Episodes: 1985

…a review and preview of goings-on in the organ world, including excerpts from dedicatory recitals in Pacific Palisades, California (Fisk organ) and Seattle (Fritts-Richards organ), highlights from the first Worcester International Organ Festival, and a feature on the historic Willis concert instrument at London's famed Alexandra Palace.

…french organ music for the Christmas season, in digital recordings by Wolfgang Rubsam and Todd Wilson.

…the first of four programs recorded at the De Doolen Concert Hall in Rotterdam (4-manual, mechanical action organ by Flentrop) during the Festival's 29th season.

…digital recordings of concert performances on the Ruffatti organs at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall and Saint Mary's Cathedral, including premieres of several spectacular works for organ, brass and percussion.

…a recital by Mark Laubach, first prize winner at the National American Guild of Organists Open Competition in Organ Playing, digitally recorded at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral.

…performances by British recitalist Gillian Weir, National Organ Playing Competition finalist David Chalmers, and harpsichordist David Britton, recorded during the San Francisco organist's convention.

…AKA The Remarkable Mean-Tone Organs of Charles Fisk. Remarkable instruments with an historic sound built by Charles Fisk for Wellesley College and Stanford University. Harald Vogel and Fenner Douglass perform in concert settings.

…performances of organ and choral works recorded at San Francisco's most prominent church, featuring soloist Richard Purvis and the Cathedral Choir led by John Fenstermaker.

…regional winners of the 1983 American Guild of Organists competitions perform at St. Luke's Church in San Francisco.

…performances by Simon Preston, Eileen Guenther, and Fenner Douglass on the two organs at Stanford University's Memorial Church, the recently renovated 1901 Murray Harris and the revolutionary 1984 C.B. Fisk. University organist Herbert Nanney comments.

…in recital, John Weaver at Grace Cathedral and Thomas Murray (+) at Trinity Episcopal Church.

…an introduction to the 1984 National Biennial Convention of the American Guild of Organists, featuring digital tapes of concerts and recitals performed in and around San Francisco.

…a selective quarterly sampling of recent organ recordings, with emphasis on the unusual and the unusually attractive. This potpourri covers a wide variety of musical types, performance styles and organ-building attitudes, as displayed on LP's and CD's of foreign and domestic vintage.

…organist Douglas L. Butler presents Marcel Dupre's famous 15 Pieces, op. 18 in a Vespers service at St. Boniface Church in San Francisco.

…a concert on the 1964 Holtkamp organ at St. John's Benedictine Abbey and University Church in Collegeville, MN.

…a survey of the works for organ by the contemporary Czechoslovakian composer, who is heard in comments about his creations.

…another program in a continuing, irregular series devoted to our historic American pipe organ heritage, featuring recordings from the archives of the Organ Historical Society and comments from OHS executive director William Van Pelt. This program focuses on organs in and around Chicago.

…performances by the noted American teacher recorded in concert on the 1979 C.B. Fisk organ at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in Saint Paul, MN, the magnum opus of this pathbreaking American builder.

…an entertaining glimpse at the show-biz cousin to the “king of instruments,” the theater organ, once the ubiquitous accompaniment to the action on the silver screen, now a popular attraction in its own right. Guest commentator Karl Eilers joins host Michael Barone in examining just what a “theater organ” is, and what it can do.

…a concluding program of performances recorded by guest artists at last summer's international organ week in Finland, at Lahti's Church of the Cross.

…solo performances recorded in concert on the 1979 Virtanen organ at Lahti's Church of the Cross.

…the first of three broadcasts featuring performances recorded in the contemporary Church of the Cross in the Finnish city of Lahti, annual site of an international organ celebration.

…an all-Bach recital played by James David Christie on the new Taylor & Boody organ at St. Joseph Memorial Chapel, College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts. The program includes an in-depth examination of the instrument, as discussed by one of its builders, George Taylor.

…a concert performance by Yale University organist Charles Krigbaum of Bach's final masterpiece, recorded on the Robert Sipe organ in the Center for Faith and Life at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

…performances by the California organist, recorded on Flentrop instruments in Seattle and Palo Alto, Schoenstein organs in Los Olivos and San Francisco, and the Holtkamp/Moeller organ at the US Air Force Academy chapel.

…music of American composers performed at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall, the DuPont estate, Longwood Gardens and Grace Cathedral, San Francisco.

…on this first broadcast of a new Pipedreams series, host Michael Barone surveys the musical and historic variety of the pipe organ, while sampling recent recordings. The emphasis is on the unusual and the unusually attractive, with wide-ranging choices covering many musical styles, performers, and instruments.

…performances by members of the Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, recorded in concert.

…celebrated composers' musical tributes to Johann Sebastian Bach, using the theme derived from his last name.

…a reflective survey of performance practice. As the pendulum of taste swings eternally. music of Johann Sebastian Bach remains a constant attraction. But even his work is not immune to varying interpretation as our notions of the ideal "Bach approach" shift and fluctuate. Here we explore the Bach art in its manifold variety as displayed by such noted personages as Albert Schweitzer. Anton Nowakowski. Marcel Dupre. Louis Vierne, Helmut Walcha. Carl Weinrich, E. Power Biggs, Virgil Fox and several contemporary talents.

…a reflective survey of performance practice. As the pendulum of taste swings eternally. music of Johann Sebastian Bach remains a constant attraction. But even his work is not immune to varying interpretation as our notions of the ideal "Bach approach" shift and fluctuate. Here we explore the Bach art in its manifold variety as displayed by such noted personages as Albert Schweitzer. Anton Nowakowski. Marcel Dupre. Louis Vierne, Helmut Walcha. Carl Weinrich, E. Power Biggs, Virgil Fox and several contemporary talents.

…a digital recording of a concert performance from St. Clement's Catholic Church in Chicago, by organist Wolfgang Rubsam, featuring the so-called German Organ Mass, elaborate chorale-preludes based on melodies of the Lutheran Greater Catechism. This volume is the first of Bach's organ music published in his lifetime, and represents his compositional art at its height. Commentary is provided by Bach scholar Chistoff Wolf of Harvard University.

…performances by members of the Twin Cities (Minnesota) chapter of the American Guild of Organists, digitally recorded in recital on the 1976 Casavant organ (18-stops) at the Church of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in St. Paul.

…a selective survey of the unique contributions to the organists' repertoire by the man who invented the organ concerto, George Frideric Handel.

…performances by Minnesota organists Howard Don Small and James Melby, recorded on the 4-manual Welte-Moller-Gould organ (1928-1983) at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

…music for organ and diverse win instruments, from bagpipe to brass ensemble.

…a rare American performance of the 1979 cantata by Peter Maxwell Davies, based on a text by George Mackay Brown evocative of the early Celtic civilization on the Orkney Islands, and some lessons for our own. Recordings were made in concert at St. John's Benedictine Abbey and University Church in Collegeville, Minnesota. Organ by Walter Holtkamp, Sr. (1962)

…a concert recorded at Christ Church Parish in Tacoma, Washington, during the 1982 national convention of the Organ Historical Society. Organ by John Brombaugh & Associates, 1979 (24 stops) and harmonium by Peter Titz.

…a potpourri of music in observance of the 300th birthday year of three renowned composers (Bach, Handel and Scarlatti), the centenary of a legendary recitalist (Lynwood Farnam), and the Feast of the Epiphany.

…a quarterly sampling of recent organ discs, with emphasis on the unusually attractive and the unusual. Our choices are wide-ranging, covering a variety of musical styles, performers and instruments. Domestic and imported LPs and CDs will be aired.