Pipedreams Tour 2015: Historic Organs of Poland

Our itinerary, focused on the central and eastern parts of Poland, will embrace a remarkable variety of instruments from five centuries, including the monumental 96-stop organ at Oliwa Cathedral; the richly ornamented installation by Stanislaw Studzinski from 1680 in Lezajsk, with its celebrated high–pitched, multi-rank cymbal mixture; the oldest historic instrument in Poland from 1620 at the parish church in Kazimierz Dolny; several late-romantic organs by Schlag und Söhne, with their distinctive 'symphonic' voice; new concert hall installations by Schuke in Warsaw and Rieger in Lodz; and Christian Wegscheider's careful restoration of the 1719 Hildebrandt organ in Paslek.

Meet Michael!

You can 'meet Michael' in places that few have a chance to visit, inside the marvelous, magnificent and monumental Wanamaker Grand Court Organ at Macy's Philadelphia Department Store…via a superb behind-the-scenes visit with Wanamaker Organ curator Curt Mangel, via a detailed DVD that reveals much about this incredible music-making masterpiece.

In Memoriam

Stephen Paulus
(1949-2014)

Relive the Aural Fireworks!

If you're still in need of some aural fireworks, Pipedreams host Michael Barone returned as master-of-ceremonies for the annual Independence Day Organ Concert at Washington National Cathedral.  Enjoy the sound of the Cathedral's 10,647-pipe, 189-rank Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner organ heard in a variety of marches and patriotic music. The concert opens with Aaron Copland’s striking Fanfare for the Common Man and the singing of the National Anthem and includes appearances by the Washington Symphonic Brass and United States Navy Sea Chanters. Enjoy the audio and video from the archived 2014 program here as well as excerpts from 2011-2012-2013 July Fourth concerts featured in PIPEDREAMS Program #1426.

Also, if you missed out on the recent Organ Historical Society convention, you can relive one of the major evening concerts, the webcast of Christopher Houlihan's performance on the 1940 Aeolian–Skinner at Cornell's Sage Chapel!

An Amazing Organ Restoration Story:

On many occasions, PIPEDREAMS broadcasts have featured compact discs from the catalog of JAV Recordings. The inspiration for that catalog, and the devotion of its manager, was initiated years ago by the sound of a modest church organ in Brooklyn, an instrument that had been silent for more than a decade, but now lives again! The organ at Our Lady of Refuge Church is quite extraordinary, and its restoration revealed a surprisingly versatile instrument which, despite its modest specification, has been proven capable of playing a wide variety of music in an authoritative and compelling way. Check out a New York Times article about its restoration, enjoy the Brooklyn Daily newspaper coverage of its rededication, and listen to the organ put to the test by Olivier Latry as Father Michael Perry exhorts it to fulfill its destiny below, and follow the history of the project.

 

 

In the spotlight