1991 Ahrend organ from San Simpliciano Basilica, Milan, Italy

The organ places a brave foot forward into the new millennium, in solos and in the company of brass ensembles and symphonic bands, with sonic spectaculars and sweet soft sounds, too. This week Pipedreams celebrates the many characters of the king of instruments with a sampler of new instruments, recent repertoire and young players. Enjoy the demure delights of the organ at Pembroke College, Cambridge and the expansive voice of one of America’s largest instruments at the West Point Cadet Chapel. David Fedor teams up with the Ridgewood Concert Band in New Jersey, Paul Halley improvises at Spivey Hall, and Allison Leudecke and the Millennia Consort usher in a new century.

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.

Everyone has an opinion, whether asked for or not. On our next Pipedreams program we’ll argue the opinions of eight esteemed artists, each of whom has a personal view of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. I’m not sure we’ll find, or even desire, a consensus, but we will be provoked by the playing of Harald Vogel, Wolfgang Rübsam, Kate van Tricht, and Anthony Newman. We’ll hear them perform on various instruments from Bach’s time and other organs inspired by history and by the methods by which music was generally created when those particular organs were built. The greatest music demands the greatest interpreters, and we find out just how broad the interpretive stage can be when eight players and as many instruments pay homage to the genius of Johann Sebastian. The interpretive pendulum swings Bach and Forth this week on Pipedreams.

We trace back root causes on this week’s show, exploring composers in Italy, who laid the foundations for much of what we enjoy in classical music today. And organbuilders, too, whose instruments in Bologna, Treviso, Turin and Pistoia retained an unparalleled degree of simplicity of design and purity of sound across four centuries of European history. Their unique character blooms in the special idioms of Frescobaldi, Pasquini, Valeri and others, as we discover during A Sojourn in Italy.

…begin a New Year with a multi-national survey of sonically beguiling recent organ recordings.

…with a good theme, variation sets provide organists and composers an exceptional opportunity to tour the tonal resources of any instrument.

…Advent Awaiting ... music in anticipation of the Christmas festival.

Transcribed, transformed, and untraditional organ works by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.