# Organ and Orchestra



## itywltmt

There's something iconic about seeing a full symphony orchestra on stage, with an organ in the background, like this picture of the Boston Symphony in front of the venerable organ at Symphony Hall.










I own an old vinyl recording of the BSO, daring the caretaker years of William Steinberg, performing *Richard Strauss*' _Also Sprach Zarathustra_, with that old organ marking the memorable opening sequence, full of power and majesty. Installed in 1949, the Symphony Hall Aeolian-Skinner organ is considered one of the finest concert hall organs in the world, replacing the original 1900 organ that Nadia Boulanger played as soloist at the premiere of *Aaron Copland*'s _Symphony for Organ and Orchestra_ in 1924.

Copland's organ symphony is but one of a great number of works intended to combine the power and range of the organ with the equivalent power and range of a full orchestra. Like the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, mixing organ and orchestra is a great idea that probably wouldn't have happened were it not to happen-stance. *Georg Friedrich Händel*, looking for filler material as players needed time off-stage between portions of his many oratorios, devised the "organ concerto" as a way to keep the audience entertained. The fact Händel was an accomplished organist must have helped, too…

Written in 1913 for the opening of the _Wiener Konzerthaus_ and the commissioning of its historic Rieger organ, Strauss' _Solemn Prelude_ is another excellent example of the Peanut Butter Cup in action. The organ builder _Rieger Orgelbau_ may be one of Europe's oldest and finest outfit, but Saint-Hyacinthe's _Casavant Frères_ is a prominent pipe organ builder in its own right, producing over 3800 organs since 1879. Many of these can be found in churches all over North America, and in Canada and Québec in particular. A fine example is the organ from Nativité de la Sainte-Vierge Parish in La Prairie, a community a few kilometers south of Montreal. This organ is featured in our recording of *Vivaldi*'s concerto for organ, violin and orchestra.

Casavant has built organs for Canadian concert halls, most recently for Calgary's Jack Singer Concert Hall and Edmonton's Francis Winspear Centre for Music. In May of 2014, the long-awaited _Pierre-Béique_ organ at Montreal's new _Maison Symphonique_ will be completed by Casavant and one of the consultants retained in this undertaking, Notre Dame de Paris' titular organist Olivier Latry, will have the privilege of commissioning the instrument in a performance of *Saint-Saëns*' Organ Symphony.

The Montreal Symphony's old home, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, did not have a house organ. That hall, like many others built in Canada in the 1960's and 70's, was a festival hall intended as a multi-purpose venue. One similar hall was the home of the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Great Hall at Hamilton Place. I attended a performance of that Organ Symphony at a subscription concert of the Philharmonic during my Graduate School years. For the occasion, an electric organ and massive speakers were brought in. The hall shook on every chord, a lot like a bad performance of the Sensurround  classic, _Earthquake_.

For their landmark recording of the Symphony, the MSO resorted to audio engineering trickery. The orchestra recorded its parts at its long-time recording home-away-from-home, the historic church in St-Eustache, North-East of the Island of Montreal and organist Peter Hurford recorded his parts on the majectic 1959 Beckerath organ, deep under the copper-laden dome of Montreal's St-Joseph Oratory on Mount Royal. London/Decca engineers melded the two (no small feat considering the acoustic challenges of recording the organ performance under the _reverbatorium _that is the Oratory's basilica) in such a way that listeners wouldn't know that the peanut butter and chocolate aren't in the same cup!

Happy Listening!

*ITYWLTMT Podcast Montage #46 - Organ & Orchestra
(Originally issued on Friday, March 9, 2012)​*
*Richard STRAUSS (1864 -1949)*
_Festliches Präludium_ (Solemn Prelude) for large orchestra and organ, op.61 
Wolfgang Meyer, organ
(Schuke-Orgel, Berliner Philharmonie)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Karl Böhm, conducting

*Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)*
Concerto for violin and organ in F Major, RV 542	
Eleonora Turovsky, Violin
Geneviève Soly, organ
(Paroisse de La Nativité de la Sainte-Vierge, La Prairie, Qc
Casavant, Opus 2152, 1952)
I Musici de Montréal
Yuli Turovsky, conducting

*George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)*
Organ Concerto in D Minor, Op.7, No.4 (HWV309)	
Harald Feller, organ 
(Unknown Instrument)
Capella Istropolitana
Paul Kantschieder, conducting

*Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)*
Symphony no.3 in C Minor, op. 78 (with organ)	
Peter Hurford, orgue 
(Orgue Beckerath - Oratoire St-Joseph de Montréal)
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal
Charles Dutoit, conducting


Original Bilingual Commentary: http://itywltmt.blogspot.ca/2012/03/montage-46-organ-and-orchestra-orgue-et.html
Detailed Playlist: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/115153154/pcast046-Playlist

Podcat Link (Internet Archive): http://archive.org/details/OrganAndOrchestra


*March 8 2013, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will feature a new podcast "Requiems for Organ" at its Pod-O-Matic Channel . Read more March 8 on the ITYWLTMT Blogspot blog.*


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