When Sydney Symphony Orchestra returned to its newly renovated Opera House Concert Hall in 2022, the world’s largest known mechanical action pipe organ, damaged by water from a sprinkler, lay silent and untouched for 18 months. 

This final program in exciting young English organist Anna Lapwood’s two-week residency with the SSO showed what audiences had been missing with a first half comprising Australian premieres of two works written for her, Kristina Araklyan’s Toccata and Max Richter’s four-movement concerto Cosmology for organ, orchestra and choir.

Both works received their world premieres under German conductor André de Ridder in May last year at the Royal Albert Hall, where Lapwood is resident organist. He is in Sydney to direct these four performances.

Anna Lapwood and the Sydney Opera House Grand Organ. Photo © Jay Patel.

The raising of the pink acoustic “petals” enhanced the feeling of a rocket’s lift-off as Lapwood launched into Armenian-British composer Araklyan’s explosive 10-minute piece. Her whirling chromatic runs vied with syncopated orchestral rhythms punctuated by mighty power chords from the organ loft. Then the rhythm and volume were pulled back for an edgy dissonant duet between organ and trumpet...