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An American in Sydney

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
Today's Friday organ recital at St. Andrew's Cathedral is fairly unusual. Mostly our organists are Aussies or Kiwis ... very rarely are we treated to Americans or Europeans but today features Jared Johnson, from Trinity Cathedral in Columbia South Carolina. I hate to admit I don't know him, nor his church and the website gives no idea about the organ there ... anyway, I'll ask him today at the end of the recital. He's playing:

Passacaglia and Fugue in c minor BWV 582
Annum per annum, Arvo Part
Scherzo (opus 2) Durufle and
Variation on "America" by the wonderful Charles Ives

Can't WAIT to hear it.
 

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
If you are really flexible and love doing the splits ... play the Arvo Part piece, pure cruelty.

Mr. Johnson's organ playing was superb and his registration for the Passacaglia was very, very interesting.

As to the Charles Ives piece ... it made me smile. Brilliant playing on a super organ.
 

Soubasse

New member
Nice to see the Part in a recital programme. I played that at the Adelaide Town Hall several years back. I put it last on the programme and the crowd went nuts - they loved it (surprisingly)! I also recorded it for a CD release a few months later.

So what was interesting about Mr Johnson's Passacaglia registrations? (in reference to the Bach Passacaglia thread that I started :))

Matt
 

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
He used a lot of surprisingly odd combinations (to me at least): cor anglais with tierce and 4' flute for example, and lots of rich reed stops with mixtures, not the usual Principals, Montres and the like.
 

Soubasse

New member
Now that is unusual! I can see the Cor anglais, 4' fl and Tierce might work for a couple of the softer variations. Reeds and mixtures ... hmmm. Maybe he got his registrations mixed up with the Part - there are some doozies in that one :)
 

Contratrombone64

Admiral of Fugues
Well he had definite ideas about the soundscape he wanted to paint and it was unusual but not unattractive, that's for sure.
 
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