Secret Bach
by Moonlight
Friday 5 June 2026
8.45pm
Clifton Cathedral
Tickets: £15
Save when you book more: Book for JS Bach for Solo Violin too and pay just £22 for both events.
.jpg)
Behind the legendary name of J.S. Bach lies the story of a rebellious young genius.
Orphaned as a child and sent to live with his older brother, the young Sebastian was forbidden from studying his brother's prized collection of works by the great keyboard masters. Undeterred, he spent months secretly copying the book by hand — working only by moonlight to avoid discovery.
In this late-night recital, acclaimed organist Richard Moore (Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford) explores that same world of North German keyboard music — the tradition that shaped the mind of the composer Bach would become. Featuring the music he was never meant to hear — by Buxtehude, Reincken, and Kuhnau — the programme culminates in Bach's own monumental Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor.
Richard Moore – Organ
Programme includes
Johann Adam Reincken: Toccata
Dietrich Buxtehude: Chaconne in C minor (BuxWV 159)
Georg Böhm: Ouverture (Suite No 2 in D)
Johann Kuhnau: Biblical Sonata No 2: The melancholy of Saul assuaged
Johann Sebastian Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV 582)
About Richard Moore
‘A smouldering musician, with incredible rhythmic precision’, Richard Moore has entertained audiences across the globe, from North America to Australia and New Zealand, as well as throughout Europe. Concerto appearances have included Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra (collaborating with conductor Thomas Søndergård), and amongst recent recording projects is a first recording of Elizabeth Poston’s Te Deum, and the premiere of Philip Moore’s devotional sequence Via crucis.
Richard is Sub-Organist at Christ Church, Oxford, where he articulates the liturgies of the Cathedral and is Deputy Conductor of the world-renowned Cathedral Choir. A prize-winning graduate of the Royal College of Music, he also read Music as Organ Scholar of St John’s College Oxford. Having been Organ Scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral, he went on to roles at St Martin-In-the-Fields, and Guildford Cathedral, where, with the choirs, he regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4.
A ‘technically very confident’ musician who finds ‘fine colours’ on the organ, Richard holds the Soloist Diploma of the Royal Danish Academy of Music. In addition to his performing career, he is active as a researcher and writer, with interests in British organ culture in the second half of the twentieth century.