My Last Organ Recital - October 2003

On Saturday, October 18 at 4:00 pm I performed an organ recital.  It took place at Iglesia Episcopal de San Pablo, 2801 N. 31st St., Phoenix AZ.  This was a benefit concert to support the Joshua Tree Feeding Program, an organization that provides meals and groceries to persons with HIV/AIDS in the Phoenix area.  All donations collected at the door were given to Joshua Tree to support their program.

It had been 5 years since the last time I gave a concert, but I figured that a benefit concert for Joshua Tree would be a good cause to give a performance.  Here's the program I performed for this recital:

As an encore piece, I played the Festive Trumpet Tune by David German.

Program Notes

This program begins and ends with two youthful works by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Toccata and Fugue in D minor is arguably the most famous organ composition ever written, familiar to musicians and non-musicians alike. The Prelude and Fugue in D major is a virtuosic work featuring daring scales and passage work on the pedals

Johann Gottfried Walther was a distant relative and contemporary of J. S. Bach. Both composers number among their compositions several organ transcriptions of concertos by other composers. The Concerto in B flat is just one of a group of 13 such transcriptions written by Walther.

C. S. Lang was born in New Zealand but later settled in England. The Tuba Tune is his most popular piece, exploring the sounds of the solo reed stop in both the treble and tenor registers.

The Adagio movement from Felix Mendelssohn’s first sonata is a veritable Song without Words, featuring a clear, lyrical melody and texture typical of his compositional style.

French organist Theodore DuBois composed a considerable amount of organ music. The Toccata in G is written in a simple ABA form, with a lyrical middle section providing a brief respite from the rapid passagework of the outer sections.

The Carillon by English composer William Mathias is a rhythmic, energetic piece with a constantly changing meter and featuring a clear melody harmonized by open 4ths, 5ths, and combinations thereof.

Neo-classical composer Paul Hindemith wrote three sonatas for Organ. The movement included here has a pastorale quality of sorts, with a gently lilting theme in 6/8 time which is imitated throughout the various registers.

French organist Lefebure-Wely was a prolific composer of works which, though generally not of high musical or artistic value, certainly appealed to the tastes of mid-19th century Paris. The almost circus-like Bolero de Concert numbers among his more-often performed works.

Benedictus, by Max Reger, is part of a set of twelve pieces published as Reger’s Opus 59, appearing in 1901. This work is based on the corresponding portion of the catholic mass, and contains some traces of Gregorian elements harmonized in Reger’s highly chromatic idiom.