1876 Willis organ at Salisbury Cathedral, England, UK

It’s all so familiar but also the beginning of an uncharted adventure. This week’s Pipedreams program explores wedding music in its broader implications. We’ll have traditional processionals, historic works in celebration of a joy-filled day, exotic pieces from Finland and the Czech Republic songs and ballads about true, perfect and wondrous love, an anthem about an amiable dwelling place, and even a warning lest fools rush in. For June brides or newlyweds at any time of the year, it’s music which proclaims This is the Day.

Put some spring in your step with this week’s show, and perhaps even respond to the urge to get on your feet and troop around with these parade pieces and processionals for diverse occasions. Whether it be a pompous processional from Paris, or a splashy sound-off by Sousa, our program guarantees to make you move up out of your chair, fall in and straighten that rank and, in response to irrepressible rhythms and March Again.

This week we take a listen to new recordings that represent an exceptional survey of four centuries of music.

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].

Taken from many nations, the music on this week’s program adds a distinctive flavor to our Christmas celebration.

Hot to the touch, and hotter to hear, these compositions cover the keyboard with memorable sonic effects.

…the splendid sounds of organs in the United Kingdom resonate with pleasurable grandeur.

…a collection of music by composers (mostly) with important birthday anniversaries in the year 2011.

…composers and performers from at home and abroad explore diverse compositions in celebration of the gift of Christmas.

…magical music, both old and new, adds immeasurably to the spirit of the Nativity Festival.

…a bicentennial review of some intriguing compositions by the reclusive and legendary 19th century virtuoso Charles-Valentin Alkan.

…the splendid sounds of organs in the British Isles resonate with pleasurable grandeur.

…with so many intriguing items slipping between the cracks of our awareness, we thought we might share some overlooked treasures here.

…a review of some intriguing compositions by the reclusive and legendary 19th century virtuoso Charles-Valentin Alkan.

…A quarterly survey of recent organ recordings which emphasize the unusual and the unusually attractive. Program host Michael Barone plays arbiter of taste.

…A quarterly survey of recent recordings. Host Michael Barone comments.

…Unusual compositions and extraordinary performances in tribute to the great French teacher, composer and virtuoso.

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.

Hardly profound but certainly sonically stimulating playthings from the organist’s bench.