SPONSORED: The Many Hats of Allan Rae - A Birthday Greeting, by Endre Anaru.
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ARTICLES BEING VIEWED NOW:
- Intelligently Structured and Winningly Executed - Mike Wheeler is impressed by Fenella Humphreys and Martin Roscoe's Buxton Festival recital marking the centenary of the death of Gabriel Fauré
- February 2023 New Releases - Browse a large selection of new recordings
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- vocal music
- New Releases for April 2024 and Later - Browse a selection of new recordings
RESOUNDING ECHOES: From August 2022, Robert McCarney's regular series features little-known twentieth century classical composers.
English organist, composer, violinist, conductor and music lecturer Samuel Wesley, 'the English Mozart', was born in Bristol on 24 February 1766, the son of preacher and hymn writer Charles Wesley, grandson of the poet Samuel Wesley and nephew of the founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley. In 1784 he became a Roman Catholic, and in 1788 a freemason.
There was scandal in his personal life, involving the delay in his marriage to and subsequent separation from Charlotte Louise Martin, and his affair with Sarah Suter, a domestic servant who bore him four children, including Samuel Sebastian Wesley.
He wrote much music for the church, and also secular works.
He died on 11 October 1837 and was buried at St Marylebone Parish Church in London.
A Welcome Return - Jennifer Bate plays the Derby Cathedral organ, heard by Mike Wheeler
CD Spotlight. A Controversial Figure - Choral works by Samuel Sebastian Wesley, heard by Gerald Fenech. 'Soloists and choral singing are of the utmost quality ...'