Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (9 days)

Today I was browsing the Holtkamp opus list and see what other instruments were built just before and just after the two MIT instruments. I was amazed at just how MANY instruments the firm built in that three- or four-year period. I was equally amazed, in a more melancholic way, how few of these instruments are still in existence ...

Opus Year Location (manuals-stops)

1701 1958 Christ Church Grosse Pointe, MI (IV-50)

1700 1957 Trinity Lutheran Church Moorhead MN (III-36)

1699 1958 University of California Berkeley CA (III-43)

1698 1956 Syracuse University Practice Organ Syracuse NY (II-4)

1697 1957 Church of the Cross Millwaukee WI (II-12)*

1696 1957 Immanuel Lutheran Church DesPlaines IL

1695 1957 Christ Church Cincinnati OH (IV-53)

1694 1957 Shorter College Rome GA (III-27)

1693 1956 Church of the good Shepherd Palos Heights IL (I-6)

1692 1956 Corpus Christi Catholic Church New York NY (III-23)

1691 1956 Kent School Kent CT

1690 1957 Lutheran Church of the Reformation Affton MO (I-6)

1689 1956 Episcopal Theological School Cambridge MA (III-32)

1688 1956 Chapel of the Cross San Fernando CA (I-6)

1687 1956 University Christian Church DesMoines IA (II-26)

1686 1956 Lutheran Church of the Resurrection Yandley PA (I-6)

1685 1955 University of Alabama - Practice Organ Tuscaloosa AL (I-4)

1684 1956 William Scheide Residence Princeton NJ (II-12)

1683 1955 Pilgrim Lutheran Church Marysville MI (I-6)

1682 1955 Northwestern University - Practice Organ Evanston IL (I-4)

1681 1956 Collingwood Presbyterian Church Toledo OH (III-43)

1680 1956 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Auditorium Cambridge MA (III-43)

1679 1955 Lutheran Church of the Ascension Birmingham MI (I-7)

1678 1954 Hope Lutheran Church Park Forest IL (I-6)

1677 1955 Wellesley College - Positiv Wellesley MA (I-3)

1676 1955 St. Stephens Episcopal Church Goldsboro NC (II-17)

1675 1955 St. Charles Catholic Church Parma OH (III-33)

1674 1955 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Chapel Cambridge MA (II-12)

1673 1957 Maryville College Chapel Maryville KY

1672 1954 St. Andrew's School Middleton DE (II-12)

1671 1954 Trinity Lutheran Church Houston TX (III-33)

1670 1954 Trinity Lutheran Church Grand Island NE (III-19)

1669 1954 Epsworth Euclid Methodist Church Cleveland OH (IV-60)

(Data collected from http://www.holtkamporgan.com/Chart/Default.aspx )

Photo: University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa (Holtkamp Op. 1685). Photo from the OHS Database. Note that the organ is II-12, even though it is listed as I-4 on the Holtkamp website.

* = This should read Chapel of the Cross, not Church of the Cross. It was installed as a I-8 but later enlarged to full size (II-15). Many thanks to David Bohn for bringing this error to my attention.

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (10 days)

An energetic and flowing reading of Bach's famous "Little Fugue in G minor" (BWV 578). From Peter Planyavsky's all-Bach recording on the Marcussen organ of Fukushima Concert Hall (recorded 1986).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiYOshyWXRs

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (11 days)

Some interesting comments by Peter Planyavsky on the possibilities of writing good music for the post-Vatican-II church:

"You are not to write a 'pretty' or 'interesting' piece which 'can also be performed in the liturgy,' but rather, you should truly compose above all for liturgical use – with all the consequences. ...

"All right, let's talk about the Responsorial Psalm. Whoever has in mind an awful, primitive, monotonous little ditty should please think again. Nowhere is it demanded that it may not be elaborate, dignified, polyphonic, and original. Fundamentally the structure of solo psalmody should be maintained, but there is much more that can be done with it. The same is true for the Alleluia verse. Further: the manifold possibilities of alternation by stanza between choir and congregation are not yet exhausted. ...

"So far, none of the church music alarmists has been able to explain to me how the task of setting the 150 psalms (that is 77 pages), compared to the Ordinary (that is two pages), represents a limitation. ...

"I resist any fundamental charge of a deficit for which the liturgy of the Second Vatican Council would be guilty. The foundational and functionally coherent involvement of the congregation (and that does not mean always, everywhere, constantly, and primitively!) is not a bureaucratic spawn of a few music-hating liturgists. Rather, it was a radical innovation of our [twentieth] century that was awaited with longing all across Europe and in many places already practiced illegally by anticipation. Again, I wish to emphasize, the effects for sacred msuic have been predominantly positive and inspiring to the imagination."

(Peter Planyavsky, "Komponieren, aber für die heutige katholische Liturgie" ("Compose, But for the Current Catholic Liturgy"), Singende Kirche, 1988f. English translations from "Sacred music and liturgical reform: treasures and transformations" by Anthony Ruff (2007).)

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (12 days)

For decades, Peter Planyavsky was the organist and/or music director of the Stephansdom in Vienna, one of the world's great cathedrals. The highlight of his tenure was undoubtedly the installation of the Rieger organ in 1991. It must certainly be the most heroic 56-stop tracker ever built! Playing a concert on it in 2001, on my very first European tour, was one of the great thrills of my life (especially the Liszt B-A-C-H). The 32' Principal does not purr; it roars. And I remember the Pedal reeds 16' and 8' being so large-scale that, even in big pieces, I usually used one or the other. But then there were more delicate colors on the Brustwerk and elsewhere. In fact, I had no trouble finding the right textures for the Bach Trio Sonata that I played. (I can't think of many cathedrals in which I would attempt such a work.) On the Solowerk, the big reed with the big cornet enable a melody to soar above the rest of the organ in a very Planyavskian sound.

The Pipedreams website has featured this instrument in five of its problems. Links to all can be accessed from this page:

http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/gallery/austria/vienna_stephansdom_rieger.shtml

Photo: the author at the Stephansdom organ (July, 2001).

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (13 days)

Last week in one of my posts, Marian Ruhl Metson wrote of her experience with the composition by Peter Planyavsky, "Fantasie in memoriam A.H." (The title refers, of course, to Anton Heiller). Below are YouTube links of this very interesting composition, played by a student of Planyavsky, Peter Peinstingl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A8-xVfu8Hs (Part I)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_zLjUlpYWQ (Part II)

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (14 days)

By now you've heard me mention that on Friday, January 27, at 8 p.m., legendary Viennese organist Peter Planyavsky will play an organ recital at MIT's Kresge Auditorium. But I want to mention also that earlier that day, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Planyavsky will give an organ masterclass at Boston University's Marsh Chapel, featuring a student from MIT and several students from BU's Master of Sacred Music program.

The Master of Sacred Music (MSM) program is quite an extraordinary one; there is not another program like it in Greater Boston. The MSM degree is offered jointly through the School of Theology and the School of Music and administered by the School of Theology. Since the MSM is essentially professional training for employment as a church musician, the program is offered with two concentrations: organ and choral conducting. The distinguished MSM faculty include Dr. Andrew Shenton (MSM Program Director) and Peter Sykes (organ). It's a program that's as wonderful as it is unique. Kind of wish I were a student again, so that I could enroll!

Countdown to Planyavsky at MIT (15 days)

Photo: The 1742 Schmahl organ in Sitzberg, near Zürich.

Peter Planyavsky was one of Heiller's greatest students and closest friends. He later became Heiller's biographer. Who was this Heiller character?

Anton Heiller was the greatest interpreter of Bach's organ works of his time -- maybe of all time. But there are several facts that are very interesting about this.

First: It's hard to think of anyone else of Heiller's generation or the generation before who played Bach anything like him. From whom did he learn how to play Bach like that? Who influenced him? Where did he get it? (I asked that question once to my teacher, the Heiller student Yuko Hayashi. She answered, "From Bach.")

Second: Heiller could as easily have had a career as a conductor. In fact, at age 23 he was offered the job as conductor of the Vienna State Opera! He turned it down. Why? So that he could devote more time to playing Bach on the organ!

There isn't space to speak of Heiller's Bach playing in any detail. But there is an anecdote worth repeating, told to me in 1994 by Yuko Hayashi.

YH: He played the Orgelbüchlein up in the hills near Zürich [Sitzberg]. An organ restored by Metzler [in 1961, built by G. F. Schmahl c. 1742] And I was assisting him, turning pages. Jean-Claude Zehnder was there. By the way, I'm not a good assistant, so I stayed away from doing it. But that one time in Switzerland when I did do it, it was so EASY. He had this rhythm in his body, and he didn't have to do anything like that [nodding]. He didn't have to nod, he BREATHED. And I felt his breathing. It was so easy.
LC: Like a singer, he breathed, and you knew exactly where to turn the page or pull the stop.
YH: And he was so relaxed. Before the concert he was very nervous. But when the music started … CALM.
LC: So he played the concert.
YH: First he had dinner. Then he went up to this mountain, when into the church, and started to try out registrations, one after another, while Jean-Claude Zehnder and a few students from out in the church would say, "That's good." Then it was time for the concert. Double the amount of people that the church could hold showed up! And you know what he did? He announced to the audience, "Half of you go back into town for dinner and come back later." He played the recital, the whole Orgelbüchlein. He smoked for ten minutes -- in those days he smoked. Now the second audience that had had dinner was in place in the church, and he played the recital AGAIN! I got tired just turning the pages. He got better and better. Meanwhile, there were cows around. The cows liked the music. You could see them through the windows and hear their beautiful bells.
LC: And this was all happening during the concert?
YH: Yes.
LC: It must have been idyllic, having this mixture of nature and classical music.
YH: Then I understand, after that, he recorded.
LC: He made his Orgelbüchlein record.
YH: Yes.

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