ORGANIC EUPHORIA AT GRACE
                    Organists Mass to Hear the King of Instruments   
<>                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of July 9-16, 2011
                                                                  Vol. 13, No. 116
            A centennial of the American Guild of Organists (western region) took over the Bay Area’s pipe organs for a six-day bash of workshops, “pipe-organ crawls,” and a greater variety of church organs run through the hoops than you thought possible. By the time you got through, you could sort out all the stops, whether gedackt or gamba or gemshorn. The centerpiece was a recital in the massive Gothic confines of Grace Cathedral atop Nob Hill, San Francisco. Since Australia also falls within the western region (!), it seemed only appropriate that Sydney’s USA-born Amy Johansen was invited to give that climactic recital July 6 in a binational way.
            Johansen’s tour de force at this mighty four-manual instrument brought the crowd to its feet in ovation, despite her sticking to thoroughly unfamiliar composers and compositions. Notably absent was the expected Franck-Widor-Saint-Saens-Liszt-Buxtehude-Couperins-Bach group who tend to dominate the repertoire.
            This event was instructive. The pipe organ has a rather distinct audience following, largely separate from the mainstream of symphonic and recital fans. Yet we music critics hardly do this element justice given our neglect in print and in other media. This could be for several reasons: The paucity of organs in concert halls, the specialized instrumental construction and its intricacies, or the limited number of longer engrossing post-baroque works. And of course, very few of the best-known composers after 1750 wrote much for this vaunted solo instrument.
            Since the organ is a more complex blend of art, craft and engineering than anything in the orchestra, it adds elements to the mix than are largely ignored in other concerts. And it is hard to find two of these instruments that are identical!
            The piece de resistance this night was the quasi-symphonic Sonata No. 1 by Alexandre Guilmant.  The 26-minute outpouring was flamboyant and melodious, using the mixture and string stops so beloved by the romantics, reflecting considerable influence of French opera. The work is grandiose, with powerful diapasons echoing through the hall. The pedalboard requires nimble feet, while the hands fly all over the four manuals. The closing toccata with its “pleins jeux” (essentially, “the works”) brought down the house. Had the piece been any louder, the cable-car outside might turn turtle, the California seismographs might register an 8.0 Richter-scale quake, and the Gothic columns might reverberate rapturously.
            Verging on the giddy and the disoriented afterwards, I took a long slow walk over Grace’s labyrinth inlaid in the floor—an element from more than 500 years ago found in European Gothic, and used for contemplation and meditation. Absolutely therapeutic!
            Given the large structure and its famous reverberation (with some tones bouncing around the hall taking four seconds to die away), Johansen chose her repertory carefully and played it with aplomb, mastering what clearly must have been, till recently, an unfamiliar instrument.
            Also of interest was “Elijah on the Mountain” by Johansen’s husband Robert Ampt, an episodic bit of Biblical tone-painting setting off with bold fanfares and restless accompaniments, and eventually fading out delicately in “go-out-like-a-lamb” mode.
            Johansen also recalled her teacher Naji Hakim via the latter’s “Bach’orama,” an exhibition of broken-field running through a variety of familiar Bach themes.
            Also on the 20th-century program was music of John Weaver, Henri Mulet, and the best-known of the six, the Briton Herbert Howells.
            The cathedral’s Aeolian-Skinner electro-pneumatic organ is a mighty one with more than 80 stops plus preprogrammable registration combinations, a versatile royal instrument  with power to burn.
            Amy Johansen, pipe organ, in recital offered by the AGO western regional at Grace Cathedral, Nob Hill, San Francisco July 6. For info on the S.F. AGO: go online. 

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2011
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           Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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