Charles Maxtone-Smith

Charles Maxtone-Smith is Organist of Buckfast Abbey. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2023 with the Advanced Diploma, MA Distinction and the DipRAM award, as a student of David Titterington, Bine Bryndorf, and Richard Pinel. He won the Musicians’ Company Award for Organists in 2023, which provides generous funding for two years of further study. He currently takes lessons with Christophe Mantoux at Saint-Séverin, Paris, studying French Baroque and Romantic literature. He successively held organ scholarships at Hereford Cathedral, New College, Oxford, Westminster Abbey, Royal Hospital Chelsea, and King’s College, London. Since 2014 he has been one of the Festival Organists at the annual Edington Festival of Music within the Liturgy, and has played for several BBC Radio 3 broadcasts.

...

Messe modale: Upper voices music for Mass

(AF018)

This recording from the sopranos and altos of Buckfast Abbey Choir captures the unique sound world of upper voices for the Mass. Drawing on repertoire from a short, yet vibrant, period in early twentieth-century France, the programme showcases Masses by Gabriel Fauré, Jehan Alain and Jean Langlais.

...

Cinquième Symphonie: Organ music by Vierne, Tournemire and Duruflé

(AF016)

The early twentieth century was a period of enormous innovation and inventiveness in French organ music. On his début album, Charles Maxtone-Smith brings together some of its finest treasures by three titans of the organ repertoire, namely Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, and Maurice Duruflé, making full use of the resources of Buckfast Abbey’s Ruffatti instrument.

...

O sacrum convivium! Music for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi

(AF014)

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi celebrates each year the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. On this album, the Choir of Buckfast Abbey presents a musical offering bearing witness to this great celebration through music rooted in the words and ancient chants of this feast. At the heart of this album is a Mass setting by Martin Baker, Missa O sacrum convivium!, newly commissioned for the Choir of Buckfast Abbey and here given...