Horsham Music Circle presents its November lunchtime organ recital at the Unitarian Church for its 84th season. It takes place on Tuesday, November 11 at 1pm, promising an afternoon of “stirring music and masterful performance.”

Spokesman Luca Imperiale said: “In Remembrance week Gerald Taylor offers a programme that balances solemnity and splendour, drawing on German, English and French traditions to display the organ’s vast expressive range. The recital begins with Marche Triomphale by Jules Lemmens, a late-Romantic showpiece whose broad, processional gestures and ringing fanfares make an immediate ceremonial impression.

“A gentle contrast arrives with Dieterich Buxtehude’s Prelude in D major, BuxWV 139, a fine example of North German Baroque rhetoric where flowing manuals and pedal interplay produce a tapestry of bright counterpoint. Samuel Sebastian Wesley’s Larghetto in F# minor introduces the English cathedral line: lyrical, hymn-like melodies and sympathetic registrations that highlight the organ’s singing diapasons and softer foundation stops.

“The programme reaches back to the concerto tradition with Concerto No. 2 in B flat (1st movement) by G. F. Handel. Its ritornello structure and exuberant figurations translate naturally to the organ’s capacity for orchestral imitation, offering clarity, sparkle and rhythmic drive. César Franck’s Pastorale follows, bringing late-Romantic harmonic warmth and expansive melodic lines; Franck’s sensibility for registration and long-line phrasing is well suited to an instrument with a warm principal chorus and expressive swell.

“Max Reger’s Introduction and Passacaglia provides the recital’s apex of structural mastery: dense, chromatic harmonies and a monumental passacaglia theme that unfolds with orchestral grandeur, a work that demands both expressive depth and technical command. To close, Lefébure-Wély’s Boléro de Concert offers a lighter, yet thrilling finish: brilliant registrations, sparkling runs and a dance-like rhythmic thrust that leave the congregation uplifted.”

Further details at www.horsham-music-circle.org.uk or by calling 01403 252602. No booking required. Entry is free, with a retiring collection in aid of the Music Circle’s concert promotions.