Come with us as we visit the 200 year old organ built by David Tannenberg. Originally constructed for the Home Moravian Church, it now can be heard in it’s own room at the Old Salem Visitor Center.
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].
Whether they trained abroad, trained at home, or relocated to or from Europe, the composers of these diverse works ultimately share an American passport.
Come along to Royal Albert Hall in London where we’ll hear the newly-restored Willis-Harrison organ, the largest organ in the UK, in concert performances taken from the 2004 BBC Proms season.
Due to contract limitations, this program is not available in our online audio archive.
The optimistic and engaging music of American composer and performer Emma Lou Diemer, whose original works and hymn-tune arrangements never fail to uplift the spirit.
This week we listen to recordings from generations before ours by performers who knew a thing or two about making Olde Sebastian’s scores come alive.
LOUIS VIERNE: Allegro maestoso, from Symphony Number 3, Opus 28 –Timothy Olsen (2000 Reuter/First Presbyterian, Philadelphia, PA) Pipedreams Archive recorded July 4, 2002
Considering that Mozart wrote virtually nothing for the organ, we certainly had fun finding things of his to play!
Although not as popular among organists as the familiar Sonatas of Opus 65 and the Preludes & Fugues of Opus 37, this week’s broadcast is a collection of repertoire from off the beaten path.
Beyond the familiar Trumpet Tune, this week’s broadcast features many pieces by one of England’s foremost masters, one of his contemporaries and some later imitators.
He’s justly celebrated, but sometimes for not quite the right reasons. Henry Purcell, the foremost English composer of the late seventeenth century, is our particular fascination on the next Pipedreams broadcast, when we’ll listen to everything he wrote for organ, plus some pieces that he DIDN’T, but to which his name is traditionally and tenaciously attached nonetheless. With period instruments and grand cathedral organs played by Robert Woolley, John Butt, John Scott, Davitt Moroney, and even Virgil Fox, we go on beyond the familiar Trumpet Tunes to hear Voluntaries and Marches, Anthems, Songs, and Dances, looking back through 3 centuries in tribute to the memory of one of Britain’s famous past masters.
Tune in and celebrate contributions made to the art of the organ by African-American composers and performers.
Come along for an aural sampler of the mostly historic instruments from Buffalo, NY.
Through folk tunes and patriotic airs, the pipe organ celebrates our national spirit with it’s own kind of fireworks.
A treat for the whole family, this week’s broadcast features organ arrangements of famous classical works and original compositions used in Fantasia and other Walt Disney films.
Behold! We bring you both powerful and poetic musings from one of the greatest organists of the 20th century, Marcel Dupré.
Walking down the aisle to Here Comes the Bride is not as standard as you may think. Thankfully, whether the occasion be a posh ceremony or a simple rustic celebration, the ever versatile pipe organ can provide music for every sort of wedding.
On this week’s show, we’re visited by the prize-winning British organist, David Goode. This talented performer has toured the world and now lives in Los Angeles where he’s organist at First Congregational Church.
…whether in simple variations on a sacred hymn tune or complex counterpoint around a new-made melody, composers always respond to the lyric muse. This week we’ll listen to musical creations based on both familiar and newly formed tunes. One of the most common forms of composition for the King of Instruments, composers have frequently demonstrated their craftsmanship with these lyric morsels.
