Word: organics
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Through the organ is unsuccessful usually, the placement was well-suited to the church's architecture. By locating the unit within the small left transept facing the rear sound is easily projected to the back of the nave, encircling the entire congregation. The registrations are those of a baroque organ with many mixtures available over a presumably powerful fundamental. The reed stops tone is too often a nasal shriek. This was not helped by some faulty voicing of the individual pipes. But the biggest disappointment is the pedal division. Even the thirty-two-foot Untersatz the loudest stopped-pipe normally...
...program for the content might be called imaginative if only for the inclusion of Poulenc's Concerto in G Minor for Organ, Strings, and Tympani, James Johnson, Music Director of the church and organ soloist, has an impressive technique at his disposal. He tore right into the beginning of the Poulenc--a dramatic start with the volcanic sound of double bass and tympani joining the organ...
...gentler moments: but their lead was not followed by Johnson. Nonetheless, the performance was tremendously exciting--especially at the recapitulation of the opening chords that closes the work. The Poulenc deserves to be heard more often. Like the Saint-Saens Third Symphonyor Jongen Sinfonie Concertante, the scoring of organ and orchestra cuts down on possible presentation sites...
...ORCHESTRA ALSO played for the Handel Organ Concerto No.4.Though hardly a weighty work, the sense of ensemble between soloist and orchestra displayed the piece to great advantage. Handel's fine sense of tone color was especially evident in the oboe parts, which were beautifully played. The first movement was lively, but Johnson's tempo in the Adagio lagged painfully, lacked phrasing, and made every step of the walking bass far too staccato...
...liberty taken with the final movement of the Handel was providing a chorus to intone the chorale upon which the movement is based. Since diction was near impossible given the echo, instrumental forces, and small number of singers, the effect was that of another organ coloration--a true vox humana--being added...