Celebrating PIPEDREAMS’ fifteenth anniversary and the season of Epiphany, with audio postcards of the year’s events, letters from listeners, projections for the future, and reviews of some new recordings.
Contrasting emotional outburst with intimate radiance as we ring out the old year and ring in the new.
American organists provide musical gifts for all who join in adoration and praise.
A global collection of music for the King of Instruments in celebration of the King of Kings.
A spicy collection of holiday music from chapels, cathedrals and a theatre.
…the rich resource of our nation’s own compositional talent store gives our ears and hearts much for which to be thankful.
An autumn quarterly review of recent recordings.
It had to start somewhere, even when it comes to new styles of writing for the keyboard. On our next Pipedreams broadcast, we’ll trace the art of the organ from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, from Antegnati to Ravanello, with recordings on some of the earliest playable pipe organs, solos, duets, saucy sonatas, romantic tone poems, and dramatic concertos. Influenced by the world at large, by court, church, theatre, and concert hall, these pieces by Gabrieli and Galuppi, Bergamo and Bossi, and Casella document a remarkable and colorful artistic progression an Italian Evolution, this week on Pipedreams.
There’s no doubt that he’s fleet of foot and finger, but on this week’s Pipedreams broadcast Anthony Newman shows that his imagination is every bit as quick. We’ll hear him in works by Bach recorded in New York and Poland; in two concertos by Handel played with extravagant embellishments in concert with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; in some French miniatures presented at the Performing Arts Center in Naples, Florida; and in several of his own compositions and in duet performances with his wife Mary Jane. Don’t miss these imaginative insights and intrepid interpretations from one of America’s foremost virtuoso talents and thinkers.
While visiting the restored 1877 Johnson & Son organ which celebrates renewed vitality in the care of the School Sisters of Notre Dame at their Chapel of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Mankato, MN.
Collecting belligerent and beatific samples from a sonorous universe of contrasted musics old and new.
In bold and beautiful music, we hear this London church’s famous instrument “at home” and enjoy the renowned Abbey Choir “on tour” in Minnesota.
two new pipe organs were dedicated—at Shadyside Presbyterian Church and the University of Pittsburgh’s Heinz Memorial Chapel—on the same day!
The acclaimed young organist from Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, plays the celebrated 1979 C.B. Fisk organ in Saint Paul, MN, recorded October 30, 1994.
Reminiscences, repertoire, and recordings from one of the most famous Parisian churches, with comments from current titulaire Daniel Roth.
Performances by Dr. Larry Smith of Indiana University, Bloomington, in recital at the University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, MN and Luther College, Decorah, IA
A return visit with historian and organbuilder Susan Tattershall, who documents some of the many remarkable antique instruments “south of the border.”
Concert performances from diverse New York City churches, with traditional and untraditional repertoire.
Gear up for a super-sonic adventure, as Stephen Adams of the American Theatre Organ Society joins me for a selective survey of organ music in popular mode. We’ll listen to top American talent Lyn Larsen on Wurlitzers in public arenas and private music rooms. Legendary British greats Reginald Foort, Quentin Maclean and Sidney Torch recall the styles of yesteryear, while the inimitable George Wright presents his indellible art at the San Francisco Fox and in three different metamorphoses of instruments custom designed to match his magic touch. Hasten to recall that before it’s involvement with the church, the pipe organ was an instrument of the people, as we listen to The Art of the Theatre Organ.
Divergent views on matters of interpretation illuminate the familiar repertoire of a great master.
More live concert performances by an international array of soloists recorded in Finland at Lahti’s Church of the Cross.
A too-brief summary of the popular late-summer festival and international competition in Finland.
Reminiscences by Viennese organist Peter Planyavsky, who plays music of his teacher and mentor Anton Heiller, along with other works by Austrian composers.
Collecting organ repertoire in the Land of the Maple Leaf.
A celebration of the numerous instrumental and vocal works which this Pulitzer Prize-winning musician has created for the organ’s repertoire, with comments from the composer.
An iconoclastic sampler of American-made compositions for the King of Instruments.
A summer quarterly survey of recent organ music on compact disc.
Playing the daylights out of nine of New York City’s foremost instruments.
The City of Brotherly Love is home to some of the largest and rarest instruments of the American Industrial Era.
A delightful demonstration of the diverse flavors of home-grown organ compositions.
Eight different soloists provide a composite look Symphony Number 8, the largest and least-known of Charles-Marie Widor’s ten famous organ symphonies.
Recitals performances, sponsored by Westminster Choir College, on the 1992 Mander organ at Princeton University Chapel.
A visit with the remarkable young blind British organist David Aprahamian Liddle.
Highlights from the 1995 Organ Recital Series of Charleston’s famous springtime music festival.
Scavenging amidst the numerous and imaginative works of Bach’s exceptional pupil Johann Ludwig Krebs.
From concerts and compact discs, performances at Christ Church Cathedral and East 91st Street Christian Church.
Although not as popular among organists as the familiar Sonatas of Opus 65 and the Preludes & Fugues of Opus 37, this week’s broadcast is a collection of repertoire from off the beaten path.
A tour of organs old and new in Milwaukee, Mequon, Madison, and Appleton.
A spring quarterly review of recent organ music CD releases.
A collection of music for the Easter season.
A visit to recent installations in San Diego, Sarasota and New Orleans featuring instruments by builders from Missouri, Minnesota, Texas and Florida.
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.
Couples at the console revisit the remarkably flexible repertoire for organ duet.
The mammoth 10,000-pipe former Minneapolis Auditorium Kimball organ, still awaiting restoration and relocation in the city’s new Convention Center, provides some music from its Farewell for Now concert with the Minnesota Orchestra and recordings taped just days before it was dismantled for storage back in 1987.
Performers include Edward Berryman, Tom Hazleton, Robert Vickery and Hector Olivera with conductor Jahja Ling. Unfortunately, restoration plans for this unique instrument have fallen into limbo. We hope it won’t be too long before there’s good news to report. Meanwhile, enjoy these remarkable archive artifacts. In particular, Olivera’s performance of the Jongen is an audio tour de force.
Solo organ and choral selections feature the 153-rank Schantz instrument in New Jersey’s most imposing cathedral church.
More music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Leo Sowerby, in celebration of his 100th anniversary.
Resident musician Mary Preston inaugurates the 3-manual, 48-rank mechanical-action instrument designed by Los Angeles builder Manuel Rosales for King of Glory Lutheran Church in Dallas, Texas, recorded March 26, 1995.
We journey back in time on our next Pipedreams program, to the days when movies were real events and movie palaces were the most opulent buildings in the land. The sound of the theatre organ is filled with nostalgia, but these remarkable, resilient instruments are even more vital today, as we discover in conversation with American Theatre Organ Society president Stephen Adams while listening to seventeen different artists and installations. We’ll travel from the Granada Theatre in Kansas City to the Vancouver Orpheum, from Wichita’s Century II Convention Center to the Sanfillipo Music Salon near Chicago. Whether in tunes by Gershwin or Jerome Kern, Chopin or Richard Rodgers, every generation finds its true love in the world of the Mighty Wurlitzer where Everything Old is New Again, this week on Pipedreams.
A tribute to the oldest continuously functional organ-building firm in the United States, Austin Organs, Inc., of Hartford, CT.
Concert performances on the 1987 Kney organ at the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, MN.
Selected works from the organ and other diverse accompaniments, featuring unusual repertoire.
A journey of enhanced perception, guided by Rollin Smith, Towards an Authentic Interpretation of the Organ works of Cesar Franck, with notable and historic examples.
A New Year’s review of some of the most recently available organ music on compact disc, a ‘host’s choice‘.
