Cosmic Recital

Cosmic Organ Recital Under Mars with John Challenger.

Following on from the success of John Challenger’s Holst’s The Planets under Gaia in 2023, we are thrilled to welcome John once again to perform a ‘Cosmic Recital’ under Mars!

Watch this performance under the incredible artwork Mars: War and Peace by Luke Jerram. At night the effect of the Red Planet’s illumination is particularly impressive.  At an approximate scale of 1:1 million, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 10 kilometres of the surface of Mars. Read more about

Doors open 19:00.

Programme
Mars (The Planets, Op. 32/i)
Gustav Holst (1874–1934), arr. John Challenger (b. 1988)

Nachtlied (Op. 138/iii)
Max Reger (1873–1916), arr. John Challenger

Prelude on ‘Conditor alme siderum’
Matthew Martin (b. 1976)

Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565)
J. S. Bach (1685–1750)

Under the Stars (Op. 65/iv)
Amy Beach (1867–1944)

Nocturne (Op. 9/ii)
Frédéric Chopin (1810–49), arr. Max Reger

Alleluyas
Simon Preston (1938–2022)

Adagio Sostenuto (‘Moonlight’, Op. 27/ii)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), arr. Clarence Dickinson (1873–1969)

Dance in the Twilight
Eric Coates (1886–1957)

Clair de Lune (L 75/iii)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918), arr. Anna Lapwood (b. 1995)

‘Sunrise’ (Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30/i)
Richard Strauss (1864– 1949), arr. John Challenger

Jupiter (The Planets, Op. 32/iv)
Gustav Holst, arr. John Challenger

Biography
John Challenger is Assistant Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, Assistant Conductor of Salisbury Musical Society, and a freelance concert organist. In addition to his daily duties at Salisbury Cathedral, so far this year he has given performances as a both a concert and continuo organist, as a conductor, as the festival organist for the 2025 Southern Cathedrals Festival, and in educational projects in conjunction with the music charity La Folia.

A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and a former organ pupil of Frédéric Blanc, David Briggs, Jeremy Filsell and the late David Sanger, John is in increasing demand as a concert organist, receiving regular invitations to perform abroad, most recently from the Netherlands and the United States. Deeply interested in sharing the benefits of cathedral music more widely, his recent work at Salisbury has included the establishment of the annual Organ Prom (which attracts up to 1,000 audience members), and the album Salisbury Meditation (which raises funds for NHS Charities Together).

In 2023 John embarked on the Planets Project, arranging the music of Gustav Holst for Salisbury’s famous Father Willis organ to facilitate musical-educational work in the Salisbury Diocese, in collaboration with La Folia and composer Howard Moody. John’s arrangement of The Planets was described in The Telegraph as ‘an amazing feat of virtuosity’, and in September 2024 a filmed performance of the arrangement was released, entitled The Planets – Out of Darkness. To date the film has been watched over 75,000 times on YouTube and has received unanimously-enthusiastic reviews.