England counts Christopher Herrick among its foremost concert organists, an artist whose name has become inseparable from J.S. Bach’s complete works for the instrument. Hyperion Records issued his 16-CD traversal of that entire oeuvre, establishing one of the benchmark editions in the field. Herrick’s range extends well beyond Bach, however, a point made clear by the technically rigorous Organ Fireworks series on the same label, whose programs embrace vivid pieces by Saint-Saëns, Jolivet, Shostakovich, Widor, Mozart, Nielsen, Elgar, Pachelbel, Liszt, Rutter, and numerous additional composers.
Born in Bletchley on May 23, 1942, Herrick sang as a chorister before his fascination with the organ ignited at age twelve, when he turned pages for St. Paul’s Cathedral organist John Dykes Bower. He later pursued organ studies at Oxford University and the Royal College of Music, attaining the stature of a fully formed virtuoso while still in his early twenties.
From 1967 to 1974 he held the post of assistant organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London; for the following ten years he served as organist at Westminster Cathedral, maintaining an active schedule of recitals and concerts throughout both appointments. In 1984 he resigned from Westminster to pursue a freelance career, an immediate success marked by the release that same year of Organ Fireworks, Vol. 1 on Hyperion. Ten further volumes appeared by 2006, alongside a number of more ambitious projects.
Between 1989 and 1999 Herrick recorded the complete Bach organ works on the Metzler organs of Switzerland, performances widely praised for their freshness and insight. Audiences and critics alike were struck by his 1998 Lincoln Center Festival undertaking, in which he presented virtually the entire Bach organ canon across fourteen consecutive days in July; New York Times critic James R. Oestrich responded with a glowing notice that applied the terms “herculean,” “triumphal,” and “powerful” to the feat.
Herrick has sustained a demanding international itinerary in the new century, appearing throughout Europe and Scandinavia, in the United States and Canada, in New Zealand, and in many additional locations. Recent releases on Hyperion include Organ Dreams, Vol. 4 in 2005 and Organ Fireworks, Vol. 11 in 2006.
