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Donald Macleod explores the distinguished circle of friends and colleagues of Samuel Wesley.

Samuel Wesley was a child prodigy, and it was the older composer William Boyce who said of the boy that he was the English Mozart, and that he had dropped down from heaven. Wesley’s star speedily ascended to the heights from an early age as both performer and composer, but with issues surrounding his often extreme character, and also his health and morals, this ascendency was not to last. His popularity went in and out of fashion during his lifetime, and trying to secure a permanent position as an organist was something which eluded him for a long time. However, he was one of Britain’s leading musicians, mixed in the highest circles, and was responsible for promoting the largely unknown J. S. Bach to these shores. Towards the end of his life, famous musicians and composers sought Wesley out and even Mendelssohn asked the famed organist Samuel Wesley to play for him. We’re only just beginning to understand Wesley’s importance to the development of British classical music, and many of his substantial works, including numerous concertos for piano, organ, and violin, and large scale works for choir and orchestra, all still remain to be recorded.

Donald Macleod journeys through Samuel Wesley’s distinguished circle of friends and colleagues. We get a picture of very distinguished beginnings with Wesley meeting with the composer William Boyce, to later in life being sought out by the Norwegian violinist and composer Ole Bull, and performing for Felix Mendelssohn. We explore his collaborations with the famed writer on music Charles Burney, with his friend the organist Vincent Novello, to Wesley being appointed the first ever Grand Organist to the Grand Lodge of Freemasons. Wesley’s circles demonstrate him to have been one of the key performers and composers in British music, during his lifetime.

Fugue in B minor for Dr Mendelssohn
Jennifer Bate, organ

Sinfonia obligato
London Mozart Players
Matthias Bamert, conductor

O sing unto mie roundelaie
Julia Gooding, soprano
Ana-María Rincón, soprano
Charles Daniels, tenor
Rufus Müller, tenor
Christopher Purves, bass
Timothy Roberts, fortepiano & director

Voluntary in D
Jennifer Bate, organ

Air and Gavotte
Carlo Curley, organ

Violin Concerto No 2 in D major
Elizabeth Wallfisch, violin
The Parley of Instruments
Peter Holman, fortepiano & director

Produced by Luke Whitlock, for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales