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Peter Planyavsky at the Musikverein in Vienna (2011).

When Peter Planyavsky began his career, Victorian music, choral as well as organ, was virtually unknown in Austria; it was certainly not standard fare. In the ensuing decades, Planyavsky has been Austria's most energetic promoter of this repertoire. I asked him a few questions on the topic:

LC: Before you came on the scene, how much Victorian music, if any, was being sung and played in Austria?

PP: Most of the Victorian music was practically non existent here - Stanford's Beati quorum via was known and performed but nothing else. Now it's done a bit here and a bit there.

LC: How do the Austrians feel about this “exotic” music?

PP: People generally like it; harmonically, it is not so different from our own little things from the same period. The main difference is the use of the organ. But in Austria, there were no Swell divisions of the kind you need – and even if there were, the average organ would not have pistons. It was actually near to impossible to perform these things in Austria before the nineties!

LC: What sparked your interest in this repertoire?

PP: I have been in the UK a couple of times, plus Australia plus Canada, so I've heard quite a lot of it. But the actual "spark" was triggered in 1993. Then I started collecting CDs and introduced the music to St. Stephen's Cathedral. [At one time Planyavsky has the unusual dual responsbility at the Stephansdom of Organist and Music Director – traditionally two separate jobs in Austria.]

LC: Is there a particular concert of Victorian repertoire in Vienna that comes to your mind as being particularly memorable?

PP: One of the big events around the organ dedication in the Musikverein in Vienna was a choral-and-organ-concert where we did [Stainer's] I saw the Lord, plus [Britten's] Rejoice in the Lamb. [This took place on May 16, 2011, in the Großer Saal of the Musikverein.]

LC: What about elsewhere in Austria?

PP: I led a choral week in Salzburg in 2004 concentrating on the repertoire, with a big service in the Cathedral – which houses an 60-stop Metzler. All tracker, two assistants, and a lot of sweat and blood...

Peter Planyavsky plays a free organ recital at Kresge Auditorium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on Friday, January 27 at 8 p.m.

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (18 days)

Peter Planyavsky with the author (Brookline, March 9, 2004). Seems odd that the Austrian is drinking the chianti and the Italian is drinking the Weizenbier!

In March, 2004, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brookline, MA (where I was then Music Director), I organized "HeillerFest," a week-long festival commemorating the 25th anniversary of the death of the great Anton Heiller. Naturally, a "HeillerFest" would not have been complete with Heiller's star pupil, close friend, and future biographer, Peter Planyavsky. The following is an excerpt from an article that I wrote for the July, 2004, issue of The Diapason. The excerpt describes the opening event, a Choral Evensong which I personally tailored with the sole purpose of showing off Planyavsky's improvisational gifts.

"There are two types of performers: those who emit electricity, intensity, and sometimes neurosis, for whom every piece seems a matter of life or death (Caruso, Horowitz, Heifetz); and those who exude mental and physical health, for whom each pieces feels like the first of many encores (Gigli, Rubinstein, Kreisler). Peter Planyavsky is of the second type. The 75-minute Evensong service seemed short. One felt that another twenty-five improvisations could have fallen from his sleeve without any detectable effort.

"There is something Beethovenian about Planyavsky, a certain Viennese ruggedness. It snowed as we walked down St. Paul Street together, yet he seemed unconcerned about his photocopied prelude and postlude which he held, uncovered, under his arm. "In Vienna I always walk around like this, "he explained. He spent not much more than an hour at the Bozeman organ, an eclectic instrument on which the stop names are on plaques next to the stop knobs. I myself occasionally pull the wrong stop! Not only did he never do that, but he had a total comprehension of the organ's tonal resources, as if he already knew how every combination would or wouldn't work.

"I knew firsthand of Planyavsky's brilliance as a liturgical improviser, and I designed the Evensong around it. No trite compline hymns for him; I chose Aus tiefer Not and O Welt, ich muß dich lassen. And while the prayerbook rubric permits a "moment of silence" before the Mag and the Nunc, respectively, I translated "moment of silence" as "three-to-five-minute organ improvisation." The individual improvisations complemented and contrasted each other: the simple effectiveness of his bicinium on Le Cantique de Siméon; the color and fluid virtuosity of his Magnificat; the rich, impenitently German-Romantic O Welt; and so on. Each improvisation seemed to enhance the others." (From The Diapason, July 2004, p. 14)

Peter Planyavsky plays an organ recital at Kresge Auditorium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on Friday, January 27 at 8 p.m. Admission for this grand event is FREE.

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (19 days)

The following is a humorous explanation by Peter Planyavsky of why he became a composer. (As you will see, he pokes fun both at himself and at the state of music in the Church at one time.)

"Before somebody else comes forward and makes it public, I would rather admit it myself: I ALSO COMPOSE.

"First, I had not planned it, but – I realized it very soon – I was literally forced to become active in that direction. Of course there were a few pieces out there that had been composed, but many of them were not very useful. To name just a few examples: some songs by Mozart and Hugo Wolf were indeed of acceptable quality and were actually usable as Responsorial Psalms; however, the texts were very questionable. Attempts to use drastically abridged scenes (without the scenery) from Wagner operas as Offertories failed, because somewhere in the middle the next Mass would begin.

"And as for solo organ music – ask yourself: will you torment yourself and the audience with such minor masters as Murschhauser or Reger? No, ultimately we must do everything ourselves.

"This train of thought was shared by many. (Not that they all composed for themselves! They gave me commissions. [...]) The train of thought was shared also by some publishers. (Not that they all composed for themselves either! But they printed compositions of mine.) [...] The reasonings of all these people were evidently found to be correct by all the other people who decided to perform my pieces. [...]"

(From the official website of Peter Planyavsky, http://www.peterplanyavsky.at, English translation by Leonardo Ciampa.)

And now, Planyavsky's most popular composition, the Toccata alla Rumba. The sheet music has sold many thousands of copies. (One wonders, however: would this be best used as a Responsorial Psalm or an Offertory?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4sG0497KoI

(performed by Ines Maidre, in concert at Altenberg Cathedral)

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (20 days)

A personal anecdote about Peter Planyavsky the Improviser:

In late February, 2008, Plany made a quick and somewhat secretive trip to Boston. He was not playing any concerts; he was here only to work on his Heiller biography which he was writing at the time. He emailed to me and asked if I wanted to get a cup of coffee. I offered to take him to see the important 1893 Woodberry & Harris organ in Charlestown.

We met at First Lutheran in Boston, where he wanted to see the stunningly beautiful Richards, Fowkes & Co. organ for the first time. (And I met the church's brilliant organist, Balint Karosi, for the first time.)

The three of us exchanged brief pleasantries, Plany sat down at the organ, and he improvised at length in the North German Baroque style. But REALLY in the style. He tried out all the stops, naturally, and improvised in a myriad of Baroque forms, all authentically. He made commentary along the way about the organ, showing his knowledge and understanding of organbuilding, as well.

Plany and I left and headed for the Orange Line, which took us to the organ in Charlestown. The whole ride I had his beautiful sounds in my ear and marveled as how his improvising could be so "correct" yet also musical, fresh, organic, personal. Nothing "boring" or "academic" about the playing at all.

We arrive in Charlestown, he sits down at this 1893 organ, and now he's improvising in the Victorian style. REALLY in the style. He's all over the organ's three keyboards in grand fashion. I couldn't get over it. 45 minutes before he was a contemporary of Buxtehude; now suddenly he was a chum of Parry! (Except that Parry probably never played on two manuals with one hand at the same time.)

I just couldn't get over how quickly and easily he could "change the channel" and improvise, both effortlessly and AUTHENTICALLY, in two utterly different sound-worlds. It would hard to say which he did better. He is as gifted as he is down-to-earth – one of the true greats that I have ever met.

Planyavsky will end his MIT concert on January 27th with a grand improvisation. Suffice it to say that I'm looking forward to it!

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (21 days)

Here is the program that Peter Planyavsky will play at MIT's Kresge Auditorium on Friday, January 27 at 8 p.m. – with a few words about the unusual work by Anton Heiller.

Fantasy in B flat major
Alexandre Pierre F. Boëly (1785-1858)

Kleine Partita über "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland"
Anton Heiller (1923-1979)(Reconstructed by Monika Henking)

"Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten"
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Toccata in C major (BWV 566)
J. S. Bach

I n t e r m i s s i o n

Sonate II (Lebhaft - Ruhig bewegt - Fuge: Mäßig bewegt, heiter)
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)

Fugue in f minor
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Allegro, Choral and Fugue
Mendelssohn

Improvisation on a submitted theme

A word about Heiller's Kleine Partita on "Nun Komm":

On September 14, 1972, Heiller played a recital on the historic organs of Udine Cathedral, in the North of Italy. He improvised eight variations on "Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland." Heiller's brilliant student and companion, Monika Henking, notated the variations based on a recording of the concert. Heiller did not have huge confidence in the musical worth of his improvisations, but he felt Henking's impressive reconstruction was accurate and allowed it to be published. It is an interesting work, atypical in many ways of the music he was composing in 1972.

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A message from Marian Ruhl Metson:

Dear Leonardo,

I am thrilled that you are bringing Peter Planyavsky to play at Kresge at the end of this month. It was his teacher, Anton Heiller, whom I first heard at Kresge in October of 1965, that inspired me to go to Vienna to study in 1967. This was when the first Fisk was being installed at Harvard, and I was able to negotiate some time off from my job as Assistant Organist. When I arrived, I met the nineteen-year-old Peter who was Heiller's pride and joy. Besides playing the repertoire at an extremely mature level, like Heiller, he was also a brilliant improviser. I tried to keep track of his career and accomplishments over the years, so when I had an opportunity to play his "Fantasie in Memory of AH" at the Legacy of Anton Heiller series at Old West in May of 2009, I did so, in spite of having broken my wrist four months earlier. As you know, as my able stop puller/page turner, I had my doubts as to whether or not I could pull it off. It may be the only organ piece written that has sections for both hands playing on two manuals at the same time, along with a double pedal part. Your contribution to this effort will always remain a secret, right?

Marian Ruhl Metson

Auburn, CA

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (23 days)

Friends,

Last January, when David Briggs played a full-length recital on the historic 1955 Holtkamp at MIT's Kresge Auditorium, it was the first full-length recital on that organ by an internationally renowned organist in ... how many years? 30? 35? 40? There was an unmistakable feeling in the air that it was An Event. As an audience member myself, I can attest that it was.

This year, on Friday evening, January 27 at 8 p.m., no less than PETER PLANYAVSKY, one of Austria's greatest musicians and one of the world's most famed organists, will play the second annual recital in Kresge.

In the coming days, I will be posting information, anecdotes, and other interesting tidbits about Maestro Planyavsky, his program, Holtkamp, and MIT.

Admission to this great event is FREE.

Respectfully yours,

Leonardo Ciampa

Artistic Director of Organ Concerts at MIT

P.S. Earlier that afternoon, Planyavsky will also lead a masterclass at Boston University's Marsh Chapel, co-sponsored by BU and MIT. More information about that event will be forthcoming, as well.