March 5, 2021
Alex Straus-Fausto
Program Notes
Johann Strauss Jr. – Overture to Die Fledermaus (trans. Alexander Straus-Fausto)
This overture embodies the great days of Vienna, the city of music and home of the waltz. And considering that Covid-19 may have originated from a bat (fledermaus in German) it’s an ironically appropriate work for our times. Transcriptions reveal how wonderfully orchestral works can sound on a fine organ and for more than a century transcribing them has been part of organ culture; a way to bring the impact of an entire symphony to small towns and churches around Great Britain, America, and many parts of Canada. I love the joyful Die Fledermaus overture so much, I went right to the composer’s score and registered it to sound like an orchestra.
J.S. Bach – Prelude and Fugue in D Major (BWV 532)
This piece is one of the great organ warhorses whose brilliant fugue showcases the genius of Bach and a performer’s technical skill and bravery. At the same time, it reminds us that the Holy Spirit is always with us during difficult times.
Percy Whitlock – Scherzetto from Organ Sonata in c minor
This representative British Romantic organ work combines elements of melancholy, charm and flirtatiousness, inspired by the piano music of Mozowski, but with hints of Gustav Holst’s “Mars, the Bringer of War” (from his iconic suite, The Planets). Whitlock played at Rochester Cathedral, but also enjoyed the flamboyant and exuberant theatre organ repertoire, which he would perform in cinemas under the pseudonym of Kenneth Lark. Part of Scherzetto’s charm lies in how cleverly Whitlock takes advantage of the organ’s rapid key response.
Max Reger – Introduction and Passacaglia in d minor
Reger composed this work after his early discharge from military service, which left him emotionally and spiritually disoriented. Today, he would likely have been diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. The piece incorporates Baroque, Romantic and 20th-century influences, expressed in dark foreboding colours, brutal force and fantastic power. Its Wagnerian harmonies evolve from grim restraint into explosive energy and motion, where one does not know what will come next.
Siegfried Karg-Elert – Valse Mignonne
In this graceful, sentimental and intimate work (with just a touch of the oriental), Karg-Elert, who also had a career as a regimental musician, seems to be imaginatively reliving childhood memories and wishing to return to them. He was an instructor of theory and composition at Leipzig Conservatory and aspired to succeed Max Reger as the conservatory’s organ teacher, but that was one dream he never fulfilled.
Marcel Dupré – Fugue in B Major
The composer’s teacher, Charles-Marie Widor, deemed this work “unplayable” due to its very fast tempo, complex figurations and pedal chords. For a long time, Dupré himself was the only one able to master it; but in recent years it has become a key piece in the concert organ repertoire.
Maurice Duruflé – Toccata from Suite op. 5
Duruflé, little known outside the organ world, was a deeply devout French organist and composer whose works evoke powerful emotion. He was taught by some of his country’s greatest organists and became a skilled improviser on the ancient themes of Gregorian chant. He was never satisfied with this fast-paced toccata and at one point in its composition was so frustrated that he threw the manuscript into the fire; fortunately his wife rescued it! A work of dark Gothic splendour it is said to be one of, if not the, hardest organ work ever written. While sometimes described as being big and flashy, there is much more to it; at heart it is both reverential and spiritual in its own right.
Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg – Somewhere Over the Rainbow (arr. George Shearing; trans. Alexander Straus-Fausto)
