Sunday 14 November 2021 at 8:00 PM
Eccles Organ Festival Recital
Paul Jacobs
The Juilliard School of Music, New York, NY
Eccles Organ Festival Recital
Paul Jacobs
The Juilliard School of Music, New York, NY
Program
John Weaver (1937-2021)
Fantasia for Organ
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Organ Concerto in G Minor, Op 4, No. 3
I. Adagio
II. Allegro
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro
César Franck (1822-1890)
Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18
Dudley Buck (1839-1909)
Concert Variations on The Star-Spangled Banner, Op. 23
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Air from Orchestral Suite in D Major, BWV 1068
Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 42
I. Introduction-Allegro
II. Pastorale
III. Finale
John Weaver (1937-2021)
Fantasia for Organ
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Organ Concerto in G Minor, Op 4, No. 3
I. Adagio
II. Allegro
III. Adagio
IV. Allegro
César Franck (1822-1890)
Prelude, Fugue, and Variation, Op. 18
Dudley Buck (1839-1909)
Concert Variations on The Star-Spangled Banner, Op. 23
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Air from Orchestral Suite in D Major, BWV 1068
Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 42
I. Introduction-Allegro
II. Pastorale
III. Finale
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“An obliterating performance by one of the major musicians of our time."
- The New Yorker "Paul Jacobs is one of the great living virtuosos... he is utterly without artifice” - The Washington Post "America's leading organ performer." - The Economist "A virtuoso of dazzling technical acumen” - The New York Times The internationally celebrated organist Paul Jacobs combines a probing intellect and extraordinary technical mastery with an unusually large repertoire, both old and new. An eloquent champion of his instrument, Mr. Jacobs is known for his imaginative interpretations and charismatic stage presence. He has performed to great critical acclaim on five continents and in each of the fifty United States and is the only organist ever to have won a Grammy Award—in 2011 for Messiaen’s towering “Livre du Saint-Sacrément.” His recital engagements have included performances under the aegis of the American Guild of Organists, Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center White Light Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Philadelphia Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, and the St. Louis Cathedral-Basilica. Mr. Jacobs studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, double-majoring with John Weaver for organ and Lionel Party for harpsichord, and at Yale University with Thomas Murray. He joined the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2003, and was named chairman of the organ department in 2004, one of the youngest faculty appointees in the school’s history. He received Juilliard’s prestigious William Schuman Scholar’s Chair in 2007. In 2017 he received an honorary doctorate from Washington and Jefferson College. |
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Program Notes
by Dr. Kenneth Udy, University of Utah
The late John Weaver was a pinnacle among American organists. He received his early training at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and earned degrees from (and later taught at) the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Union Theological Seminary in New York. For 35 years he was Director of Music and Organist at New York’s Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and also taught organ at the Juilliard School, where his student Paul Jacobs succeeded him in 2004. Weaver completed his Fantasia in April 1977 and premiered it two months later at a regional convention of the American Guild of Organists in Hartford, Connecticut. It is a one-movement work with four sections—Allegro, Scherzo, Adagio, and Finale—written in a light and outgoing style which deliberately contrasts the seriousness of so much organ literature.
As a youth Handel studied with Zachow, the famous organist at the Marienkirche, in his hometown of Halle; yet, after moving to Hamburg and discovering opera, Handel’s interest in the organ waned until he settled in London decades later. There he invented the concerto for organ and orchestra, even though the tiny chamber organs of London were a far cry from the organs in his native Germany. Handel composed at least 13 concertos to be performed with himself as the conductor and organ soloist while the singers rested between the acts of his oratorios at Covent Garden. Scholars believe the Concerto in G Minor, op. 4, no. 3 was probably the very first of the new genre to be completed. It was premiered March 5, 1735, in connection with a performance of Esther, which, coincidentally, is acknowledged as the first English oratorio. As was his penchant, Handel self-borrowed all four movements of this concerto from previously-composed trio sonatas and solo sonatas and reworked them into a concerto grosso. The two Adagio movements feature the solo violinist and cellist, while the fast movements, a triple time Allegro in extended ritornello form and a final Gavotte (Allegro) in duple time, are for the organ soloist. Almost since their inception, various arrangers have transcribed Handel’s concertos for solo keyboard. This evening Mr. Jacobs performs his own solo transcription.
Franck was born nearly 200 years ago in Liège, Belgium. His abusive father, a menial bank employee, hoped to turn young César into a famous piano virtuoso and moved the family to Paris, where Franck had great success at the Paris Conservatory. When Franck married one of his piano students, Félicité Desmousseaux, Franck’s father disowned him; nevertheless, Franck flourished, and in 1858 was appointed as organist at the newly completed church of Sainte-Clotilde where he played the rest of his life. He steered French music away from the light style prevalent in the 1860s toward a “severe” style of music which influenced Parisian organists well into the 20th century. The “exquisite” (in the words of Bizet) Prélude, Fugue et Variation was originally a piano-harmonium duet which Franck subsequently arranged as an organ solo and dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns. It was included as the third of Six Pièces first performed by Franck November 17, 1864 at Sainte-Clotilde and later published in 1868. It now stands as Franck’s most popular organ work. The Prélude’s opening melancholy melody in B minor is repeated three times, and following a second theme, it returns to close the movement in the dominant. A short Lento using four-part homophony transitions into the Fugue. After a classic tenor, alto, soprano, bass exposition, the Fugue eventually ends on a dominant pedal to segue directly into the Variation’s elegant pianistic 16th-note accompaniment which combines with a verbatim reprise of the B minor melody and pedal parts from the Prélude.
Dudley Buck’s father discouraged his son’s early interest in music, preferring that Dudley enter the family's successful shipping business. Nonetheless, after attending college in his native Hartford, Connecticut, Buck trained first at the Leipzig Conservatory and then in 1860 with the esteemed Dresden organist Johann Gottlob Schneider. Buck returned to America and held prominent organ posts in Hartford, Chicago (where his house, library, and manuscripts were all destroyed by the Great Fire of 1871), Boston, and Brooklyn, New York. Analogous to Franck, he developed American organ music and elevated the taste of the American public. As a popular concert organist and composer, Buck balanced popular taste and high musical ideals by including symphonic transcriptions and premieres of works by Mendelssohn and Bach on his recitals. His fame extended as far as Utah, where Brigham Young arranged for two of his sons to study with Buck at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Buck’s oft-played Concert Variations on “The Star-Spangled Banner” was composed in 1868 and later arranged into an orchestral version. The theme, originally an English drinking song (“To Anacreon in Heaven”), is followed by four variations. The first is imbued with martial energy using a moving bass line in the pedal; next is a variation with a lively treble triplet figure above the theme; the following variation is a spirited pedal étude with the theme buried among the swerving 16th-note figures; and finally a contrasting slow minor movement leads directly into a fugal treatment concluding with an opulent harmonization.
Bach’s four orchestral suites comprise a series of short pieces of various dance forms each preceded by an introductory section in the style of a French overture, a form favored by 17th- and early 18th-century German composers. Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068 was composed in 1731 during Bach’s Leipzig period. The second of its six movements is the celebrated Air (later nicknamed “on the G String”) scored for strings and continuo. Mr. Jacobs plays an arrangement for solo organ by another Leipzig-trained American organist, Smith Newell Penfield, which dates from 1880.
At 12, Guilmant succeeded his father as organist in his native Boulogne before immigrating to Brussels in 1860 to study organ with Jacques Lemmens. After returning to Paris, Guilmant was appointed organist at La Trinité in 1871. He resigned after 30 years following an unfortunate clash with the clergy who started rebuilding the church’s 1869 Cavaillé-Coll organ while Guilmant was away on an American concert tour. Guilmant made frequent concert tours abroad and notably in 1904 played 40 non-repeating daily recitals on the giant organ at the Saint Louis Exposition (which later formed the nucleus of the Wannamaker organ). Alongside Widor’s ten and Vierne’s six organ symphonies, Guilmant’s eight sonatas occupy a respectable place in the repertoire and contain some of his best music. Displaying an equilibrium between the symphonic and the classical organ traditions, his Sonata No. 1 in D Minor was published in 1874 and was later arranged for organ and orchestra. The monumental first movement is in traditional sonata form with a heroic initial theme followed by a progressively enlarging second theme announced as a pedal solo. The two themes are soon superimposed and developed in canon culminating with a brilliant stretto. The following Andante quasi allegretto in A Major is in ABA form and resembles a pastorale in 12/8 with its drones and rustic melodies on the oboe, the clarinet, and the voix humaine stops. The breathtaking finale in 2/4 juxtaposes a brilliant toccata with a harmonized chorale.
by Dr. Kenneth Udy, University of Utah
The late John Weaver was a pinnacle among American organists. He received his early training at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and earned degrees from (and later taught at) the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Union Theological Seminary in New York. For 35 years he was Director of Music and Organist at New York’s Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and also taught organ at the Juilliard School, where his student Paul Jacobs succeeded him in 2004. Weaver completed his Fantasia in April 1977 and premiered it two months later at a regional convention of the American Guild of Organists in Hartford, Connecticut. It is a one-movement work with four sections—Allegro, Scherzo, Adagio, and Finale—written in a light and outgoing style which deliberately contrasts the seriousness of so much organ literature.
As a youth Handel studied with Zachow, the famous organist at the Marienkirche, in his hometown of Halle; yet, after moving to Hamburg and discovering opera, Handel’s interest in the organ waned until he settled in London decades later. There he invented the concerto for organ and orchestra, even though the tiny chamber organs of London were a far cry from the organs in his native Germany. Handel composed at least 13 concertos to be performed with himself as the conductor and organ soloist while the singers rested between the acts of his oratorios at Covent Garden. Scholars believe the Concerto in G Minor, op. 4, no. 3 was probably the very first of the new genre to be completed. It was premiered March 5, 1735, in connection with a performance of Esther, which, coincidentally, is acknowledged as the first English oratorio. As was his penchant, Handel self-borrowed all four movements of this concerto from previously-composed trio sonatas and solo sonatas and reworked them into a concerto grosso. The two Adagio movements feature the solo violinist and cellist, while the fast movements, a triple time Allegro in extended ritornello form and a final Gavotte (Allegro) in duple time, are for the organ soloist. Almost since their inception, various arrangers have transcribed Handel’s concertos for solo keyboard. This evening Mr. Jacobs performs his own solo transcription.
Franck was born nearly 200 years ago in Liège, Belgium. His abusive father, a menial bank employee, hoped to turn young César into a famous piano virtuoso and moved the family to Paris, where Franck had great success at the Paris Conservatory. When Franck married one of his piano students, Félicité Desmousseaux, Franck’s father disowned him; nevertheless, Franck flourished, and in 1858 was appointed as organist at the newly completed church of Sainte-Clotilde where he played the rest of his life. He steered French music away from the light style prevalent in the 1860s toward a “severe” style of music which influenced Parisian organists well into the 20th century. The “exquisite” (in the words of Bizet) Prélude, Fugue et Variation was originally a piano-harmonium duet which Franck subsequently arranged as an organ solo and dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns. It was included as the third of Six Pièces first performed by Franck November 17, 1864 at Sainte-Clotilde and later published in 1868. It now stands as Franck’s most popular organ work. The Prélude’s opening melancholy melody in B minor is repeated three times, and following a second theme, it returns to close the movement in the dominant. A short Lento using four-part homophony transitions into the Fugue. After a classic tenor, alto, soprano, bass exposition, the Fugue eventually ends on a dominant pedal to segue directly into the Variation’s elegant pianistic 16th-note accompaniment which combines with a verbatim reprise of the B minor melody and pedal parts from the Prélude.
Dudley Buck’s father discouraged his son’s early interest in music, preferring that Dudley enter the family's successful shipping business. Nonetheless, after attending college in his native Hartford, Connecticut, Buck trained first at the Leipzig Conservatory and then in 1860 with the esteemed Dresden organist Johann Gottlob Schneider. Buck returned to America and held prominent organ posts in Hartford, Chicago (where his house, library, and manuscripts were all destroyed by the Great Fire of 1871), Boston, and Brooklyn, New York. Analogous to Franck, he developed American organ music and elevated the taste of the American public. As a popular concert organist and composer, Buck balanced popular taste and high musical ideals by including symphonic transcriptions and premieres of works by Mendelssohn and Bach on his recitals. His fame extended as far as Utah, where Brigham Young arranged for two of his sons to study with Buck at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Buck’s oft-played Concert Variations on “The Star-Spangled Banner” was composed in 1868 and later arranged into an orchestral version. The theme, originally an English drinking song (“To Anacreon in Heaven”), is followed by four variations. The first is imbued with martial energy using a moving bass line in the pedal; next is a variation with a lively treble triplet figure above the theme; the following variation is a spirited pedal étude with the theme buried among the swerving 16th-note figures; and finally a contrasting slow minor movement leads directly into a fugal treatment concluding with an opulent harmonization.
Bach’s four orchestral suites comprise a series of short pieces of various dance forms each preceded by an introductory section in the style of a French overture, a form favored by 17th- and early 18th-century German composers. Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068 was composed in 1731 during Bach’s Leipzig period. The second of its six movements is the celebrated Air (later nicknamed “on the G String”) scored for strings and continuo. Mr. Jacobs plays an arrangement for solo organ by another Leipzig-trained American organist, Smith Newell Penfield, which dates from 1880.
At 12, Guilmant succeeded his father as organist in his native Boulogne before immigrating to Brussels in 1860 to study organ with Jacques Lemmens. After returning to Paris, Guilmant was appointed organist at La Trinité in 1871. He resigned after 30 years following an unfortunate clash with the clergy who started rebuilding the church’s 1869 Cavaillé-Coll organ while Guilmant was away on an American concert tour. Guilmant made frequent concert tours abroad and notably in 1904 played 40 non-repeating daily recitals on the giant organ at the Saint Louis Exposition (which later formed the nucleus of the Wannamaker organ). Alongside Widor’s ten and Vierne’s six organ symphonies, Guilmant’s eight sonatas occupy a respectable place in the repertoire and contain some of his best music. Displaying an equilibrium between the symphonic and the classical organ traditions, his Sonata No. 1 in D Minor was published in 1874 and was later arranged for organ and orchestra. The monumental first movement is in traditional sonata form with a heroic initial theme followed by a progressively enlarging second theme announced as a pedal solo. The two themes are soon superimposed and developed in canon culminating with a brilliant stretto. The following Andante quasi allegretto in A Major is in ABA form and resembles a pastorale in 12/8 with its drones and rustic melodies on the oboe, the clarinet, and the voix humaine stops. The breathtaking finale in 2/4 juxtaposes a brilliant toccata with a harmonized chorale.
