bucks native
Sep 29, 2008, 7:32 AM
from here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/arts/music/29wana.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
Amid Shoes and Jewels, a Mighty, Mighty Sound
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
Published: September 28, 2008
NYTimes
PHILADELPHIA — The organist Virgil Fox once compared playing the Wanamaker organ, said to be the largest playable instrument in the world, to being a child in a toy store. “You have to have many arms, many hands and many brains,” he said.
The Wanamaker’s golden pipes cascade across a second-floor wall of the ornate Grand Court of Macy’s Center City here, hovering like a giant wingspan above a first-floor statue of an eagle. On Saturday, with an audience tucked between displays of shoes and jewelry, Rossen Milanov conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra and the organist Peter Richard Conte in Joseph Jongen’s “Symphonie Concertante,” a performance postponed for 80 years.
The concert was presented by Macy’s and the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, which has a repair shop in the building. Built for the St. Louis International Exposition in 1904, the organ was bought by John Wanamaker in 1909 for his new Philadelphia store and inaugurated in the seven-story atrium of the Grand Court in 1911. It has been played every business day since, with customers serenaded at lunchtime by organ music instead of Muzak.
The more than 10,000 pipes it had originally were deemed insufficient for the atrium, so thousands were added over the years. (There are now 28,482.) But as the store changed hands over the last century, the organ fell into disrepair. In the mid-1990s only about 20 percent of the pipes and two of the six keyboards were usable. It is now fully functioning. Jongen’s “Symphonie” was commissioned in 1926 to showcase the enlarged instrument, but delays in its expansion, the Great Depression and the unexpected death of John Wanamaker’s son caused repeated postponements of the Philadelphia premiere, first scheduled for 1928. Saturday’s performance was the first time the work was performed on the organ it was intended for.
The combined forces of the Wanamaker behemoth and the Philadelphia Orchestra produced a mighty sound, with swirls of color and surging climaxes in the virtuosic Toccata finale thundering through the atrium.
The program opened with the transcription of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue by Leopold Stokowski, a former music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. It also included Marcel Dupré’s “Cortege and Litany” in a version for organ and orchestra commissioned in the 1920s by Alexander Russell, music director of the Wanamaker stores. The work builds in intensity from a gentle beginning to a fiery climax that evokes pealing bells.
The exuberant “Fanfare” by Howard Shore featured Wagnerian brass writing and a virtuoso solo part. Commissioned to honor Macy’s 150th anniversary this year, the piece received its premiere here. As encores, Mr. Milanov conducted Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” March and “Happy Birthday,” complete with flashing lights and colorful streamers falling from the high ceiling.
Organ concerts often have video screens relaying images of the organist, whose console is usually hidden from view. A screen would have been welcome here so the audience could have enjoyed a glimpse of Mr. Conte’s virtuosity on the complex Wanamaker instrument, whose hundreds of stops surround six keyboards like multicolored dominoes.
The huge symphonic sound produced by this organ is so striking it seems as if it could shatter the glass jewelry cases, reflecting Fox’s observation that there is no place on earth where one musician can be seated at an instrument and have so much power.
Amid Shoes and Jewels, a Mighty, Mighty Sound
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
Published: September 28, 2008
NYTimes
PHILADELPHIA — The organist Virgil Fox once compared playing the Wanamaker organ, said to be the largest playable instrument in the world, to being a child in a toy store. “You have to have many arms, many hands and many brains,” he said.
The Wanamaker’s golden pipes cascade across a second-floor wall of the ornate Grand Court of Macy’s Center City here, hovering like a giant wingspan above a first-floor statue of an eagle. On Saturday, with an audience tucked between displays of shoes and jewelry, Rossen Milanov conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra and the organist Peter Richard Conte in Joseph Jongen’s “Symphonie Concertante,” a performance postponed for 80 years.
The concert was presented by Macy’s and the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, which has a repair shop in the building. Built for the St. Louis International Exposition in 1904, the organ was bought by John Wanamaker in 1909 for his new Philadelphia store and inaugurated in the seven-story atrium of the Grand Court in 1911. It has been played every business day since, with customers serenaded at lunchtime by organ music instead of Muzak.
The more than 10,000 pipes it had originally were deemed insufficient for the atrium, so thousands were added over the years. (There are now 28,482.) But as the store changed hands over the last century, the organ fell into disrepair. In the mid-1990s only about 20 percent of the pipes and two of the six keyboards were usable. It is now fully functioning. Jongen’s “Symphonie” was commissioned in 1926 to showcase the enlarged instrument, but delays in its expansion, the Great Depression and the unexpected death of John Wanamaker’s son caused repeated postponements of the Philadelphia premiere, first scheduled for 1928. Saturday’s performance was the first time the work was performed on the organ it was intended for.
The combined forces of the Wanamaker behemoth and the Philadelphia Orchestra produced a mighty sound, with swirls of color and surging climaxes in the virtuosic Toccata finale thundering through the atrium.
The program opened with the transcription of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue by Leopold Stokowski, a former music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. It also included Marcel Dupré’s “Cortege and Litany” in a version for organ and orchestra commissioned in the 1920s by Alexander Russell, music director of the Wanamaker stores. The work builds in intensity from a gentle beginning to a fiery climax that evokes pealing bells.
The exuberant “Fanfare” by Howard Shore featured Wagnerian brass writing and a virtuoso solo part. Commissioned to honor Macy’s 150th anniversary this year, the piece received its premiere here. As encores, Mr. Milanov conducted Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance” March and “Happy Birthday,” complete with flashing lights and colorful streamers falling from the high ceiling.
Organ concerts often have video screens relaying images of the organist, whose console is usually hidden from view. A screen would have been welcome here so the audience could have enjoyed a glimpse of Mr. Conte’s virtuosity on the complex Wanamaker instrument, whose hundreds of stops surround six keyboards like multicolored dominoes.
The huge symphonic sound produced by this organ is so striking it seems as if it could shatter the glass jewelry cases, reflecting Fox’s observation that there is no place on earth where one musician can be seated at an instrument and have so much power.
