Cherry Rhodes kicks off the first regular season of our Master Musicians, Organ series of performances. Ms. Rhodes has lots of local ties: she graduated from Curtis, made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and she was one of the first organists invited to play the Aeolian-Skinner organ at the Academy of Music. Included in her program is a piece by Pennsylvania native Clarence Mader. Mr. Mader was born in Easton, PA, and after a tragic automobile accident, a fund was established in his and his wife's names to fund organ composition and research.
The recital was "nice". I have listed to organ music for years, and the only one that was familiar was that first Bach piece. I bought tickets for the whole season, but suprisingly none of the organists are playing any of the good old-time favorites in ther programs. When are they going to have Diane Bish play?
It was a good recital, wasn't it? I loved the Bach too but was equally impressed by the Guillou - a fiendishly difficult piece to play that probably would not have been heard here unless Cherry played it.
Diane Bish is not currently scheduled to perform here, but as one can imagine, having just started this recital series this season, there are many excellent organists still to be "booked" for a date. We hope to get to all of them. In the meantime, many thanks for subscribing to the series.
I do agree that the last piece by Guillou was amazing and Im glad I stayed to hear it.
I asked about Diane Bish because she is one of the few concert organists that will draw a very very large crowd, she will play the favorites that make memories(like the Widor Toccata, the Vierne Carilons of Westminster, the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor). My 12 year old grandson likes to listen to the organ now because of her, and many younger organists are inspired by her and the late Virgil Foxx.
I also like hearing Alan Morrison alot. I have heard him play a lot of the favorite and really difficult pieces that only a handful of organists can play.