DETZNER PLAYS MENDELSSOHN AND BACH IN TWILIGHT ORGAN RECITAL

by Harold Julander

Friday, October 12, 2012

Adam Detzner presented on Oct. 12 the second recital in the fourth season of the “Twilight Pipe Organ Mini Recitals” in Santa Rosa’s the Church of the Incarnation. The short recital featured the works of Mendelssohn and Bach.

Mr. Detzner opened with the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 65. This multi sectional piece, written for Fanny Mendelssohn’s wedding, is grand in its opening and “duplicated” closing, the inner two portions of the piece featuring intricate musical passages that eventually build to a dramatic pedal solo. The young organist, a Stanford student, gave an excellent interpretation of these sections, flawlessly executing the technical complexities and all the while drawing the audience along to the climax.

Next was a Bach Partita based upon the chorale Sei gegrusset, Jesu gutig, BWV 768. The chorale was presented, followed by 11 variations, each masterfully demonstrating Bach’s imaginative genius. Mr. Detzner drew on the 33 stops of the church’s pipe organ to present these variations with period appropriate registrations, contrasting reed with flue pipes and using everything from the full organ with reeds to the a simple four-foot flute stop. The phrasing and articulation of the chorale variations by Mr. Detzner drew the listener into hearing how Bach used rhetoric in his music, creating repeated motifs that many times are drawn from the theme of the chorale or are symbolically representative of a religious idea. Each variation was stunningly performed, leaving the audience pensively waiting for the next.

Overall, Mr. Detzner offered a superb performance executed with the greatest musicality and technique. His teacher, virtuoso Stanford organist Robert Huw Morgan, performed in last year’s Twilight series and one could hear the master’s influence.

The Twilight series continues at 6 p.m. Nov. 9, again at Incarnation, with organist James Hicks. Mr. Hicks has programmed Scandinavian organ compositions.