Episodes: 1998

A summing up of the past year, with celebrations and memorial tributes, highlights of some exceptional recordings, and some glimpses into the future.

Celebratory anthems and organ solos, domestic and imported, for the holiday season.

A coast-to-coast collection of memorable and mesmerizing manipulations of seasonal songs.

From Provence to Poland and New York City to Norway, we offer a global tour of compositions on Christmas themes.

Musical meditations for Advent on themes of expectation and wonderment.

An extravagantly colorful autumn collection of recent recordings in review.

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.

A first program of highlights from the 1998 National Biennial Convention of the American Guild of Organists.

Transcribed, transformed, and untraditional organ works by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

Celebrating a recent recorded summary of historic instruments and young performing talent in France.

Whether bullish or bearish, the musical environment in Washington, DC is enlivened by the sounds of instruments such as these.

Sampling sounds of six recent organ installations in Washington, California, Arkansas, Florida and North Carolina.

With organologist and restorer Susan Tattershall, we explore the musical legacy of the Spanish conquest of the New World, visiting historic instruments in the regions of Oaxaca, Tlaxcala and Mexico City. Less than a century after the first expedition of Christopher Columbus, the art of organbuilding, taught by Spanish monks and practiced, to large extent, by indigenous artisans, was firmly established on the North American continent. Our program travels the countryside, revelling in the ‘sights and sounds’ of a remarkable culture, and listening to instruments built in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, some small enough to stand on a card table, others as grand as the finest cathedral organs of Old Spain. Performances feature Jose Suarez of the Mexico City Conservatory, and Roberto Oropeza. All recordings were made on location and generally in compromised circumstances, and in most cases the organs were pumped by hand. Sites and musical selections include:

Music on Old Testament themes for Synagogue services or concerts.

A trio of historic instruments, a contemporary piece for two to play, and a centenary bouquet for a past master of melody.

American composers Frank Ferko and Stephen Paulus confirm the influence of a medieval mystic, Hildegard of Bingen, upon their contemporary art. Hildegard believed music to be the highest form of human activity, a mirror of the celestial resonance of angel choirs and the harmony of the heavenly spheres. Why shouldn’t composers today be inspired by her example?

Behold! We bring you both powerful and poetic musings from one of the greatest organists of the 20th century, Marcel Dupré.

Glittering interpretations of cosmic compositions on brilliantly shining and heavenly themes.