Reflections and recollections of a year gone by, and hopes for the year to come.
From Georgia to California and New York to Kansas, we offer joyous greetings from around these United States.
Savoring seasonal organ repertoire from many lands.
Celebratory compositions in a variety of dynamic levels on Christmas themes.
Music of expectation and exhultation for the Advent season.
A collection of music to stir the soul.
An autumn survey of recent releases of organ music on compact disc.
A display of surprising rhythmic agility, proving that even the King of Instruments can “get down” on occasion.
A cautionary contrast of realities facing historic instruments in Hamburg, Germany, and at the University of Pennsylvania’s Irvine Auditorium in Philadelphia.
At Church of the Holy Apostles in New York City, meals and music share sanctuary space. Inaugural recitals on a new organ provide our feast.
A sampler of some exceptional and little-known music by composers from Czechoslovakia.
European music of the past is recreated in the United States on three instruments built by the profoundly influential American organ designer, the late Charles Brenton Fisk.
Whether built for a mansion or a rural parish church, these century-old instruments have stories to tell.
Glimpses into the life and art of respected American teacher and recitalist David Craighead.
Resident faculty James Higdon plays the inaugural concert on a splendid new 45-stop Hellmuth Wolff organ at Bales Recital Hall of the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
Performances by Dr. Joyce Jones on two recent instruments at Baylor University in Waco, TX.
Exploring the actualities and implications of Mozart’s life-long love of the ‘King of Instruments’, and other’s love of Wolfgang Amadeus.
Revisiting with Alan Laufman of the Organ Clearing House and talking about the preservation and relocation of historic American instruments.
Some dramatic examples of the still profoundly moving and monumental compositions by the famous turn-of-the-century German master Max Reger.
A celebration of British contributions to the organ’s repertoire over five centuries.
Recordings and recital performances on one of America’s most famous historic concert organs.
Recitalists include Anne and Todd Wilson, recorded in concert on July 9, 1986, Michael Murray on Telarc S-5036 and CD-80049, and Barbara Bruns on AFKA S-4694.
Hardly profound but certainly sonically stimulating playthings from the organist’s bench.
…concertos and other musics for organ with diverse collegial involvements.
…a diverting collection of music in a form which Italians invented but composers in Germany perfected.
…featuring recordings of 19th-century instruments from the archives of the Organ Historical Society, with comments from its Executive Director William Van Pelt.
A summer survey of recent releases of organ music on compact disc.
A continuing survey featuring five instruments of from 12-stops to 109-stops from the shops of Guilbault-Therien, John Dower, Orgues Letourneau, William Longmore, and the Rodgers Instrument Company.
An engaging miscellany of seven instruments, ranging in size from 12-stops to 40-stops, from the shops of American builders Gene Bedient, Jan van Daalen and Fritz Noack.
three timeless works which exploit the French symphonic organ tradition.
One of the world’s best known texts provides us with glimpses into the composer’s craft and the organbuilder’s art, plus a meditative tribute to dads everywhere.
Music of the reluctant French virtuoso and pioneering genius, Charles-Valentin Alkan [1813-1888], composed originally for pedal piano, plays brilliantly on the pipe organ. Considered by many to be the virtuosic equal of Franz Liszt, and also both friend and neighbor to Frederic Chopin, Alkan was a curious, reclusive figure on the mid-century Parisian scene. His numerous works, virtually all for piano, abound with digital challenges and provocative creative twists. Alkan wrote both a four-movement symphony and a massive three-movement concerto, both for solo piano without orchestra. Later, another friend, Cesar Franck, dedicated his own pioneering solo organ symphony…the Grande Piece Symphonique…to Alkan. Franck also published organ editions of the pieces to be heard in the course of this program, which Alkan created for that ‘dead-end’ Romantic-era instrument, the pedal piano, a standard piano with an additional organ-like clavier for the feet. Alkan was particularly fascinated by this device, and even left money in his will to fund a pedal piano course at the Paris Conservatory. Our broadcast includes a complete performance of Alkan’s Thirteen Prayers, Opus 64, and selections from Eleven Grande Preludes, Opus 66 and the Little Preludes in the Eight Plainchant Modes [1859].
Recital performances by faculty, students and alumni on another exceptional instrument at Caruth Auditorium of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Varied splendid and vibrant settings of the perennially affirming hymn of praise, faith and celebration, a sonic spectacular!
Reviewing expected pleasures and uncovering unexpected treasures amidst the important works of Felix Mendelssohn.
A sampler of musics by composers from Nebraska, Iowa, Florida, Boston, Chicago and New York City.
Tune in and discover a few revelatory attitudes and probing interpretations that set this noteable French virtuoso apart from the norm.
A wide-ranging sampler of recent organ music releases on compact disc.
For concert performances on new, historic and unusual instruments.
Performances by and conversations with American organist Susan Carol Woodson, a Memphis native who lives in Belgium.
Both early and late in life, the special power of organ music spoke profoundly through the art of Johannes Brahms [1833-1897]. This centenary tribute includes it all.
In his teens, while studying with Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms thought of becoming a professional organist, but gave up the notion as being fiscally impractical. His four early works show that he well understood the instrument’s potential. His very last compositions, the Chorale-preludes, were dedicated to the memory of his lifelong friend, Clara Schumann.
This program provides a sampler overview of available Brahms recordings, many of which individually emcompass Brahms’ complete works.
Four centuries of music for a festival of rebirth and renewal, the triumph of life over death.
Sorrowful and reassuring meditations for a time of stress and uncertainty.
Whether with arrangements, transcriptions, technological enhancements or interpretive diversity, we seem incapable of keeping our hands off.
What a challenge it must have been, growing up in the household of the world’s foremost organist, and knowing Dad expected you to follow in his footsteps. On our next Pipedreams broadcast, we’ll listen to the music of four of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most gifted offspring, each of them rising to the challenge with capability and individuality. From Wilhelm Friedemann’s quirky fugues to Carl Phillip Emmanuel’s Sonatas, the chamber music of Johann Christoph Friedrich, and the concertos of trail-blazer Johann Christian, you’ll be amazed at the craftsmanship so skillfully displayed by this most unique family. Like father like son? Well, almost, as you’ll discover when we compare the various musics of the four most talented Bach children with the example of their father. He set an incredible standard, which each boy worked hard to achieve in music Baroque and Beyond. It’s Sebastian and Sons, this week on Pipedreams.
Women performers and composers make vital contributions to the tradition of the organ.
A winter collection of recent organ recordings in review.
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.
It’s a sophisticated gathering of friendly collaborators and the King of Instruments on this week’s Pipedreams program. We’ll feature five centuries of repertoire, for organ and saxophone, organ and trumpet, organ and flute, organ with choir and brass ensemble, in works by Duke Ellington, Claude Debussy, Henk Badings, J.S. Bach, Giovanni Gabrieli…really an all-star cast. We’ll also play around with some oddities, too, a very old piece written for the organ to be played along with the tolling church bell, and a wonderfully zesty concerto by Michel Corrette, proving that Handel wasn’t alone in knowing that pipes and chamber orchestra make a superb package. Organ and Chamber Orchestra are among the many pleasureful pairings of pipes. Get yourself a real earful, with Organ Plus, this week on Pipedreams.
It’s a mini tour of four centuries of musical life in an around Vienna on our next Pipedreams broadcast. We include works by Mozart, of course, also some by his illustrious predecessors Kerll, Muffat, and Wagenseil, and some by those who followed after, too. We’ll visit historic Klosterneuberg Monastery and Saint Michael’s Church plus at least one instrument which Mozart himself played, we’ll offer a tiny tribute to Franz Schubert, and we’ll dance away our cares to a Strauss Waltz. Tune in to enjoy works by Kerll and Muffat, Schubert and Strauss, Radulescu, Wagenseil, and Mozart, as we follow the trail of An Austrian Succession, this week on Pipedreams.
Performances from the inspiring and spacious resonance of the Saint Paul Cathedral in Minnesota.
Three of the century’s most memorable organ-playing talents are celebrated in a limited-edition historic CD reissue collection, a sonorously splendid time-capsule from Philips Classics.
These brilliant denizens of heaven evoke their rolls as travelers’ guide, focus of prayers and wishes, and symbol of nations, while providing us with a star-studded musical celebration.
