Recital

DISCOVERY AND EDUCATION IN FESTIVAL DUO RECITAL
by Elizabeth MacDougall
Tuesday, July 20, 2010

San Francisco pianists Paul Hersh and Teresa Yu presented a Mendocino Music Festival program July 20 titled “Reflections and Variations.” Mr. Hersh is known at the Festival for his professorial introductions to a performance of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (Book 1) and in 2011 he will perform Book 2...

Recital

ROBERTS PLAYS UNEVEN RECITAL AT MENDOCINO FESTIVAL
by Terry McNeill
Sunday, July 11, 2010

British pianist Paul Roberts played a recital in two disparate parts July 11 in Mendocino Music Festival’s piano series in Preston Hall. Before 65 people Mr. Roberts planned the initial part around music of Ravel and Liszt, each with extensive descriptive titles. The pieces were preceded by a l...

Recital

A BIT OF GRACE IN SANTA ROSA
by James R Harrod
Friday, June 11, 2010

The June 11 evening recital by organist Douglas DeForeest at the Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa featured six meditative selections from the compositions of Richard Purvis (1913-1994), the organist of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco from 1947 to 1971. DeForeest, dean of the Redwood Empire ...

Recital

RUSSO SCORCHES NEWMAN AUDITORIUM IN SEASON FINALE RECITAL
by Terry McNeill
Sunday, April 18, 2010

Spring thunder from sunny Italy was the order of the day April 18 when Sicilian pianist Sandro Russo closed the seventh Concerts Grand season with a dramatic recital at Santa Rosa Junior College. In an 80-minute program before a Newman Auditorium audience of 120 Mr. Russo disdained the usual openin...

Recital

BARCSAK PLAYS A RARE CRAMER SONATA BEFORE ELEGANT CHOPIN MAZURKAS
by Terry McNeill
Thursday, April 15, 2010

Pianist Elenor Barcsak has consistently been in the forefront of Marin musical life as a teacher, MTA branch President, supporter of manifold causes and a chamber music player, but seldom finds time to mount a solo recital. April 15 found her accepting the soloist’s role in Terra Linda’s Christ Pre...

Recital

RARE GERMAN ORGAN PRELUDES PLAYED AT INCARNATION BY JULANDER
by James Harrod
Friday, April 09, 2010

Recital

CHOPIN SCHERZOS FEATURED IN UCBASARAN RECITAL
by Terry McNeill
Sunday, March 28, 2010

Chopin’s bicentennial received another boost March 28 as pianist Zeynep Ucbasaran played a Newman Auditorium concert devoted mostly to the works of the great Polish master. In the penultimate series recital in the seventh Concerts Grand season, Ms. Ucbasaran presented a program built around three o...

Recital

POISE AND VIRTUOSITY IN ALL-BACH ORGAN RECITAL
by James Harrod
Sunday, March 21, 2010

Organ music enthusiasts had the opportunity March 21 to hear a flawless recital of Bach’s music, played by Shin-Ae Chun at Resurrection Parish on Stony Point Road. Ms. Chun is choir director and organist at Toledo’s First Congregational Church and her Santa Rosa concert was produced by the Creativ...

Recital

GRANITIC PIANISM AT GARTNER'S SAN RAFAEL RECITAL
by Terry McNeill
Sunday, March 21, 2010

Marin pianist Kenn Gartner takes his musical life in big chunks. He has a large load of private students, conducts choral groups, is part of a South Bay opera company and composes when time permits. On Bach’s birthday, March 21, he found time to tackle a large recital program at San Rafael’s JB Pi...

Recital

LISITSA TRIUMPHS WITH BIG PROGRAM IN NEWMAN HALL RECITAL
by Terry McNeill
Sunday, February 21, 2010

Ukrainian-American virtuoso Valentina Lisitsa came to her Feb. 21 Santa Rosa recital carrying the fame of a massive YouTube video presence and as among the handful of the most popular woman pianists on the international scene. Whether she is among the best remained to be seen and heard. Performing...

RECITAL REVIEW

American Guild of Organists / Friday, April 09, 2010
Harold Julander,organ

Church of the Incarnation Organist Harold Julander at the Cassavant (photo: R. Crockett)

RARE GERMAN ORGAN PRELUDES PLAYED AT INCARNATION BY JULANDER

by James Harrod

Friday, April 09, 2010

Church of the Incarnation organist Harold Julander played an outstanding recital of German chorale preludes April 9 on the Church’s Caassavant instrument. The program consisted of preludes by Bach, Mendelssohn, Max Drischner, Max Bornefeld, Ernst Pepping, and Jan Bender. Mr. Julander interpreted and the compositions with masterful ease and obvious familiarity with the genre.

The chorale prelude (Vorspiel in German) is a staple of the organ repertory, where the melody line of a popular hymn or folk tune is made the subject for the composer’s improvisation, sometimes composed in real time, on the spot. The improvisation then serves as an introduction to the singing of the chorale or may serve as a stand-alone organ voluntary.

Mr. Julander selectively “pulled out all the stops” to illustrate the special character of the melodic motif of each composition as well as the character of the composer’s era. The chorales included the familiar themes: Aus Tiefer Not, Es ist ein Rose, Wachet Auf, In Dir Ist Freude, Gelobt Sei Dank, Mit Freud en Zart, and Wie soll Ich Dich Empfangen.

The concert, part of the series produced by the Redwood Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, concluded with Bender’s exciting and somber Variations on a Theme of Hugo Distler, Op. 38. This complex work voices a somber complaint against all warfare, echoing the words by Martin H. Franzmann in the hymn Weary of All Trumpeting. The composer was a war resister in Northern Germany during World War II and an associate of Distler, a seminal composer of choral and organ music. Mr. Julander played Bender’s composition with robust solo and ensemble organ reeds and generated a stirring reading.

Twilight Mini Recitals at the Church of the Incarnation will continue May 14 at 6 p.m.

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