Archangels in Cambridge – King’s recital and BBC broadcast
Two performers played Archangels within days of each other in Cambridge earlier in 2023. Paul Greally performed the set of three pieces in a
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Composer and Organist
Composer and Organist
Frederick Stocken’s music ranges from two symphonies, a violin concerto and a ballet, to organ and choral pieces. He is Organist at St George’s Metropolitan Cathedral in London and teaches at the Royal Academy of Music.
His orchestral works have been performed at the Royal Albert Hall, St John’s Smith Square and the Barbican. They have been conducted by Charles Hazlewood, John Lubbock and Vernon Handley. Orchestras that have played his music include The New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
His organ music has been performed in recitals at King’s College, Cambridge, and it has been played by Tom Bell, Paul Greally, Gordon Stewart, William Whitehead and Jeremiah Stephenson. His choral music has been sung by the choirs of Chichester Cathedral and the London Oratory.
Frederick’s music has been broadcast on Classic FM and BBC Radio 3 and recorded on the Priory label. Banks Music has published choral and organ works, and a piece for flute and piano is published by OUP. He has had commissions from The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, The Worshipful Company of Musicians, Rikkyo University Tokyo, the Stadttheater in Giessen, Germany, and Southern Cathedrals Festival.
About Section
Orchestral Music
Frederick’s music first reached a wide audience with the recording of Lament for Bosnia for strings. He conducted it at the opening of the permanent Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum with the strings of the Royal Academy of Music.
Lament for Bosnia
"At last a young English composer has chosen to write accessible, beautiful music which is unashamedly passionate and melodic."atelle in Fanfare Magazine.
A. N. Wilson, London Evening Standard
Violin Concerto (opening)
"Stocken's work [Violin Concerto] will also prove popular with players for he has written very much a showpiece for the violin."
Paul Cutts, The Strad
Alice, ballet (excerpt)
"Frederick Stocken has written a surprisingly melodic score specially for this entertaining spectacle, reminiscent of the late romantics." Thomas Schmitz-Albohn reviewing Alice, Giessener Anzeiger (translated)
"Stocken has managed to create something like a 'symphony of the city' that is relevant for our time, which make you feel breathless but sometimes invites you to rest." Guntram Lenz reviewing Alice, Wetzlauer Neue Zeitung (translated).
First Symphony, 3rd movement (opening)
Second Symphony, 4th movement (opening)
Choral Music
Prayer of St Richard of Chichester (BBC broadcast)
Nunc Dimittis from Chichester Service (BBC broadcast)
Carol of the Annunciation
"The Agnus Dei of his Mass [Missa Pacis] was beautiful and quite striking with ladders of woodwind rising against the sound of solo singers,
soon to be shattered by the sound of war." John Amis, The Tablet
Organ Music
St Gabriel, Archangels (Paul Greally, King’s College Cambridge)
St Raphael, Archangels (Paul Greally, King’s College Cambridge)
St Michael, Archangels (Paul Greally, King’s College Cambridge)
"Stocken has an individual voice. He writes with clarity, economy and a good grasp of idiom. His music is refreshingly free from grandiose complexity."
Thomas Leech reviewing Archangels, The Organists' Review
"This is deeply felt and thoughtful music".
Huw Morgan reviewing Faith, Love, Hope, Church Music Quarterly
Piano Music
Bagatelle (Mark Tanner, piano)
“The brief Bagatelle (2008) by Frederick Stocken is a bittersweet treat, fully expressed in tonal terms. One can almost taste Tanner’s enjoyment.” Colin Clarke, Fanfarebrief
Catalogue
Frederick’s compositional studies at Cambridge University continued with a PhD from The University of Manchester on harmonic theory, published as Simon Sechter’s Fundamental Bass Theory and its influence on the music of Anton Bruckner.
“Stocken’s study … makes a vital contribution to both Bruckner and Sechter studies, and, as such, should become an important text for scholars in both fields”. Prof. Julian Horton, The Bruckner Journal
As a musicologist Frederick has published articles in The Musical Times and Music & Letters. He has given pre-concert talks on Bruckner’s symphonies for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Frederick invented a diagrammatic method for learning keyboard scales, published as Scale Shapes - using the Stocken Method (Chester Music), and after 22 years in print is now in its third revised edition.
As co-author with Anne Marsden Thomas he produced the two-volume Graded Keyboard Musicianship (OUP) and The New Oxford Organ Method (OUP). For both publications he composed all the original music, which included 60 studies in The New Oxford Organ Method.
At the Royal Academy of Music Frederick teaches supporting studies in the organ department and organ at the Junior Academy.
He also teaches and examines for the Royal College of Organists and presented the RCO’s first live webinars. He has examined for ABRSM in numerous countries, and he trained examiners.
As an organist Frederick has played for broadcast services on BBC radio and television, and as organ accompanist has made recordings for the Priory and Regent labels. He has given organ recitals at King’s College Cambridge, St John’s Smith Square, and in Germany and Japan.
Frederick first learnt the organ with Kenneth Beard while a chorister at Southwell Minster. At Chetham’s School of Music he won five prizes at ARCO as a student of Derrick Cantrell and a further three prizes at FRCO. As Organ Scholar of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge he studied with Peter le Huray and Peter Hurford. His compositional mentors in the early years of his career were Margaret Hubicki and Howard Ferguson.
Peformances
Sunday 5 March 2023, Mass at St Stephen's, Lewisham:
The Newman Mass
Choir of St Stephen's, Lewisham, cond. David Knight
Wednesday 1 February 2023, 4pm, BBC broadcast of choral evensong from Pembroke College, Cambridge:
St Michael from Archangels
Joe Beadle (organ)
Sunday 29 January 2023, 2.30pm, King's College, Cambridge:
Archangels
Paul Greally (organ)
Thursday 15 December 2022, 7.30pm, Carol Service, St George's Cathedral, Southwark, London
Carol of the Annunciation
Choir of St George's Cathedral, cond. Jonathan Schranz
Sunday 24 September 2022, 2pm, St George's Hanover Square, London:
Gieb Fried o frommer treuer Gott
Tom Bell (organ)
Friday 17 June 2022, Evensong, King's College, Cambridge:
St Michael from Archangels
Paul Greally (organ).
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