January organ events in the San Francisco area

by David Engen

In mid-January I had the opportunity to spend two weeks doing technical training in Palo Alto, CA, just north of San Jose. This is the heart of Silicon Valley, near the likes of Stanford University, McAfee and Oracle headquarters, among others.

Since I was staying over a weekend, I checked the San Jose AGO chapter’s monthly newsletter online (note that it was publicly available to me and not hidden behind a password). In it I learned of four concerts I could attend – Robert Huw Morgan on the Stanford Fisk Friday night, Gail Archer on the St. Mary’s Cathedral Ruffatti Sunday afternoon, Paul Jacobs on the Davies Hall Ruffatti Sunday evening, and the Luther College Choir the following Friday night in Palo Alto. I opted for the three organ recitals only since I was flying home early the following Saturday and didn’t want to be out too late on Friday.

Contrasts abounded. Two of these concerts were all-Bach and one was mostly 19^th Century literature. One was miserably attended while two had large crowds. The Fisk at Stanford is famous for having two temperaments. The St. Mary’s Ruffatti is in a vast space yet it speaks “in your face” with lots of chiff and very high mixtures and a partially electronic pedal that sounds fake. The Davies Ruffatti at 140 ranks threatens to be overwhelming, yet matches the room very well, and holds lovely sounds, and was an excellent match for Jacobs’ program.

Robert Huw Morgan

Morgan’s program Friday night was concert #7 in his 14-concert series of all the Bach organ works, celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the installation of the Fisk organ. Stanford has a huge campus, especially at night when your GPS system can only locate the campus, not any of the buildings! The campus was also mostly deserted, being a Friday night, so I was largely unsuccessful in asking for directions, and I couldn’t find any campus maps. I finally saw two middle-aged gentlemen and asked for directions to the chapel, and they responded, “Are you going to the Bach recital? You can follow us!” We walked for a good 15 minutes before we arrived. I would not have found it without them.

The Stanford Memorial Chapel is worth a trip just to see the building. It’s Romanesque in style, with all of the interior walls covered with mosaics and carved stone bas-relief. I was anxious to hear the Fisk because I was in the Fisk shop over 25 years ago, shortly before Charles Fisk died, and the pipe shop was just starting to make the Stanford pipes. At that point there were 17 pipes per octave to manage the dual temperaments. The large organ sits in the center of the balcony, flanked by the famous and restored Murray Harris organ nestled into the side walls.

Since this concert was part of a romp through all of the Bach organ works, it was inevitable that Morgan would have to include some of the chorale preludes and other works that are rarely if ever played. This made for an interesting if esoteric program. The early Prelude and Fugue in C was played on the organ’s meantone temperament, and I can tell you it was pretty ripe! It was a relief when Morgan grabbed the huge lever above the keydesk (visible in the photo) and shifted back to the organ’s “normal” temperament, which is NOT as mild as the tuning at House of Hope or Shepherd of the Hills. This is still an instrument for early music. But when you have a Romantic-style organ in the same balcony, why compromise?

1: Stanford memorial chapel

2: Stanford fisk opus 85

Program

Gail Archer

Gail Archer’s brief (45 minute) all-Bach recital at St. Mary’s on Sunday afternoon followed a fairly large and rowdy private baptism. Note that this is NOT Grace Cathedral with its traditional gothic style. St. Mary’s is on top of a hill and has four huge soaring concrete structures that form the roof, and a local landmark. I counted 24 people who were serious listeners, sprinkled about in the huge space. The remaining 10 or so were not there for the recital, but were tourists who happened to come through the open doors. They pretended to listen for awhile, when they weren’t taking flash pictures. One group kept switching seats so they could take pictures of each other with the Cathedral as backdrop. Gail deserves accolades for keeping her attention against such unthinking and rude behavior. As huge as this space is, the organ’s position on a pedestal under the concrete roof supports has such immediate reflection that its “in your face” high mixtures and chiff made it a tiresome instrument to listen to.

3: St Mary's exterior

4: St. Mary's altar and baldachino

5: Ruffatti organ

Program

Paul Jacobs

The rain that started late Saturday continued Sunday and into the following week, resulting in flooding, mud slides, high waves, and attention in the national news. It wasn’t a good omen for a 6 p.m. organ recital, but I assumed that only the most loyal “organ nuts” would attend with a typical small crowd. I arrived when the doors opened at 5 p.m. (St. Mary’s is only a few blocks away). This was the most expensive recital I’ve ever attended -- $53. That included an Internet handling fee, a fee to hold the ticket at the box office, pre-paid parking, and the ticket itself. By 5:30 Davies Hall was starting to fill up, much to my surprise. The people kept coming, and by 6 p.m., with the exception of the second balcony, the hall was filled! Jacobs entered to polite applause, and it was pretty clear from what he said to us that he was dumbfounded that so many would come out on a rainy Sunday at 6 p.m. for an organ concert!

His concert was, in a word, incredible. If more organists performed virtuosic concert music from memory – like “regular” concert hall musicians – maybe the organ would be more main-stream than it is. This was right up there with the famous concert singers, violinists, trumpeters, etc. In preparation for the Reubke Sonata, Jacobs removed his jacket and remarked that it was difficult to remember all of the pistons! A very enthusiastic crowd brought him back for an encore.

The organ is huge by any measure at 140 ranks. It is well matched to the room and contains many lovely and unique voices. The “Grand-Orgue” (19 stops) includes an ancillary “Diapason Chorus” division (7 stops). The 16-stop Positiv includes a 2/5’ “Jeu de Clochette II”, a ¼’ “Cymbal Aigue III” and a 16’ “Serpent”. The Recit has 22 stops, the Choeur/Bombarde has 17 stops, and the Fanfare has 8 stops. The enormous pedal includes two 64’ stops (“Basse Acoustique” and “Grande Cornet”) and four 32’ stops. Many pedal stops are borrows and extensions, but it includes 9 ranks of its own distributed in two mixtures.

As uplifting and exciting as this concert was, I couldn’t help thinking that in the Twin Cities we have no venue for a concert like this. We have no concert hall with a great organ. We have some great concert halls to be sure, but none is equipped with an appropriate instrument for this type of program. The magnificent “Voice of Minneapolis”, the 122-rank Kimball organ from 1928 with its 5-manual concert console and three full-length 32’ stops, sits in storage just a few blocks from Orchestra Hall in the Convention Center. It’s a pity there hasn’t been a marriage between the Orchestral Association and the City of Minneapolis to give the Kimball a new life in Orchestra Hall.

6: Ruffatti organ and console

7: Davies Hall from second balcony

8: Exterior from San francisco city hall

Program