The king speaks at Union Terminal
E.M. Skinner Concert Organ of Cincinnati Museum Center
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The king spoke powerfully and was given a name: Grand E.M. Skinner Concert Organ of Cincinnati Museum Center.
It was the official dedication of the Museum Center's historic Skinner symphonic organ, a project 25 years in the making, beginning in 1986 with a notion conceived by physicist and amateur organist Harley Piltingsrud (honored during the evening for his 18,000 hours of work bringing the project to fruition). The inaugural performance was in 1999, but work on the antiphonal division, involving incorporation of a second organ, is ongoing.
Doing the honors on the keys, hand and foot, was Thomas Murray, university organist and professor of music at Yale University. Turnout was robust, with extra chairs brought into the terminal's grand rotunda to accommodate the crowd.
The program was designed to show off the organ, a vintage 1929 model acquired from a church in Philadelphia in 1987. The antiphonal division was begun in 1988 using a 1929 Skinner organ formerly housed in the home of Cincinnati inventor/businessman Powel Crosley Jr. Both are splashy symphonic organs, designed to re-create a virtual symphony orchestra. (The antiphonal division is housed at the south edge of the rotunda, over the entrance to the History Museum.)
Symphonic organs went out of fashion in mid-century, but are gaining attention again. Certainly, nothing could be more fitting for the huge space under the Museum Center rotunda, with its generous reverberation time. It was serendipitous that both organs were built in 1929, the same year construction began on Union Terminal.
Murray, who performed the 1999 inaugural concert, opened with Saint-Saens' gentle "Rhapsody on a Breton Theme," Op. 7, No. 1. This charming, folk-like work brought the antiphonal organ clearly into play, and featured some beautiful organ stops (including clarinet).
It was time to marvel after that, with Bach's Toccata in F Major, where one could not only relish the full bore of the instrument, but witness Murray virtually waltzing over the pedals with his feet. By the end, it was clear that something other than trains can make the Union Terminal floor vibrate.
"Im Garten" from Carl Goldmark's "Rustic Wedding" came from faraway by contrast, building to a shapely "spillover" of notes before the return of the simple, affecting theme. Heinrich Hoffman's tripartite Scherzo was simple, jaunty and just plain fun. Both were transcribed for organ by Edwin Lemare.
Featured work on the program was the premiere of jazz/film composer Michael Patterson's "Catching Light" with soprano saxophonist Rick vanMatre. Patterson, Emmy-winning graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, had the acoustics of the building in mind when writing the piece. That, plus the mellow tone of the sax against the organ, made it an ideal fit for the occasion. VanMatre, professor emeritus and former director of jazz studies at CCM, stood behind Murray, near the edge of the rotunda, with Patterson conducting him from behind the organ.
The work began a bit like Dvorak's Humoresque, and then grew serious and reflective. Like the play of light and shadow, the sax merged and emerged from the organ's sonority, giving the work a free-flowing aspect, particularly near the end. In fact, it would have been hard to tell without looking which instrument played the final, long-held note (sax).
Robert Schumann's Four Sketches for Pedal-Piano, Op. 56, opened the second half. (Popular during the 19th century, pedal pianos are now used for practice by organists.) Murray introduced the sketches as "cameos," giving each one a distinctive flavor. He demonstrated some of the organ stops - delicate flutes to rumbling, 32-foot bourdon - then made use of some of the more beauteous ones in Debussy's "Clair de Lune, " again with vanMatre on saxophone.
Three movements from Charles Widor's Symphony No. 2 closed the evening on an eloquent note. Murray used some stops Widor would not have imagined, he said, "but he never thought there'd be an organ in a train station either." The lively "Pastorale" featured oboe and English horn, the Andante some gorgeous flute stops. Murray saved his real ammunition for the "Final," announced using bright trumpet stops and brought to a shattering conclusion. Long live the king.
(first published in the Cincinnati Enquirer March 9, 2011)