By Richard Schulze
An apologia: This review is by a person with a life-long love of the organ, not by a musicologist or professional musician. But this reviewer has most of the recordings of E. Power Biggs playing European and American instruments, has attended concerts in many countries, is friends with numerous organists, and has helped install 14 tracker organs in his career. Thus, it is a review of what I believe organ concerts should be, and how well Bálint Karosi played the Richards, Fowkes Opus One tracker organ at this, first of the St. Barnabas Bach@415 concert series on Sunday, Nov. 5.
Organ concerts should not only demonstrate the capabilities of the organist, but showcase the strengths of the instrument being played. Bálint had been music director and organist at First Lutheran Church in Boston for a few years, playing the Richards, Fowkes Opus 10 (i.e. the 10th instrument the firm had built). Before this concert, he had practiced many hours on Opus One in Greenwich to determine which were the best combinations of stops to play to best showcase the strengths of the instrument.
Bálint was the first American-based organist to win first prize at the J.S. Bach Competition at his home town in Leipzig, Germany. So his playing of Bach’s prelude and fugue in E-flat major and Schmücke Dich, for which he won the prize, demonstrated his skills and a strength of Opus One. One could appreciate how the melody line played in the pedal division was complimented by the airiness of the higher notes played in the great and swell divisions. His showing the strengths of the voicing of the reeds, mixtures and flue pipes, and the contrast those sounds make, made this concert favorite even more compelling, coupled with the perfect acoustics of the Church space.
Bálint had composed a Partita on the Chorale es ist Genug, with six variations. Each variation combined a variety of stops and improvisations on the original chorale. It provided an interesting contrast to the Bach.
César Franck’s Pìece Héroique demonstrated the excellent French romantic stops of Opus One, which calls for the melody line to start in the pedal division, then moves up to the great and swell divisions. It is those changes of where the melody is being played that leads to great accompaniments in the other divisions. The use of the trumpet stops near its conclusion provided an enjoyable brightness to that part of the composition.
Bach’s Trio Sonata No. 3 in D-minor gave us an opportunity to appreciate Bálint’s outstanding keyboard skills while he alternated the melody lines from one division of the instrument to another.
To close the concert Bálint had chosen Vierne’s Finale from his 2nd Organ Symphony. This composition by the blind Vierne was more somber than the Franck composition but his choice of stops caused one to imagine hearing the piece at Notre Dame de Paris, where Vierne died playing a recital. The St. Barnabas acoustics permitted the listener to appreciate each stop and its clarity, without it being buried by other stops.
In lieu of an encore, Music Director Michael Roush gave Bálint, unknown beforehand, Hymn 282 to play an improvisation on. This demanding skill of thinking of which stops to play with what style of music, is a challenge for the best of organists. Bálint played six different movements which underlined his excellent playing skills and knowledge of the instrument he was playing.
In summary, this was an excellent concert to attend to appreciate the skills or the organist and the strengths of the instrument he played.
For more information about the St. Barnabas Bach@415 concert series visit stbarnabasgreenwich.org
