All Episodes

We journey back in time on our next Pipedreams program, to the days when movies were real events and movie palaces were the most opulent buildings in the land. The sound of the theatre organ is filled with nostalgia, but these remarkable, resilient instruments are even more vital today, as we discover in conversation with American Theatre Organ Society president Stephen Adams while listening to seventeen different artists and installations. We’ll travel from the Granada Theatre in Kansas City to the Vancouver Orpheum, from Wichita’s Century II Convention Center to the Sanfillipo Music Salon near Chicago. Whether in tunes by Gershwin or Jerome Kern, Chopin or Richard Rodgers, every generation finds its true love in the world of the Mighty Wurlitzer where Everything Old is New Again, this week on Pipedreams.

If one is good, two is better or so it would seem on our next Pipedreams broadcast when we explore the remarkable and charming repertoire of organ duets. Whether together at one keyboard or tossing musical messages back and forth between opposing galleries, these selections do prove that you double your pleasure when two organists perform together. When four hands and four feet are set loose at the console, opportunities abound for sonorous and sensuous surprise. Artists include Anthony and Mary Jane Newman, Joseph and Phoebe Payne, Hans Fagius and David Sanger, and Elizabeth and Raymond Chenault, on instruments in Bologna, Boston, Munich, Mount Kisco, and Roswell, Georgia… music by Frescobaldi, Wesley, Daniel Pinkham, Bruce Neswick, Jean Langlais, and Myron Roberts. It’s a new world of experience, music For Two to Play, this week on Pipedreams.

His music is dramatic and challenging, and he’s one of the most promising talents on the international organ scene. This week on Pipedreams, we visit with Naji Hakim, who talks about his childhood in Lebanon and his youthful dream of becoming an organist. He’s realized this dream and proves it with performances recorded at the Parisian Sacred Heart Basilica, and in recital at Our Lady of Grace Church in Edina, Minnesota. Music of Bach, Franck, Dupré, and Langlais, plus a cameo appearance by Naji’s equally talented wife Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet. A young lion of the organ, it’s Naji Hakim of Paris, this week on Pipedreams.

We tug on the rope of opportunity during our next Pipedreams broadcast, and rejoice in the tintinabulation of bell music. Organ composers are not alone in finding the sounds of bells and chime themes irresistible. Our timeless collection embraces the French Baroque, the British Cathedral, and even the hills of Hollywood, where such diverse artists as George Wright, Simon Preston, George Thalben-Ball and Thomas Murray celebrate with clangorous abandon the creativity of Louis Vierne, Percy Faith, Frederick Delius, Edward Elgar, and many others, fourteen composers all told, who have written carillon compositions which will jangle your chimes. Church bells, tower bells, carillons, winter sleighrides and even a Brazilian vacation are conjured up this weeks music for the King of Instruments. “Ring Those Bells!” a clangorous collection, this week on Pipedreams.

There’s never any question that when this fellow plays the organ, he means it… an outspoken and charismatic talent, Carlo Curley joins us for our next Pipedreams broadcast to share some of his views on the art and some of his vibrant recordings made in England and America. You’ll hear favorites by Purcell, Widor, Guilmant, and Bach, on famous instruments at Royal Albert and Royal Festival Halls in London, Belheim Palace [birthplace of Winston Churchill], Girard College Chapel in Philadelphia, and the Century II Convention Center in Wichita. When he’s hot, there’s no one quite so energized or entertaining as American virtuoso Carlo Curley. Pipes and passion go hand in hand. Hear what all the fuss is about as Carlo parades from Girard College Chapel in Philadelphia to Royal Festival Hall in London. Follow the Curley Cues this week on Pipedreams.

We’ve everything from a 16th century Italian dance to a grand orchestral march, featuring instruments of only a dozen stops to several hundred. On our next Pipedreams program, we sample some recent recordings from Saint Christopher’s-by-the-River in Ohio, and the Riverside Church in New York City, the first CD release from Ocean Grove Auditorium, the latest from the Mormon Tabernacle, plus a tribute to Dame Gillian Weir, the last album from George Wright, and a pair of critically acclaimed surveys of the complete organ works of Marcel Dupré. Sounds good? You bet! We’re Going On Record with a review of recent recordings this week on Pipedreams.

It’s all about praise, joy and thanksgiving. Our next Pipedreams program provides music to gladden the heart and lift the spirits. We’ll have a celebratory Prelude by Franz Schmidt, a composer hailed in his native Austria, and almost totally unknown elsewhere. Max Reger contributes a tumultuous chorale-fantasy, Vincent Youmans provides some popular songs, Pierre Cochereau takes us to an Easter morning service at Notre Dame Cathedral, and the choir of Ascension Episcopal Church in Stillwater, Minnesota offers up a cheerful shout. Stimulate the senses and sooth the soul, with Serene Alleluias, this week on Pipedreams.

Believe it or not, there’s a Russian repertoire for pipe organ, and we’ll be exploring it on our next Pipedreams broadcast. Even though the Orthodox Church in Russia specifies choral music only, and the former Soviet regime did little to encourage the instrument because of its close ties to other religious traditions, organs have been built and maintained in Russia for several centuries, and composers such as Glinka and Glazunov and even Shostakovich have written for them. You’ll hear solos from the 19th and 20th centuries, music inspired by a dream, transcribed from an opera, and an extraordinary Sonata for Organ and Cello by Tatiana Sergeieva, certain to make your ears perk up. Unorthodox? Absolutely. Who knows anything about an organ tradition in Russia, but there is one, and we get to its heart with dance tunes sonatas, even music heard in a dream. Prepare for a delightful surprise From Russia With Love, this week on Pipedreams.

On this week’s Pipedreams program, we’ll visit the far northeastern United States to listen to some historic organs in Maine. We’ll hear instruments from Lewiston, Newcastle, Augusta, and Bangor, where at Saint John’s Roman Catholic Church a superb 140-year-old instrument by the famous Hook Brothers of Boston still stirs the soul. Plus, we’ll stop by Merrill Auditorium at Portland’s City Hall where the recently renovated 1912 Kotzschmar Organ, America’s first municipal pipe organ, entertains thousands visitors each year. Ray Cornils, the Kotzschmar organist, shares some insights and spreads the word about special summer events keeping popular interest in the pipe organ alive throughout the state. From up north and down east, our music’s from the state of Maine. It’s The Maine Thing this week on Pipedreams.

Wake up and smell the coffee. The pipe organ is making a comeback in some American concert halls, as capacity audiences at Cleveland’s Severance Hall know full well. Think about it - when was the last time 2,000-plus people paid top dollar for tickets to a solo organ concert? This week’s Pipedreams program shares the Ohio celebration with selections from inaugural-series recitals by Thomas Murray, Gillian Weir, and Thomas Trotter. built in 1931 by the famous Ernest M. Skinner of Boston, had been unheard and long forgotten in an inaccessible above-stage chamber. For the past seven decades it had been akin to a “hidden treasure.” Now the Norton Memorial Organ has taken the place of pride immediately behind the orchestra, the result of an extensive auditorium renovation. In virtually every detail, the organ has been restored by the Schantz Company of Orrville, Ohio with its original voice intact. Enjoy the exquisite period colors and the impressive power of “The Severance Skinner, Saved by Schantz” this week on Pipedreams.

Some music just makes you want to tap your toes, and our next Pipedreams broadcast offers plenty of encouragement in that direction. From a Renaissance Basse Dance to modern Bolero, our collection explores that natural urge to move to music. You’ll hear some of the popular hits of the early 16th century and before, a rock-and-roll waltz, the Saint Louis Blues Twist, a Ritual Fire Dance, and even a macabre revel of spooks and goblins. Our instruments run the gamut from a tiny medieval-style organetto, to sassy theatre organs in Chicago, Oakland, and Hollywood, and a fine new installation at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California. Just try to keep from moving. We’ll explore the extremities of tonal variety and rhythmic energy in music that urges “Dance, Everyone!” this week on Pipedreams.

These days we’d probably just call it ‘getting off’, but years ago when a great performer let loose his imagination, you found yourself transported to marvelous new musical worlds. On our next Pipedreams program, we celebrate multiple opportunities for unfettered inventiveness in a varied collection of inspired works from the German Baroque, by Buxtehude, Bach, Bruhns, and Reincken. And we’ll hear how more recent composers Leo Sowerby in America, Percy Whitlock in England and Louis Vierne in France play with the expanded resources of the 20th century pipe organ. From felicitous demonstration of a rank of flute stops, to exploration of the full sonic potential of great instrument and some great players we enter the world of unfettered imagination, where music can take us up, up, and away. Be mesmerized by the masters, soar with the eagles, as we take off on Flights of Fantasy, this week on Pipedreams.

There’s something for everyone on our next Pipedreams broadcast. We’ll feature everything from charming Renaissance dances played on a restored instrument from the early 1500s to an improvised waltz that’s only a few months old. Our sampler of current CDs includes the sound of the largest church organ in New England and works by Bach played on an instrument from his time and territory. We’ll light up the dawn with a poem perfectly fitted to a venerable Skinner organ in one of Detroit’s once-fine neighborhoods, reminisce about the early days of Pipedreams broadcasts with a piece we premiered here, and savor the splendor of a Vierne Symphonic Finale played in grand manner on a near-perfect organ in Toulouse. From Dupré to Dirksen, and Willan to Walton, it’s a variety sampler of the best new organ compact discs, with profound preludes, delicious dances, and scintillating sorties. To keep up with the recent and the remarkable, we’re Going On Record with new releases in review, this week on Pipedreams.

Whether searching for your lover Shenandoah across the wide Missouri, or settling into a fountain reverie, showering in the South Pacific or praying by the River Jordan, this week’s Pipedreams focus is “liquid lyricism.” You’ll hear about splashing water nymphs, a bathtub songfest, elusive rainbows, and challenges to seafaring men. The music of Handel, Bach, Richard Rodgers, Louis Vierne, and even Chopin will provide a cooling array of aural aquatic images. From the banks of the Jordan to the mighty Rhine, whether in sunshine or moonlight, on Babylon’s shores or in the lively South Pacific, it’s not your normal organ program. From folk traditions to timeless classics, it’s all about Water Music, this week on Pipedreams.

The music bubbles over with imaginative ideas. French virtuoso and teacher Marcel Dupré created an incredible body of organ compositions during his more than 80 years. Though much of it is frequently performed and very popular, none of it was recorded until British recitalist Jeremy Filsell decided to climb the mountain. From audience charmers to works of powerful religious emotion, from simple teaching tools to the most complex of technical hurdles, these pieces represent one of the most important, and astonishing, sets of compositions from the 20th century. He began brilliantly and built strength upon strength. In his lifetime, early 20th century French organist and composer Marcel Dupré, was simply the best. Englishman Jeremy Filsell talks about his CD cycle for the Guild Music label, and shows us what he and Dupré are made of, as we investigate The Dupré Legend this week on Pipedreams.

One of the late romantic masterworks for orchestra is a symphony by Cesar Franck. And one of the great achievements of the 19th century French organ school was this same Cesar Franck’s introduction of a symphonic manner of writing for the pipe organ. But the Symphonic Organ and Franck’s D-minor Symphony are not usually on the same page… that is until our next Pipedreams broadcast when Jane Parker-Smith and Thomas Murray apply their magic to a remarkably effective transcription of the piece. Other items qualify as recent discoveries, some hundred years after the fact, and one familiar score may surprise you with its unconventional conclusion. They don’t teach it this way in the conservatory. Indeed, everything about the work of this estimable French composer is more than a bit out of the ordinary. It’s either been arranged, newly discovered, or radically transcribed. All of it’s enjoyable, and Franckly Unexpected. The music of Cesar Franck, this week on Pipedreams.

We take the psalmists directive, at least for few moments, and venture Beside Still Waters on our next Pipedreams program by listening to music by American composers. Douglas Cleveland plays Dan Locklair’s Windows of Comfort… a series of movements inspired by Tiffany stained glass window scenes. David Higgs presents the world premiere of Three Meditations, by Augusta Read Thomas, and Mary Preston joins the Colorado Symphony for a colorful and sizzling new Concerto for Organ and Orchestra by Gerald Near which might make you stand up and shout bravo. From alpha to omega, we explore the living art of colorful contemporary repertoire with Douglas Cleveland, David Higgs, and Mary Preston as our soloist guides. From an Organist’s Guild Convention in Denver, it’s the American Muse at work, this week on Pipedreams.

With themes from ancient chants and traditional hymn, we celebrate a season of reawakening on our next Pipedreams program, exploring four centuries of music for the Resurrection Festival. Through performances on historic instruments at Altenburg Abbey and the Martini Church in Groningen, the Netherlands, we’ll discover that Johann Sebastian was not the first Bach family organist, though hwe was certainly the most ingenious. Franz Lehrndorfer will improvise on the immense new instrument at the Cathedral in Munich. And Melanie Ninneman and Helen Jensen perform a seasonal duet. It’s music to raise the spirits, literally - a seasonal selection from four centuries of compositions on resurrection themes, with works by Pachelbel and John Rutter, a fantastic improvisation from the Munich Cathedral, and some of Bach’s most exuberant chorale-preludes. All together, their colors and harmonies will stir your soul - music for This Joyful Eastertide, this week on Pipedreams.