1863; 1976 Akerman & Lund Organ at Katarina Church, Stockholm, Sweden

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.

If this music makes you think of weddings and beautiful brides, you’re right on target. This broadcast is a collection of preludes, processionals and other pages in praise of matrimony and the emotions and circumstances which lead us to the altar. Whether it be Handel’s Hornpipe or Mendelssohn’s familiar Wedding March, a Salute to Love by Elgar, or Duke Ellington’s In a sentimental mood, you’ll be amazed by the various ways composers have dealt with love and its ramifications. Trumpet tunes and blessings, salutes to love and lullabies, it’s all part of the package when two people tie the knot at a June wedding, and we provide the music appropriate to a chapel or cathedral creating Matrimonial Magic.

The passionate and powerful Sixth Organ Symphony by Charles-Marie Widor in two versions, for organ solo and with orchestra. Widor’s arrangement of the outer movements of his popular Sixth Organ Symphony [solo] was his first major essay for organ and orchestra. He went on to create two additional, totally original organ and orchestra compositions later in life. It was prepared for a London concert in 1882, later played by Charles Courboin in Antwerp in 1900, and presented again by Courboin, with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Stokowski, at the Wanamaker Store in 1919. The Bowden/McKinley performance in Indiana was only the second American outing for this score since that Philadelphia premiere.

…preluding an early November celebration of the art of the organ, these four internationally-acclaimed soloists will be featured in concerts and personal appearances in Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

…a colorful collection of music featuring African-American composers and performers.

…a selective collection of organ works by composers with significant birthdays observed during this year.

…the annual Olde Yeare-New Year reflection, with highlights from recent recordings, concert excerpts, prize-winning performances, memorial tributes, and more.

…from the core format of organ music, these select and delectable items from beyond the standard repertoire.

…despite its formidable reputation, the King of Instruments knows how to let its hair down now and then.

Grandeur and majesty. Passion and poetry. These are the elements of a new musical style that evolved in Paris in the latter 19th-century which revolutionized the art of the organ. On our next Pipedreams broadcast, we’ll hear two ‘firsts’ - two symphonic works for solo organ by Charles-Marie Widor and his pupil and, ultimately, competitor, Louis Vierne. Inspired by the sonorities of the lavish new instruments designed by master organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, both Widor, who was the first to call a composition an organ symphony, and Vierne created musical masterpieces that are both a challenge to play and a joy to hear.

…another selective sampling of unusual and appealing new organ recordings, with commentary by program host Michael Barone.

…Organ music in celebration of the 350th anniversary of the first Swedish settlement in the New World.

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…Musical as well as political attitudes changed when the Bastile fell.

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