Looking back: 20 years of repertoire in lunchtime recitals at St Mary le Bow

Playing a couple of weeks ago at St Mary le Bow in London I realised that I’d been giving lunchtime concerts in this beautiful City church for quite some time. Digging out the old programs, it turned out to be — pretty much — the 20th anniversary of my first concert there. So here, in one convenient table, is a record of every work in every recital I’ve presented there.

It’s hardly ‘big data’, but if you want to sort it by composer, group by century and so on, click on the ‘view larger version’ link and play away. Some insights

Works repeated:

• Mompou (Suite Compostelana in 1997 and in 2016)
• Bach BWV 1001 (1998 and 2017)
• Bach BWV 997 (partially — 2 concerts in 2001, one as part of a chamber ensemble)
• Beaser Mountain Songs (in 2010 and 2013, the second time adding a couple of extra movements from the collection

Most represented composers:

• J.S. Bach (obviously!) with three of the four lute suites, two of the cello suites, and one of the violin sonatas
• Then Sanz, Scarlatti, Milano, Dowland, Ponce. Probably unfair to rank the 6 little (mostly) Sanz pieces, four Scarlatti sonatas etc over the three big Ponce works

Centuries:

• 20th (31 items), 16th (15), 18th (14), 17th (6), 19th (4). The point made above is worth noting — all the 16th-century works are short single pieces, many of the others are large-scale