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Firedove
English organist Anna Lapwood's new album was recorded in a Norwegian cathedral
A new album from English organist Anna Lapwood (born 1995) will be released on 30 May 2025. Firedove is Lapwood's second album for Sony Classical, following Luna (released September 2023). She recorded Firedove through the night at the Gothic Nidaros Cathedral, founded in the eleventh century in Trondheim, Norway.
Anna Lapwood: Firedove. © 2025 Sony Classical
Anna Lapwood comments:
I wanted to create an album where the listener doesn't quite know where it's going to go next. There are lots of little easter eggs in there that you wouldn't expect - even the first appearance of the choir - and a through-line of flight and spreading wings, because this does feel as though I've found what I want to say as an artist. I'm very proud of it. Since I started focusing on the music I loved and stopped worrying about what others felt I 'should' be doing, I have fallen in love with the organ again in a completely new way.
The repertoire choices, demonstrating Lapwood's open-minded approach to music, indicate that this is Lapwood's most personal recording to date: a Louis Vierne scherzo, Robbie Williams' Angels, Maurice Duruflé's Prelude and Fugue and Bob Dylan's Make You Feel My Love. The album opens with a recording of the bells at Nidaros Cathedral, and also includes music by Alan Menken, Hania Rani, Hans Zimmer, Julie Cooper, Ola Gjeilo, Olivia Belli, Poppy Ackroyd and Rachel Portman.
Anna Lapwood can also be heard live, playing Saint-Saëns' Symphony No 3 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, UK on 2 May 2025. She will give an organ recital at Cologne Cathedral in Germany on 15 July 2025, and will be playing at the BBC Proms in London, UK on 8 August 2025.
Further information: annalapwood.co.uk
Posted 30 April 2025 by Keith Bramich
