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Organic
music
Los Angeles less-known treasures
Sunday, January
15
Diane Meredith Belcher (organ). Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D
minor &
other works. Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA.
Sunday, January
22
Richard Elliott (organ). Mussorgsky: "Pictures at an Exhibition"
& other
works. First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.
Saturday,
January 28
Christoph Bull (organ). Bach: "Prelude & Fugue in E flat"
& other works.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, CA.
By A. Michael Noll
Southern California is a great organ town - pipe organs, that is. It seems that every church has a pipe organ more marvelous than its neighbor. The quality of all these instruments is superb, attracting the world's greatest organists to perform at many recitals on the organs of Southern California.Two tremendous organs are located in downtown Los Angeles, almost across the street from each other. One is at the new Disney Hall (a Rosales); the other is at the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (a Dobson). The Cathedral is so humongous that its organ seems dwarfed in size, but in power this organ shakes the building. The stark acoustics of the Disney Hall give its organ a sound that seems somewhat lacking in power but not in crystaline clarity. The Disney organ is visually stunning with slanted pipes that fill and focus the front of the hall.
The third great organ is a little over a mile away at First Congregational Church (an E. M. Skinner and Schlicker) and is billed as "the world's largest church pipe organ" with "more than 345 ranks and 23,000 pipes." And large and powerful it indeed is. Thus, Los Angeles is blessed with three great organs - a trinity of instruments each unique and alluring enough to attract the world's greatest organists to Los Angeles to play on them. And in a period of two weeks, I was able to hear recitals on all three.
The recital on January 15, 2006 was by Diane Meredith Belcher on the organ at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Belcher is on the organ faculty of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ and also is at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.
An interestingly unique piece in Belcher's performance was her transcription of the Bach "Double" Violin Concerto. It seems that Bach and organs were made for each other - even when his violin music is transcribed for the organ. Both Belcher's transcription and her playing were sparklingly ingenious. The Rosales organ in the dry acoustics of the Disney Hall is perfect for the quickness of Bach, and Belcher perfectly chose exactly the right stops so that her Bach retained the perfect playfulness. Other pieces in her performance included works by Franck and Alain. But I wished for more lower frequency impact from the Disney organ, which clearly was the fault of the Hall's acoustics.
The recital on January 22 was by Richard Elliott, one of the organists at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. His recital on the organ at First Congregational Church was most impressive and was just one of many such stunning recitals in this series - now in its 37th year.
The major piece in Elliott's performance was Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Pictures was originally written for piano by Mussorgsky, and then orchestrated by many composers - the Ravel version being the one most frequently performed. The organ version certainly went over the top in a thrilling performance by Elliott, rattling my innards with the lower registers of this mighty organ. But I would have liked a little more subtlety in some of the sections of the piece.
The program also included some shorter pieces by Bach, Mozart, Cundick, and Vierne - all competently and well performed.
The recital on January 28 was by Christoph Bull, university organist at UCLA, on the organ at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Bull played his transcription for organ of the fourth movement of Mozart's "Jupiter Symphony." It was delightful - and a fitting tribute to Mozart's 250th birthday. The reverberation time of the Cathedral is quite long, and Bull appropriately adjusted his playing to accommodate it. The organ at the Cathedral has smooth and awe inspiring low frequencies that shook not only the building but also my whole body. Bull's playing made me feel as if I were with the angels and heavenly sounds.
Organists are a unique breed of musicians since they are not able to lug around their own instrument and must rely instead on what is available. Hence, in reviewing an organ recital both the organist and the organ justify mention.