LOUIS VIERNE: Allegro maestoso, from Symphony Number 3, Opus 28 –Timothy Olsen (2000 Reuter/First Presbyterian, Philadelphia, PA) Pipedreams Archive recorded July 4, 2002
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.
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.
This week we pay tribute to Gerre and Judith Hancock, the talented husband and wife who have made marvelous music at Saint Thomas Church in New York City for more than 30 years.
Tune in as we take our recording equipment around the region, capturing the excitement of LIVE performances. The first of two parts, we find artists meeting the challenge of the concert experience with incomparable panache.

Featured Sponsor

Learn more about the tremendous support we receive from the Family of Lucinda and Wesley C. Dudley, from Walter McCarthyClara Ueland and the Greystone Foundation, from Ed and Wanda Eichler, from the Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund of the HRK Foundation, and from affiliate members of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America (APOBA), including the Dobson Pipe Organ Builders of Lake City, Iowa.