Episodes: 2000

Trumpet fanfares and other bracing measures spice up this week’s broadcast as we celebrate spring with improvisations and anthems dedicated to the festival of rebirth. Marilyn Keiser plays a Festal Flourish, Kevin Bowyer borrows from Bach’s Little Organ Book, James Culp asks a pointed question, Craig Philips contributes a song for a special morning awakening, and everywhere sons and daughters sing. With instruments in Texas, Italy, and our nation’s capitol, and choirs from Beverly Hills and Britain, we offer Music for an Easter Uprising.

a profound reflection upon the saga of Christ’s crucifixion, a progression through fourteen poems by Paul Claudel with originally-improvised musical commentary by Marcel Dupré.

It’s kind of like a test drive. This week’s Pipedreams program is a review of a dozen recent compact discs, including one from an obscure - and ravishingly lovely - parish church in Waltershausen, Germany. We’ll visit Saint Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle, the old Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn, a lavish museum near Los Angeles, and Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. We’ll have music by Bach and his pupil Krebs, a French organ symphony rediscovered, and an introduction to the explosive improvisational talent of Wayne Marshall, who takes George Gershwin for a ride.

The optimistic and engaging music of American composer and performer Emma Lou Diemer, whose original works and hymn-tune arrangements never fail to uplift the spirit.

Awaken to the coming of spring and simultaneously celebrate a most important anniversary this week on Pipedreams. We honor Johann Sebastian Bach while enjoying his music - both youthful escapades and mature profundities - as played by Simon Preston, E. Power Biggs, Jonathan Dimmock and Kate von Tricht. Other composers offer unusual homage, too, and Håkan Hagegård, Rupert Gough, and Stewart Foster provide a few unexpected surprises. Dress casually, come with a friend, but bring no gifts; the best ones are already on the table.

We offer a gamut of the organ experience on this week’s Pipedreams program, from some of the simplest to the most challenging of music. Climb up the scale with the eight Little Preludes and Fugues by J.S. Bach - student music with a heart - as we pair those with contrasting works by the greatest German organ composer AFTER Bach, Max Reger. It’s a confluence of contrapuntal ingenuity, from serene to seismic, and performances on a pathbreaking organ at a splendid cathedral in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

This week on Pipedreams host Michael Barone visits with one of the world’s foremost recitalists, Gillian Weir. She talks about her fascination with the organ and the challenges and responsibilities of a global career, and plays from her repertoire - which covers pretty much anything from the late Renaissance to the modern-day. Hear instruments in Denmark, England, Wisconsin, the Netherlands, and Texas, and discover how artistry and charm go hand-in-hand. When the magnificent Dame Gillian plays, it’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing like a Dame.

Some things ARE mysterious - yet we’ll clarify any confusion on this week’s Pipedreams program, as we explore five centuries of the little-known history of music by women composers for the pipe organ. Dr. Barbara Harbach is our tour guide, introducing us to works by historic figures such as Elizabeth Stirling, Amy Beach, and Jeanne Demessieux, and present-day folk like Mary Jeanne van Appledorn, Marga Richter, and Edith Borroff. From Preludes to Psalm Tunes, Solemn Dirges to Celebratory Alleluias, it’s a world of emotion and expression, recorded on location at All Saints Episcopal Church, Atlanta.

Like a new car in the driveway, the installation of a new pipe organ is always a time of pride and celebration, and this week Pipedreams visits three churches in host Michael Barone’s neck of the woods where the folks are very, very happy. Lynn Dobson’s instrument at Saint Paul’s Episcopal, Minneapolis, offers plenty of color and power in a deceptively modest package. The new Casavant at Saint Louis Roman Catholic Church in Saint Paul boasts a splendidly-carved and decorated case which matches its vibrant voice, and Charles Hendrickson’s design for Wayzata Community Church builds on the ideal of an American Classic. Christopher Herrick, Daniel Roth, and Diana Lee Lucker play inaugural concerts on these three fine instruments.

Their contributions may not yet be as familiar as those of composers of the German Baroque or French Romantic eras, but the recent works of African-American musicians impress at many levels. On our next Pipedreams program, you’ll be able to hear pieces by Mark Fax and Thomas Kerr, Nol DaCosta, Henry Sexton, and Charles Coleman, which take as themes simple, beautiful original melodies, gospel hymns, and our nation’s racial history. Herndon Spillman, Mickey Thomas Terry, Eugene Hancock and David Hurd spell it out in black and white, our African American organ tradition.

Some questions shouldn’t need asking twice, not after the encouragement we provide on this Pipedreams broadcast. It’s an aural array of amorous melodies designed to stir the heart and unlock the emotions. Our Valentine’s Day prelude features great tunes by Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, and Franz Liszt, dealing with first loves, impossible loves, deep loves, and love’s dreams. Featured organists are Bary Baker, Lew Williams, Simon Gledhill, and Lyn Larson. Happy or sad, impossible or inevitable, at daybreak or twilight, you’ll enjoy our melodious bouquet of Love’s Old Sweet Songs.

A multitalented California musician brings the organ up to date on our next Pipedreams broadcast. John West is composer, arranger, singer, and recitalist, working in and comfortable with both classical and popular styles, in church or in the theater. He demonstrates instruments in Glendora, Northridge, and Los Angeles, talks about his hopes for the future, and excites us with some great music of the past and some of his own new adventures.

Some of you might know him as a one-piece composer, but Johann Pachelbel, the pride of Nuremberg, wrote many other works beyond the ubiquitous Canon in D. On our next Pipedreams program, we’ll explore that extensive other repertoire, which includes splendid variation chains from which the young Bach learned a thing or two, elaborate chorale-preludes, modest miniatures for the vespers Magnificat, and splendid virtuoso showpieces that show off the sounds of 10 different instruments. Joseph Payne, Marilyn Mason, and Antoine Bouchard share excerpts from their complete CD cycles, too.

We sound the trumpet this week on Pipedreams as we visit Claremont United Church of Christ in California to celebrate an extraordinary artistic partnership. American organbuilder Manuel Rosales created the tonal design and finishing for this new organ, which was built by Casper Glatter-Goetz of Germany. The results are remarkable, as you’ll hear in inaugural season recital performance by Cherry Rhodes and Ladd Thomas, resident musician Carey Coker-Robertson, and Parisian soloist Daniel Roth. Plus Diane Meredith Belcher shows off the incredible Claremont trumpets in a piece written specially for them.

The pipe organ is not one thing but, rather, many - and our next Pipedreams broadcast explores some of that diversity while listening to instruments by six different builders, each one with a very distinct personality. A pair of organs in Ontario, for instance, make up in elegance and charm what they may lack in sheer size. Another one, in San Francisco, recycles 90-year-old pipes in a new configuration which both embraces history and creates its own. Yet another organ, built in Czechoslovakia, serves a Lutheran parish in Illinois and, when asked, can play itself. From California to South Carolina, it’s a North American Organ Sampler.

The organ places a brave foot forward into the new millennium, in solos and in the company of brass ensembles and symphonic bands, with sonic spectaculars and sweet soft sounds, too. This week Pipedreams celebrates the many characters of the king of instruments with a sampler of new instruments, recent repertoire and young players. Enjoy the demure delights of the organ at Pembroke College, Cambridge and the expansive voice of one of America’s largest instruments at the West Point Cadet Chapel. David Fedor teams up with the Ridgewood Concert Band in New Jersey, Paul Halley improvises at Spivey Hall, and Allison Leudecke and the Millennia Consort usher in a new century.