Organ Recital

St. Mary's Ewell

Saturday 14 April 2012 7.30pm

Jonathan Holmes

1.Sousa: The Liberty Bell (Requested by Promilla Mullen)

2.Faure: Cantique de Jean Racine (Requested by Sue Ayling)

3.Saint-Saens: Adagio and Maestoso Symphonie III Op 78 (Requested by Mary Newing)

4.Dupre: Symphonie-Passion ( Requested by Jonathan Allsopp)

I Le Monde dans l'attente du Sauveur (The world awaiting the Saviour)

II Nativite

5. Bossi:Etude Symphonique Op78

INTERVAL

6.Wagner: Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde arr. Lemare (Requested by Reg Saunders)

7.Dupre: Symphonie-Passion

III Crucifixion

IV Resurrection

8.Elgar: Angel's Farewell from the Dream of Gerontius (Requested by Eve Myatt-Price)

9.Middelschulte: Passacaglia

Notes

"The Liberty Bell" (1893) was written for Sousa's unfinished operetta "The Devil's Deputy," but financing for the show fell through. Shortly afterwards, Sousa and his band manager George Hinton attended the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. As they watched the spectacle "America", in which a backdrop depicting the Liberty Bell was lowered, Hinton suggested "The Liberty Bell" as the title of Sousa's recently completed march. Coincidentally, Sousa received a letter from his wife, saying their son had marched in a parade in honour of the Liberty Bell. Sousa agreed. He sold "The Liberty Bell" to the John Church Company for publication, and it was an immediate success.

Cantique de Jean Racine (Op. 11) Written by the nineteen year old composer in 1864-5, the piece won Fauré the first prize when he graduated from the École Niedermeyer and was first performed the following year on August 4, 1866.

The Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at what was probably the artistic zenith of his career. It is also popularly known as the "Organ Symphony", even though it is not a true symphony for organ, but simply an orchestral symphony where two sections out of four use the pipe organ. The French title of the work is more accurate: Symphonie No. 3 "avec orgue" (with organ).

Of composing the work Saint-Saëns said "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again."[The composer seemed to know it would be his last attempt at the symphonic form, and he wrote the work almost as a type of "history" of his own career: virtuoso piano passages, brilliant orchestral writing characteristic of the Romantic period, and the sound of a cathedral-sized pipe organ.

The symphony was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in England, and the first performance was given in London on 19 May 1886, at St James's Hall, conducted by the composer. After the death of his friend Franz Liszt on 31 July 1886, Saint-Saëns dedicated the work to Liszt's memory. The composer also conducted the French premiere in January 1887.

Marcel Dupré studied with Louis Vierne, Alexandre Guilmant, and Charles-Marie Widor at the Paris Conservatory. He was Widor’s assistant at Saint Sulpice, and later became organist there. He traveled frequently to the United States, and performed several times on the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, of which, in 1948, Dupré said: “It is still the greatest; it has everything and lacks nothing to be desired." At Rodman Wanamaker’s request, Dupré served on the Wanamaker staff with Charles Courboin during the second enlargement of the instrument in the 1920s.

In 1921, Dupré made his first concert tour to the United States. On December 8, he performed at the Wanamaker Grand Court in Philadelphia. He was offered several liturgical themes on which to improvise at that concert: Jesu redemptor omnium, Adeste fidelis, Stabat Mater dolorosa, and Adoro te devote. Dupré recalls in his memoirs: “I suddenly had an inspiration for a symphony in four movements that was to become my Symphonie-Passion and which I started to compose upon my return to France. When my plan was announced by the distinguished Dr. Alexander Russell, I received a standing ovation, and I played in a state of exaltation that I have rarely experienced.” Completed three years later, the work was given its first performance in London at the inauguration of the Westminster Cathedral Organ.

The symphony is in four movements, and begins with a dark, agitated theme, set in restless five- and seven-beat metre, depicting the world in turmoil as it awaits the Messiah. In “Le monde dans l’attente du Sauveur,” the plainsong melody, Jesu, redemptor omnium (“Jesus, redeemer of the world”), appears as a quiet second subject, and ultimately triumphs over the returning, unsettling opening theme. The second movement, “Nativité” (“Nativity”), follows the biblical narrative, first with Mary singing the infant to sleep with a lullaby, followed by the distant procession of shepherds and wise men. Mary’s cradlesong is then joined by the cantus firmus Adeste fidelis, “Come, ye faithful.” Finally, the angels’ “Hallelujahs” echo into the peaceful night. “Crucifixion,” like the Nativity movement, is in triptych form, and depicts the unending ascent to Calvary, with jagged harmonies and a stumbling, heavy ostinato; the Crucifixion, climaxing in three loud cries, and seven cluster-chords; and the descent from the cross, illustrated by the haunting plainsong tune Stabat Mater dolorosa. The final movement, “Résurrection,” is a vast crescendo based entirely on the Eucharistic hymn Adoro te devote (“Humbly I adore Thee”). A free counterpoint rides over the cantus, which is first heard in the pedals, then in canon, and finally in a brilliant toccata, incorporating ever-ascending key changes, and climaxing in fiery, cascading chords so typical of Dupré’s compositional style. Symphonie-Passion is one of Dupré’s greatest achievements, and marks one of the first great works of ecclesiastical, symphonic program music for the organ.

Marco Enrico Bossi was born in Salò on Lake Garda in 1861, the year of Italy’s unification, into a family of musicians: his father Pietro (1834–1896) was also an organist and composer, his son Renzo (1883–1965) became one of the most renowned professors of composition in Italy. Marco Enrico studied in Bologna and Milan, where he was first awarded his piano diploma (1879), then his diploma in composition (1881). Bossi never finished his organ studies, despite years of study with the renowned organist and composer Polibio Fumagalli (1837–1908), which could be interpreted as an act of criticism against Italian organ practice of his time, which was heavily influenced by the prevailing taste for opera. Instead, he travelled throughout Europe and America, establishing ties with fellow organists Camille Saint-Saëns, Marcel Dupré, Karl Straube and others, who strengthened his resolve to bring the organ culture of his native country into line with central European standards. After nine years as titular organist at Como cathedral (1881–1890), Bossi embarked on a remarkable ‘official’ career (first as lecturer in organ and composition at Naples and Bologna, then as head of the Conservatories of Venice, Bologna, and Rome); in 1897 he was also appointed to the Commissione reale per l’arte musicale. This plethora of high-ranking offices made it possible for him to exert almost unequalled influence on the musical life of the young nation.

In November 1924, Marco Enrico Bossi embarked on a recital tour to New York and Philadelphia, where he made important appearances at Wanamaker's department stores in New York and in Philadelphia, where he played the Wanamaker Organ, the world's largest pipe organ. He died unexpectedly in mid-Atlantic while returning from the USA on February 20, 1925.
Marco Enrico Bossi wrote more than 150 works for various genres (orchestra, five operas, oratorios, choral and chamber music, as well as pieces for piano and organ). His catalog of compositions is still largely unknown, except for his organ works.

Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde, or Tristan and Isolda, or Tristran and Ysolt) is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in 1865 . Wagner referred to "Tristan und Isolde" not as an opera, but called it "Eine Handlung" (literally drama or plot).

Wagner's composition of Tristan und Isolde was inspired by his affair with Mathilde Wesendonck and the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. Widely acknowledged as one of the peaks of the operatic repertory, Tristan was notable for Wagner's advanced use of chromaticism, tonality, orchestral colour and harmonic suspension.

The opera was profoundly influential among Western classical composers and provided inspiration to composers such as Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Karol Szymanowski, Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg. Many see Tristan as the beginning of the move away from conventional harmony and tonality and consider that it lays the groundwork for the direction of classical music in the 20th century

Liebestod (German, "Love death") is the title of the final, dramatic aria from the opera . When used as a literary term, liebestod (from German Liebe, love and tod, death) refers to the theme of erotic death or "love death" meaning the two lovers' consummation of their love in death or after death.

Note: Wagner originally called the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde the Liebestod; he referred to the final aria in a concert version with no singer as the Verklaerung (meaning transfiguration). Modern usage is to use Liebestod to refer to the final aria. There is no hint in the score that Isolde actually dies, although this is a common assumption in modern reception of the opera.

The aria opens with the line "Mild und Leise", which means "mildly and softly" in German. It is the climactic moment of the opera, ending the opera as Isolde sings over Tristan's body.

The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius,] is a work for voices and orchestra (Op. 38) in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory. Although Elgar himself disapproved of the term "oratorio" being applied to this work, it was consistently referred to as an oratorio throughout Elgar's lifetime, and is usually called such in studies of the work today. It is widely regarded as Elgar's finest choral work, and some consider it his masterpiece.

The work was composed for the Birmingham Music Festival of 1900 and the first performance took place on 3 October 1900, in Birmingham Town Hall. It was badly performed at the premiere, but later performances in Germany revealed its stature. In the first decade after its premiere, the Roman Catholic dogma in Newman's poem caused difficulties in getting the work performed in Anglican cathedrals, and a revised text was used for performances at the Three Choirs Festival until 1910.

Middelschulte initially studied organ with August Knabe. He later attended the Royal Academic Institute for Church Music, where he studied organ and theory with August Haupt. After briefly holding a position at the Royal Institute and acquiring a post at the Lukaskirche in Berlin, he moved to Chicago in 1891. In 1893, he gave three performances entirely from memory at the Columbian Exposition. From 1896 - 1918 he was organist for what would later become the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During the 1920s, he regularly returned to his native Germany to give performances. He is regarded as one of the most significant organists of his time, and was critically acclaimed for his performances of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1939, after nearly fifty years in America, Middelschulte returned to Germany, where he died only four years later.

His students included Virgil Fox and Cecilia Clare Bocard. Fox frequently used as an encore to his performances Middelschulte's "Perpetuum Mobile", an elaborate piece played completely on the pedals.

The unusually short 4 bar theme begins as a descending chromatic 6 notes before returning to the starting point. The treble part is the symmetrical inversion of the main theme.

The theme is subsequently treated to sixty reiterations before the work concludes with a 4 bar cadenza.

Besides a large number of contrapuntal and harmonic features, there are two motivic features that give the work its distinctive character. Middelschulte employs the BACH motif like a motto at the beginning, near the middle, and at the end of the work, initially somewhat restrained, then dominating at the end.The piece primarily derives its strong impact, however, from the integration of the chorale "Ein feste Burg its unser Gott" which outshines everything else, in the last third of the piece. This final section is simultaneously defined by the theme of the Passacaglia, the chorale, and finally the BACH motif.