brought us cleverly into this century with a subtle use of tone colours.  An old friend, Mendelssohn’s sixth sonata, displayed the organ’s resources in a very happy light in a fine performance, while the recitalist’s splendid technique, and rock-like stability of rhythm, allied to the organ’s brilliant resources… all made Mulet’s Carillon-Sortie a tour de force.

…played with a blazing technique which confirmed what the listener knew from the beginning of the programme:  Stephen Cleobury is a first-class artist.

On Sunday evening, his [SC’s] finely-balanced programme was the more vivid for the exceptional clarity of every feature.  The wholesome vigour of a Prelude and Fugue in G minor by Buxtehude was followed by the subtle energies of the Kyrie from the “Messe pour les Paroisses” by Couperin.  Hindemith’s Sonata no. 1 was an exhilarating contrast in purpose and style.  Liszt’s Variations on ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’ drew wide expressiveness from Mr Cleobury. ..Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor [was] lucid and magnificently delivered.

Reviews of Recordings

Stephen Cleobury plays a recital at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.  The restored Harrison and Harrison instrument is magnificently recorded… and an award of five stars to Stephen Cleobury for brilliant playing on an unashamedly popular and delightful programme.

Stephen Cleobury’s playing of Elgar’s two organ sonatas…brings out the majesty of the music and conjures most beautiful effects from the organ which sound entirely appropriate.

An irresistible golden opulence pervades this recording, the centrally placed organ pouring forth nobilimente for all it’s worth.  [In] the second movement of the G major Sonata…Stephen Cleobury dips his fingers into the orchestral magic.  … Elgar certainly sounds good at King’s and Cleobury leans into the broad phrasing, coaxing rather than driving.  …There are lot of melting moments too.  Listen to the solo flutes spilling liquid joy in the cadenza…. The almost unbearable nostalgia of the Imperial March… depends as much on the ebb of swift fades as it does on vivid crescendos.  These are done so well that one might think Elgar wrote the work for organ.  And Harris and Cleobury between them manage to make the organ weep in Nimrod with manlier tears than any orchestra would permit. … An indispensable indulgence for those whose throats tighten when Elgar speaks at his most direct – and for those who can’t get enough of the sound of this instrument in its heavenly environment.

…this [new recording] is certainly the finest to come in my direction not only musically, but also technically.  …it doesn’t sound like a recording!  There is a feeling of presence that captures the King’s acoustic in a quite uncanny way…. It is the overall structure of the piece [the G major Sonata] that emerges most strongly in Cleobury’s playing, enhanced by skilful changes of registration and imaginative phrasing.  In many performances the central movements sound too similar with little distinction between their moods.  Cleobury allows the 2nd movement to flow forward at a swiftish pace, much to its advantage, contrasting it with a serious view of the 3rd.  The ppp tranquillo section is breathtaking, the whole a portent of slow movements to come.  For me organ transcriptions of orchestral works remain expedients rather than preferred versions but I have to admit that Cleobury’s account of Nimrod has a striking eloquence and makes a deep impression.

This is one of the outstanding organ records of the year. 

His sensitive and intelligent reading of the Franck Grande Pièce Symphonique is a model of well-rounded phrasing while Duruflé’s Suite’s inbuilt contrasts between introspection and almost savage brilliance give further scope for performance of a high order.

I’m so pleased that the “Great European Organs” series on the Priory label has King’s College, Cambridge, for its No. 1.  It has an aura all its own.  Its rich warmth, haloed by golden mixtures, sails on a different ocean from the sterner vessels of the neo-classic line, and it rejoices to tremendous effect in such a colourful programme as this.  And what a start Reger’s Dankpsalm makes, its pedal line especially digging into incredible depths.  Mendelssohn billows in, dressed overall with shining colours in his upperwork – and even his fugal divisions are individually spruced as for an Admiral’s inspection.  Mozart’s Fantasia is reasonably scaled down in deference to its original mechanical destination (it too often sounds like an eighteenth century air raid...) and the charm of its long fluted passages maintains enchantment throughout.  Karg-Elert is treated with abundant majesty and Hindemith gains a great deal from colourful treatment and an edge-softening acoustic.  It is, of course, Stephen Cleobury who is the weaver of all these spells (it’s too often the organ and the building which gets all the credit here) and anyone requiring further proof of his abilities to thrill and enchant should play the Liszt Variations over and over again until further notice.

A brief note now of the only organ record for inclusion in this quarter (and considering its very high standard, perhaps deservedly so).  In the “Great European Organs” series, Priory have released on CD Stephen Cleobury’s recital on the organ of King’s College, Cambridge... this is a performance to please addicts, and to make new converts.  A marvellously engineered release, glowing with warm, delicious sounds.

Cleobury’s vaguely dispassionate approach, letting the music speak for itself – not to mention his absolute faithfulness to the letter of the score and his adept handling of this lovely instrument – pays handsome dividends in remarkably compelling performances of what can so often sound like mere mood music.  A first-rate start to Priory’s projected series.

The Westminster Abbey organ is ideal for ceremonial music and Cleobury plays these stirring pieces with panache as well as an assured sense of style, making this a highly enjoyable record.

 

Organ Favourites from King’s College, Cambridge
EMI Classics for Pleasure
Stephen Cleobury             
EMI/7243 5 8561722

 

Great European Organs  
Stephen Cleobury
Priory PRCD 185

 

Organ Classics from King’s   
Stephen Cleobury
Regis RRC1012

 

The King’s Trumpeter   
Stephen Cleobury with Crispian Steele Perkins  
Priory PRCD 189

 

Favourite Wedding Music
Stephen Cleobury
Belart 450 0132 10

           

 Westminster Abbey Organ
Organ Duets from Westminster Abbey
Stephen Cleobury and
Abbey LPB 792/LP VPS 1039