Notes on ‘Postlude in D minor’ by Charles Stanford
Born in Dublin, Stanford grew as a musician at Cambridge (where he was organist at Trinity College), and received further training in both Leipzig and Berlin; eventually being buried in Westminster Abbey near the likes of John Blow and Henry Purcell.
He wrote relatively little for the organ, but this Postlude is from a set of six composed in 1908, which is a firm favourite in the organists’ repertoire.
I myself played the piece in a masterclass with Nicholas Kynaston in 2001, who commented ‘This piece needs oomph, and you gave it oomph!”
