Jozef Gaszka is a British organist, educator and recitalist. He is School Organist at King Edward’s School Witley and acting Director of Music at St Jude’s Church Hampstead Garden Suburb.
Jozef is an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music and subsequently Master of Arts in Organ Performance with David Titterington and David Ponsford.
He was also awarded Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music.
As a performer, Jozef has appeared in many recital series around the UK and worked with numerous orchestras, including a debut on harmonium at the Wigmore Hall with the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Ensemble and collaborations with the London Handel Players and Excelsis Chamber Choir.
With a broad repertoire under his fingers, Jozef enjoys a varied career of performing as well as a passion for organ teaching.
From 2025-26, Jozef was Organ Scholar of Guildford Cathedral where he accompanied the choirs for regular services. He is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists and has previously held positions at Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair and St James’s Church, Sussex Gardens, Paddington.
Programme
Grand Dialogue Louis Marchand (1669-1732)
Partita ‘Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein’
‘Dear Christians, all and one rejoice’ Lionel Rogg (1936)
Variations Sérieuses op 54 arr: Reitze Smits Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Evening Song Edward Bairstow (1874-1946)
Suite Op. 5 Prelude, Sicilienne, Toccata Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)
Programme Note
Louis Marchand Grand Dialogue is written in the tradition of French Baroque organ music,
typically utilising Grands Jeux (full chorus of reeds and cornets). It features majestic
contrasting sections, a dialogue effect between different keyboard divisions (such as grand-
orgue, positif, and récit), and bold harmonies characteristic of Marchand’s innovative writing. It
remains one of Marchand's most frequently performed and recorded works today, praised for its
grand, energetic, and theatrical flair.
Lionel Rogg (born Geneva, April 21 1936) is a Swiss organist, composer and teacher of musical
theory. He is best known for performing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose complete
organ works he has recorded three times.
At 15, Rogg took charge of the Geneva St Boniface organ. Later, at the Conservatoire de
Musique de Genève, he studied under Pierre Segond (a pupil of Marcel Dupré). He obtained
degrees in harmony, counterpoint and fugue, and won scholarships, organ and piano prizes, and
a First Prize for sight-reading. In 1959 he won second prize for organ at the ARD International
Music Competition in Munich. He also studied with the pianist Nikita Magaloff. After three
years of study, in 1961 he gave a series of ten recitals of Bach's complete organ works at the
Victoria Hall in Geneva, followed by organ recitals in France, Spain, Belgium, Holland,
Switzerland, and in England at St Albans and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. He gave
two recitals devoted to Bach's Orgelbüchlein at the 1962 International Festival of Montreux,
and participated in festivals and organ weeks at Bayreuth and Nuremberg. In addition to organ
recitals, Rogg has composed music, playing the harpsichord and made recordings with chamber
groups. He has made organ, harpsichord and piano recordings for the Swiss Broadcasting
Company.
Felix Mendelssohn's masterwork Variations Sérieuses, Op. 54 (originally composed for solo
piano in 1841) was brilliantly arranged for the concert organ by the Dutch organist Reitze
Smits.
Edward Bairstow was born in Trinity Street, Huddersfield in 1874. His grandfather Oates
Bairstow was founder of the eponymous clothing firm. He studied the organ with John Farmer
at Balliol College, Oxford, and while articled under Frederick Bridge of Westminster Abbey
received tuition from Walter Alcock. He studied organ and theory at the University of Durham,
receiving the Bachelor of Music in 1894, and the Doctor of Music in 1901. After holding posts
in London, Wigan and Leeds, he served as organist of York Minster from 1913 to his death,
when he was succeeded by his former pupil Francis Jackson.
Notes: From various sources
Maurice Duruflé is famous for being the harshest critic of his own music, and the two
extremes of this can be seen with his own Suite pour Orgue, op. 5. The Prélude was often said
to have been the composition for which Duruflé was most proud. The intense, bleak fragility
and violent angst that it explores makes this easy to understand. Following from this the
Sicilienne comes as welcome relief. Exploring various soft reeds and timbres of the organ, this
movement serves as a wonderful guide through the various effects and textures Duruflé can
conjure within a delicate framework. Finally, the Suite concludes with an arresting Toccata.
This was for Duruflé his most problematic movement revising it on multiple occasions to tryand improve what he saw as deficiencies in the piece. Eventually Duruflé would resign himself
to refusing to perform the work in public or recording it. Regardless, this piece has remained a
favourite among organists and listeners alike and the triumphant conclusion in B Major seems a
fitting resolution to a musical tension that was first instigated with the opening B-flat of the
Prélude some twenty-five minutes earlier.
The Suite was completed in 1933 and dedicated to his composition teacher at the Paris
Conservatory, Paul Dukas. While not ever mentioned, it could be seen that these works are a
triptych, each relating to key musical styles during Duruflé’s development as a composer. The
Prélude, with its heavy use of oboe and broad textures evokes the world of Franck and Widor.
The explorative, impressionist identity of the Sicilienne seems to allude to the music of
Debussy and Ravel, particularly through harmony and an orchestral use of the organ. Finally,
the striking Toccata, with brutal rhythmic impulses and an incessant energy strongly evokes the
harsh and iconic world of Stravinsky. All three of these facets come together to form what
remains one of Duruflé’s most celebrated works.