OK, the magnificent new Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ has made its long anticipated debut in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, and what a wild ride it has been. I knew there was interest in great organs in Philadelphia, a city rich with organ history and tradition, but who knew there would be this kind of "warm embrace"??? And as Fred Haas has said, Philadelphia has long wanted it great orchestra and great hall and great organ to all be in one place. That has now happened.
Do this: Google “Kimmel Center Organ” in the news section of google, and set your preferences to list 100 documents and watch what comes up…aside from all the great general advance coverage this past week or two, the Philadelphia Inquirer advance piece was great, as was the New York Times review (which as of this afternoon was one of the NYT top 5 most popular stories by the way).
Lynn Dobson and his crew have delivered a magnificent instrument, superbly marrying its tonal capabilities to the superb visual and acoustic traits of Verizon Hall. Bravo to all at Dobson, and bravo to Fred who had both the vision and sustained ability and desire to raise the awareness and money needed to make this happen.
Now, the music and the instrument…How many folks were at the POA concerts this weekend? I personally thought the Levinson was a superbly crafted work, but the Barber was IMHO the work of the evening. I know some Barber from my music school days, but this one I didn’t know. Great writing for strings, fascinating to watch Latry’s footwork, and good blend of orchestra and organ. Barber is for me if nothing else a superb craftsman.
Now, geez who knew we would have a full house for 5 hours of organ recitals??? Each unique in their own right and they covered a lot of musical ground that afternoon. Their styles and repertoire were rich and diverse and they really put the instrument to the test… And wow, who knew a radio personality could have so much fun on stage????
I think afterward someone remarked that this instrument had been asked to do so much after its recent birth and behaved beautifully.
And Sunday, the Raksin was quite nice, not great, but really nice nevertheless, so nice I wanted to hear it a second time? Philly Singers Chorus was beautifully prepared, and powerful, so much so I wanted another stand or two of fiddles and basses, but wow the kids played beautifully, no?
Were you there for any of this???? Let us know what you think????
I was at the Friday night concert with Latry at the organ. I had been very excited to go and see this concert for almost a year. However, I was very disappointed by the performance. Not so much the organ itself, but the hall. The Organ felt as though it was in your face during latry's recital and I never felt the rumble in my seat that I should have felt from an organ that size. I was sitting in row E of the first tier, and it felt like the organ was missing in the hall. I thought the Orchestra was not present as well. There needs to be some big changes with the reverb of that venue. A hall of this stature should have sound much better than what I am hearing now. The selection of music was poor as well. Latry did not showcase that organ. We have not heard this great instrument yet. It's not the organ that needs work, it's the Hall. I hope this will change soon. Please put in those concrete doors!
We attended Friday night's POA concert, and were all highly impressed with the orchestra's performance. Latry also played to his usual professional standard. He was gracious in offering three solo organ selections following a very demanding program that included Barber and Poulenc. The dialogue between orchestra and organist was fascinating to watch.
Saturday afternoon's organ recitals provided a glimpse into the marvelous sounds available on the new Dobson instrument. As we were able to move around the hall in between performers, it was possible to determine how the acoustics differ at various locations. The organ had no problems delivering the goods, especially in the Langlais Fete and Jongen Sonata Eroica.
I'm disappointed the POA won't be featuring the organ more in its upcoming season. While the Dobson will be making an appearance in a Mahler symphony, the Kodaly Psalmus Hungaricus, Handel's Messiah and one or two other works, there are apparently no organ and orchestra works programmed for next year. I hope the organ will not be put on the back burner following its glorious debut this past weekend. This festival has proved there's a lot of interest in more music like this. Give the people what they want!
The Kimmel Center Pipe Organ is here, let all the Earth Rejoice!
I am the Artistic Director of an emerging arts organization based in New York. The organization is called the Organ Renaissance Project.
The primary focus of the organization is to renew widespread interest in Classical Organs and their music by creating innovative, non-traditional performances with other areas of the performing arts. These perfromances would have at the center of them, an Organ. We are brand new, and will start small and hopefully grow large.
In order to understand why the Organ lost its high position in American Musical culture, people must understand that there was an actual movement led by Organists from around 1955 to 1980.
About The Organ Movement (aka Das OrgelBewegung--"orgal--bah--VAY---goong")
Headed by the late E. Power Biggs, this Neo-Baroque period was when many closed-minded principles were established in American Organ playing. For example, an Organ student in 1965 would have been repremanded for using the heels of their feet to play the organ's pedals, because that was not the way it had been done in the 1700's. Organists were discouraged from taking the liberty to interepret music with their own emotions. They were best off playing the notes on the scores with no feeling. Organs that were built during the early 1900's in the United States were considered to be bad examples of the "true" to the art of Organ Building. They felt that the only worthy Organs were those built to mimic organs played during the Baroque period of music.
These ideas were obscure to the masses of people that attended Organ Concerts regularly. The Organist they had gone to see was no longer playing with any emotion. They played with what was said to be "scholarly and correct". All of the beautiful pieces of Romantic and 20th Century music the audiences held dear to their hearts were no longer considered as valid additions to an Organists repertoire. Thus, the audiences declined in size. Consequently, most organists living today are products of The Organ Movement. Today is also when audiences at organ recitals are smaller than ever before. The lack of interest in the Organ and its music today among is the consequence of one movement started by one individual.
During the "Organ Movement" anyone who championed the Organ as a modern instrument were horribly chastized and frequently discredited. Of particular note is the late Organist Virgil Fox. Pianists had Liberace, Pop Music has Elton...the Organ had Virgil. Fox is often called the greatest American Organist that ever lived. He held close to his ideas of playing the organ in a modern fashion to appeal to the audiences of his time. His followers were often discredited because they were not "playing correctly" and were often on the receiving end of harsh criticism. Those following a more open-minded circle quickly started to refer to those following the Organ Movement as "Purists".
Today, when one mentions an Organ or its music to someone in the general public who is not a musician, the responses are almost always the same. They invision an elderly Caucasion individual that possesses poor musicianship, a negative attitude towards young people, and a closed-mind. This image is what has hurt organ music and caused the decline in its popularity. Sadly, because the effects of The Organ Movement are still present in those still living, it remains a very difficult task to restore the Organ's popularity using new and non-traditional performances. The organization I am director of will hopefully address this.
Imagine if a group of well-known singers with large audiences that specialized in singing music from the 1600's were to lead a movement to get all singers and opera companies to only perform music that was written in the 1600's and to perform it exactly as they did during the 1600's. That means no more Carmen, Tosca, La Boheme, or Aida.
Or, imagine is a famous symphony suddenly switched gears and started performing the symphonic music written during the Classical Period. That means no more Berlioz Fantastique, Stravinsky Firebird, or any other Romantic or Post Romantic pieces that people have grown to love.
What would happen? The patronage to those organizxations would quickly decline. And that folks, is what exactly happened to the Organ.
Even Leonard Raver, the former Organist for the New York Philharmonic was quoted in the NY Times in 1981 as saying "..The organ is facing a lot of problems rigth now...most of them have to do with Organists attitudes".
My best wished to the Kimmel Center in the Coming Weeks. Maybe I will bring my group there to do a rental performance.
D. Hines
Artistic Director
The Organ Renaissance Project
Oh...The Saint-Saens Symphony 3, thoughtn beloved, is actually extremely easy to play! Any organist that can sight-read a hymn can play that piece. SO...that's actually a great opportunity for Philly to showcase local church organists, young organists, and those that are bi-vocational.
I was hoping that for the first performances, the Jongen Symphonie Concertante and the Khachaturian Symphony-Poema might get played. Those two pieces compete to be the "Crown on the ings Head" or the icing on the cake...when it comes to the LARGE body of Those two very pieces put all the others to shame!
And...right behind those two pieces...you can say that the "kings head" or the "Cake to be Iced" might be the Poulenc Concerto or the Concertino for Organ Strings and Percussion by Pierre Petit. Both of those pieces have fresh tonalities that are basically Jazz harmonies applied to pipe organs. And dare I say...a moment or two that make you want to "shake yo hipz!"
And there are so many pieces for Organ and Orchestral ensembles. Over 1000! And most of those have been written since 1850. Organ and full orchestra, string orchestra, symphonic band, you name it...its out there. Also note, a large number of pieces lie in manuscript form, never having been published.
Here's the dish with organ and orchestra repertoire:
The concerti by Handel and the Sinfonias by Bach do not require an Organ of large tonal output to be realized. You can get away with a small "portative" organ for those.
The Saint-Saens symphony 3 was the first piece of Organ and Orchestra music written where the Organ plays a siginficant role. However, Saint-Saens revisited the idea in 1919, writing Cypres-et Lauriers for Organ and Orchestra. This piece is actullay,in my opinion, better than the Sym. 3. The first movement is an 8 minute solo for organ, then the allegro movment is georgeous with trumpet calls answering the Organ and is set in the regal key of D major.
After the Saint-Saens, there are a number of other pieces that are eefective. Most of the effective pieces come from France. (Go Figure)
On the same page, most of us organists that think out-side the box play a lot of French Romantic and 20th Century French Organ music. That is because, it was during that era, the organ was given a lot of power that was capable of equaling that of a large Wagnerian type of orchestra, with the ability to sound over it on Full Organ.The Organs could finally compete with the orchestra, thus, these pieces of repertoire often have a large instrumentation.
My big dissappointments:
Most Orchestral conductors with organs at their disposal do not take the time to research or learn about more pieces for Organ and Orchestral ensembles. This does take a lot of time and research. You must listen to pieces to see which of them will please an audience, or turn them off completely.
There are a lot of pieces that were written by people that had no knowledge of what tones sound good on an organ. so,needless to say a lot of pieces sit collecting dust. And, why is the Saint-Saens so popular? because its sounds "pretty" and is a very traditional piece, using very tradition style of composing music. One thing...if the composer is among the well-known and beloved, he probably wrote a really catchy piece for Organ and Orchestra. Gounod, Khachaturian, you name it.
See you all Saturday! Im bringing the Widor Toccata!
I am a volunteer at the Kimmel Center. My husband, Grant Greapentrog, and I have been supporting the organ effort all along. We went to the marathon concert in May and were thoroughly delighted with the event. We took friends who felt the same way. What a wonderful way to show off this magnificent instrument. We have been talking about it ever since.
I sent a personal thank you to Fred Haas for all the effort he has put into this addition. I would like you to direct a special thank you to Mervon Mehta for his fine programming for the marathon concert. All the organists were magnificent and the range of their ability and selection was a delight.
We look forward to many other opportunities to hear the Cooper organ.
I am trying to find the name of movement by Saint Saens made popular on Classic FM some 7 years ago. It was a also featured in the film Pig in the city. The music was for organ orchestra.