A North American Organ Sampler

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.

Listen to the program

Program Broadcast dates:

January 10, 2000

Music played in the program

JEAN LANGLAIS: Rhapsodie Gregorienne, from Nine Pieces –Stewart Wayne Foster (1992 Ontko & Young/First Scots Presbyterian, Charleston, SC) Pipedreams Archive recorded May 25, 1998

MARCEL DUPRÉ: The World Awaiting the Saviour, from Symphonie-Passion, Opus 23 –Glenn Kime (1995 Visscher/Old First Presbyterian, San Francisco, CA) Raven OAR-450

MARK THEWES: Trumpet Tune in E-flat. FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN: Caltz in c#, Opus 64, number 2 –Mark Thewes & Fredrick Bahr (1996 Kegg/Church of the Lakes United Methodist, Canton, OH) Kegg Pipe Organ CD-1001

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Rhapsody Number 2 on Breton Themes, Opus 7 –Haig Mardirosian (1991 Buzard/St. John the Divine Episcopal Chapel, Champaign, IL) Centaur CD-2368

DIETERICH BUXTEHUDE: Praeludium in a; Chorale-prelude, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen –Craig Cramer (1991 Gober/St. Giles Presbyterian, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada) Gober Organs, Ltd.

J.S. BACH: 2 Chorale-preludes: Allein Gott in der Höh, S. 711; Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, S. 731 HEALEY WILLAN: Scherzo & Festival, from Five Pieces –Craig Cramer (1995 Gober/St. Sosa Lee RCC, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada) Gober Organs, Ltd.

MERRILL N. DAVIS III: Improvisation Fanfare. DIETERICH BUXTEHUDE: Passacaglia in d. DMITRY BORTNIANSKY: Concerto in D. MERRILL N. DAVIS III: Improvisation Fantasy –Merrill N. Davis III & Volodymyr Koshuba (1996 Rieger-Kloss/Trinity Lutheran, Roselle, IL) Euro Musik CD-1001

Filler –CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Rhapsody Number 2 (see above)