AN INTERNATIONAL organist and a soprano will join forces for a recital at St Margaret’s Church in Ilkley on Friday March 6.

The church plays host to a monthly organ recital, usually performed by the church’s director of music, Christopher Rathbone.

On March 6, organist Philip Sawyer will travel from Edinburgh to join soprano Una Barry in the recital at the church, on Queens Road.

They will perform songs composed Dutch Catholic composer, Hendrix Andriessen called Miroir de Peine – translated as being The Mirrored Sentence.

These are songs to poems by the French poet, Henri Ghéon, who used the idea of the Five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, and depict the whole sentence leading up to Christ’s death but seen through the eyes of Mary, his mother.

They are very beautiful, originally written for soprano and organ in 1923 but then were later orchestrated.

The concert will take place from 12.30pm to 1.15pm, and there will be a retiring collection for the Music Fund of St Margaret’s.

Mr Sawyer has played all over the world in the most prestigious of places as a concert organist.

His playing is particularly well known in Holland, and he has given organ and lecture recitals in so many places including the Westerkerk, Amsterdam; the English Reformed Church, Amsterdam; St Bavo’s Church, Haarlem; St Bavo’s Catholic Cathedral, Haarlem; Monaco Cathedral; Nice Cathedral; Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral; the Reinanzaka Church and the Bancho Church, both in Tokyo.

As well as solo organist, Philip appears regularly as an accompanist and continuo-player, and he has been heard many times on BBC Radio 3 and Netherlands Radio.

The church is extremely grateful to him for coming all the way down from Edinburgh for the concert – a journey he will do again to accompany Una Barry in the same songs for the Good Friday liturgy at Bradford Cathedral at noon.