To know this instrument is to celebrate the totality of its wide-ranging repertoire, and one of today’s most broad-minded organists is Professor Craig Cramer from Notre Dame University in Indiana. He takes equal pleasure in contemporary compositions and historic music played on period instruments. We’ll hear him perform Bach in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Steinfeld, Germany. We also hear him in recital on the 19th-century Johnson organ at a convent in Mankato, Minnesota and on the new installation at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma. Craig shares his insights and experiences gained during his international recital tours.
The door is wide open, and the variety and intensity of performers involved in the world of the pipe organ continues to astonish and delight. Our next Pipedreams program explores the vivid work of a dozen European soloists, and the determined involvement of an excellent audio engineer. Christoph Martin Frommen who has documented several grand masters, and some relative youngsters still in their early twenties, for whom musicianship is crucial and the pipe organ is only the means of their expression.
The air is alive with beguiling sounds and an astonishing array of talent, as we sample the catalog of a young European CD label, with fresh breezes from abroad enlivening the realm of the King of Instruments. Sail along with us on the Continental Zephyr new sounds from Aeolus Records of Germany, this week on Pipedreams.
A selective sampler of some of the newer items ‘hot off the press’, a sonic smorgasbord.
…history has been slow to acknowledge the evidence that women composers have accomplished plenty.
…composers from four centuries create energetic musical manifestations of a timeless, singular song of praise.
…some stories, with and without words, prove that music’s universal language is completely comprehensible.
…a summary salute to the memory of several composers who reached significant milestones in the first half of this year.
…enhancing that ‘spring feeling’ with scores from the classics to Broadway songs, tuneful takes on the change of seasons.
…revisiting the art of one of the foremost organist-composers of the 20th century, on the occasion of his 125th birthday anniversary [b. May 3, 1886]
…when two keyboard talents team up, the repertoire provides for some very intriguing results.
…a delectation of French music, with particular emphasis on the organ works of centenarian Jean Francaix (1912-1997)
…one of the world's most exciting virtuosos plays a mostly-Bach program (with a twist) on the great organ at Royal Albert Hall.
…to celebrate his sesquicentennial, we go beyond the famous Gothic Suite to reveal other facets of this intriguing French composer, Leon Boëllmann (1862-1897).
…some stories, with and without words, prove that music’s universal language is completely comprehensible.
…in felicitous fraternization, wind-blown pipes and hammer-struck strings again prove themselves cordial artistic colleagues.
…composers from four centuries create energetic musical manifestations of a timeless, singular song of praise.
…with a good theme, variation sets provide organists and composers an exceptional opportunity to tour the tonal resources of any instrument.
…music in observance of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation.
A New Year’s review of some of the most recently available organ music on compact disc, a ‘host’s choice‘.
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.
