RICHARD BRASIER
Welcome to the website of Richard Brasier. These pages offer an introduction to his work as a leading organist and pedagogue.
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‘Richard Brasier offers flawless technique, crystal clear performances and unique, but informed interpretations…‘
Rundschau Online
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Soloist, teacher, recording artist and musicologist – UK organist Richard Brasier has mastered the instrument in every capacity.
Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore
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The quixotic organ transcription [of Gustav Holst’s Scherzo from the Unfinished Symphony] by Richard Brasier sounds very complex to play, clearly pushing the possibilities of four-handed organ music to its limits. It is a worthy experiment.
MusicWeb International
‘… the result is spectacular’.
‘… an editor from the cold invited himself into the big leagues with a landmark realization’.
‘Pater seraphicus [Franck] can be satisfied’.
Alain Paris (La Lettre du Musicien, 2022)
During 2022, music lovers around the world celebrated the bicentennial of the birth of César Franck. For organists, he holds a particularly important place in history as one of the founding fathers of the French Romantic organ tradition, a school of organ composition that would be carried forward into the twentieth century by Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne and others. Franck’s unmistakable style showcases colourful polyphony, and subtle mastery of form. In artistic terms, he was the first to see and realise the potential of the symphonic organ in France.
Published during this bicentennial year of his birth, Franck’s journey from unsettled pianist to master craftsman at the organ is presented in a new light. The objective of this chronologically ordered edition spanning the three different periods of his life, combines as many elements as possible from the study of available autograph manuscripts, first editions and letters, in the hope of contributing to a more holistic evaluation, in practical terms, of his output for organ.
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‘Immense work, meticulous, detailed with the greatest skill, in short, a musicological edition of reference in which I am happy and proud to have participated’.
Marie-Louise Langlais (Organist and Franck specialist)
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‘Remarkable work! It’s really impressive, clear, intelligent, complete. For the first time we can have a clear and faultless score of early works. But also to develop certain uncertainties in the later works’.
Éric Lebrun (Organist and Franck specialist)
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‘The must-have edition, (at least for the “Three Chorals”) of César Franck’s music…Concerning the “Three Chorals”, here is finally the edition that takes into account the family’s sketches and manuscripts and those auctioned off a few years ago. Having worked at length on the subject in recent years, and especially the quest for manuscripts, I say BRAVO to Richard Brasier and BRAVO to Lyrebird Music for being able to bring all the sources together with clarity and intelligence. There you will finally discover the variations of records, notes, rhythms… as well as other details that almost no one knew until now. So many mysteries will be revealed and errors corrected. An edition not to be missed’.
Jean-Baptiste Robin (Organist at Chapelle Royale du Château de Versailles, and Professor of organ at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Versailles)
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‘This edition is a vade mecum which will undoubtedly be an essential reference for a long time’.
James Lipka (Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 2023)
On 26th November 2022, Richard performed a live online recital, including two major works of César Franck, using Intégrale de l’œuvre d’orgue. The recital was followed by a short Q & A session with the host, in which various aspects of the edition were discussed.
Choral II, CFF 106 – César Franck (1822-1890)
Arabesque I – Claude Debussy (1862-1918) (arr. Léon Roques)
Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 654 – J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Grande Pièce Symphonique, Op. 17 – César Franck
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