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Celebrating the pipe organ, the King of Instruments |
Mailbag: “Ellsasser”
April 27, 2006
Dear Michael,
I would love to know if anyone else is interested in Ellsasser recordings or an all-Ellsasser (2 lls, by the way) program. I have recordings and a biography that could be used. I knew Ellsasser in his last year of life and have pictures.
Michael Gould
San Antonio, TX
Dear Michael,
Perhaps only a curious coincidence, but at least one other site visitor has similarly suggested a program about Richard Ellsasser, and I have been accumulating materials with that possibility in mind (though I do not guarantee anything).
Many of his recordings are in rather poor monophonic sound (the MGM pressings were never particularly refined), though I do have three stereo albums in hand from his later years. A school classmate studied with Richard at Interlochen, too, and one of my favorite ‘curio’ albums as a teen-aged organ record collector was Ellsasser’s rendition (on a Baldwin spinet organ) of Grieg’s Holberg Suite and MacDowell’s Woodland Sketches …quite amazing in their bizarre way.
Don’t flood me with information all at once, but the more ‘good stuff’ I can lay hands on, the more likely a program might evolve.
And if anyone else reading this blog has significant Ellsasser materials/connections, let me know.
jmb
