All Episodes

From the subtle magic of a single flute stop to the glorious roar of an entire instrument in song, this week’s program explores just a few of the auditory adventures available to organists. Baroque chorale variations and Psalm fantasies, trumpet tunes, symphonic poems, a virtuoso etude for pedals alone, and a racy romp for two performers at one console are just a few of the possibilities exhibited by our talented friends. Gustav Leonhardt, Virgil Fox and several others each provide unique responses to musical challenges as we continue our never ending search for Sonic Solutions.

The pipe organ of 19th century France offered players a virtual symphonic soundscape, and this week we’ll listen to a pair of works that exploit those resources to the full. Charles-Marie Widor at the Church of Saint Sulpice, was the first to thoroughly articulate a symphonic organ style, creating scores rich in color and virtuosity. Widor’s pupil and colleague, Louis Vierne at Notre Dame Cathedral, increased the emotional intensity of the genre to embrace passion, heartbreak and rage. Nine soloists on as many instruments play the Fourth Symphonies by this pair of famous composers, creating the grandest sort of sonic experience. We’re not kidding when we say it’s as simple as Four by Four.

Belgian master, Flor Peeters, had a remarkable career. He promoted neither a slavish adherence to tradition, nor provoked any revolution, but during his more than six decades as a cathedral organist, teacher and composer, he blended the influences of Germany and France with a typically Flemish love for color and form. We salute his talents while celebrating his centenary with performances of solos, songs, and even a symphonic concerto. Tune in and enjoy the works of Flor Peeters, and some extra delightfully revealing Flor Samples.

This week we’ll examine the styles of a teacher and his student. Horatio Parker was traditionally schooled in 19th century Germany. A true Romantic. His devilishly talented upstart student Charles Ives, on the other hand, thought nothing of having a choir sing a hymn in one key while he accompanied in another. Despite their differences, American music would not be what it is today without both of them. Parker created lovely works of fine craftmanship while Ives chartered new territory. Tradition becomes transition at the turn of the 19th century. Hear the contrasts between the old guard and one very enterprising student who brought a uniquely individual voice to 20th century American music. This week, it’s Parker and Ives.

It is as simple as Bach’s instructions, “Push the right key and the right time and the organ plays itself.” With that in mind, we’ll discover just how much diversity there is behind that seemingly obvious instruction. Listen to six American soloists on as many American instruments will treat us to Preludes and Fantasies, melodious chorale-settings and vibrant fugues. In a cross-country survey, from churches in South Dakota, Georgia, Michigan and Utah and university halls in Arizona and Texas, we celebrate Baroque organ music at its best and show Johann Sebastian the American way. It’s the United States of Bach.

If this music makes you think of weddings and beautiful brides, you’re right on target. This broadcast is a collection of preludes, processionals and other pages in praise of matrimony and the emotions and circumstances which lead us to the altar. Whether it be Handel’s Hornpipe or Mendelssohn’s familiar Wedding March, a Salute to Love by Elgar, or Duke Ellington’s In a sentimental mood, you’ll be amazed by the various ways composers have dealt with love and its ramifications. Trumpet tunes and blessings, salutes to love and lullabies, it’s all part of the package when two people tie the knot at a June wedding, and we provide the music appropriate to a chapel or cathedral creating Matrimonial Magic.

It’s time to take the organ out of its religious context, and enjoy it out of doors at Balboa Park in San Diego. We’ll also visit other venues where summer concerts win new friends for the King of Instruments. From the Methuen Music Hall in Massachusetts to the Mormon Tabernacle, from Balboa Park in San Diego to the Berks County Museum in Pennsylvania, we celebrate a season of adventure and discovery, a sampler of seasonal recital venues coast to coast. It’s all about having some Summer Fun.

From an historic monastery in Austria to Princeton University chapel, this week’s show features the work of three composers who happen to be born under the sign of The Twins [as in astrology, not baseball]. We’ll hear a Sonata for Organ and Strings by Daniel Pinkham, Gospel Preludes and a Princeton premiere by William Bolcom, and tantalizing toccatas from the 17th century by Georg Muffat. Join in as we celebrate their 80th, 65th and 250th late spring birthdays with a chest full of Gemini Jewels.

One thing he never lacked was grace and charm. This week, we explore the work of a prodigiously talented yet short-lived minor English master. Whether writing for cathedral or parish use, or for his later involvement as a municipal organist, Percy Whitlock’s gentle and engaging personality made many friends for him. His compositions were conservative for his time but each possess a rich emotion and sly wit. After one hundred years, we remember him still, with A Percy Whitlock Centenary Tribute.

This week we celebrate the inauguration of a new instrument, the Davis Concert Organ at the Winspear Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To date, it is the largest production from the shop of the Letourneau Organ Company of Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec. With 96 stops and more than 6500 pipes, it lays claim to being the biggest mechanical-action instrument to be installed in a concert hall in modern times. Christopher Herrick shows it off in a colorful collection of solo works, and Rachel Laurin teams up with Marion Bernardi and the Edmunton Symphony for the world premiere of grand new concerto by Jacques Hetu. In cooperation with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, we are pleased to present Ferrand Letourneau’s Winspear Wonder.

From sprightly Renaissance dances to grandious concertos, this week’s show celebrates the many diverse elements that make organ music so remarkable. The fact that this instrument dates from the 16th century adds a sense of history. Beyond that, however, style, emotion, and compositional and mechanical ingenuity all play a part in creating an art filled that creates a multi-faceted experience ranging from restraint to rejoicing. Whether in a charming transcription, an anthem accompaniment, or a zesty concert finale, the king of instruments does it all. Discover it yourself as we listening to recently released compact discs from around the world. We’re Going On Record.

You know how it is, one thing leads to another. This week’s program is no exception and put itself together quite magically to celebrate the Centenary of English composer Lennox Berkeley. There are works by Berkeley, of course, but also a prelude by Dr. John Bull, a Voluntary or Fugue by Boyce or Burney, a sonata by Bairstow and a heroic march by Brewer. In the end, it’s four centuries of keyboard composers creating a melodious miscellany. Hope you enjoy the works of Six ‘B’s from Britain.

It’s almost like a peal of bells, and why not, since this week’s program is all about praise. The phrase We praise you, oh God. We acknowledge you to be the Lord… has inspired composers through the centuries. Dupré, Attaignant, Buxtehude, and Demessieux, have each created monuments on this text and we’ll also listen to a very snappy setting from the French Baroque by Charpentier, as well as chorale versions by Britten and Berlioz. The celebrations continue through time and traditions, as we shout our praise: Te Deum!

Travel with us to the City of Brotherly Love. We’ll listen to a diverse group of instruments of various tone and texture, from a little Dieffenbach chamber organ that’s more than 200 years old to the lavish 1931 Skinner organ at Girard College. Our music also covers the gamut, from a Colonial voluntary to a Mexican toccata. Celebrate two centuries of the art of organbuilding in America, with a sampler of resilient, vintage instruments recorded in and around Philly. My friends in the Organ Historical Society and I invite you to join us for a celebration of The Pipes of Philadelphia.

The times, they are a-changing, and these days of evolving springtime bring equal measure of mystery and marvel. This week, we muse on this transformation of life with music for the spring festival of rebirth. French, German and American composers reflect on the Easter message. Marcel Dupré ponders the unknowable, Pierre Cochereau celebrates with dances and jubilation, while Richard Webster trumpets a Paschal Fanfare for the Risen Christ. Celebrate the coming of spring with music inspired by the Easter Festival. In parish chapels and historic cathedrals, we rejoice in Resurrection Revelations.

If you naturally think of the pipe organ as a church instrument, think again. This week, we celebrate three organ installations from concert Halls in China, Australia and England. Carol Williams shows off the Connecticut-built Austin organ in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Thomas Heywood gives us the before-and-after treatment at Melbourne Town Hall, where the 1929 Hill organ was expanded and modernized by the Schantz Company of Ohio, and at the new concert hall in Birhmigham, England, Thomas Trotter pulls out all the stops. Click and listen to concert music for concert instruments. This week, we’re not in a church but Out in the Hall.

The King of Instruments enjoys a long and proud tradition. This week we’ll celebrate this heritage with instruments in all of the major European countries where the art of the organ was born and fostered. The peripatetic Charles Burney, who wrote much about organs and organists encountered during his famous travels, contributes a tune to our medley as do Domenico Scarlatti, Vicente Hervas, Michel Corrette, and Georg Böhm. Everything old IS new again as we listen to historic instruments playing German, French, English, Italian, and Spanish music, all with perfect accent, the way it was meant to be. We honor tradition as the voices from these old pipes reveal the Wisdom of the Ages.

This week’s program redirects Richard Wagner’s focus to an instrument which sounds as lofty as any of as his own artistic ideas. Unlike Bach, Wagner never composed for solo organ but LIKE Bach his music adapts well to transcription. Listen to and enjoy your favorite overtures, choruses, arias and scenes convincingly transformed by such keyboard greats as Thomas Murray, Simon Preston, Carlo Curley and Anthony Newman. Hold onto your horses. It’s opera without singers, pipes without preludes and fugues, and an atypical anomally as some of the grandest 19th century music is magically transformed in a manner possible only in the realm of the King of Instruments. This week we discover a surprise in every measure when we find Wagner at the Console.