Tags
Boulder Bach Festival, chorale prelude, First Congregational Church, Liszt, Michael Unger, organ, Passacaglia in C minor, Salmen Organ Co., Schumann, Spencer Organ Co., St. John's Episcopal Cathedral, W.W. Kimball Co.
St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Denver has completed a $1.6 million restoration of its 1938 Platt Rogers pipe organ, thereby culminating the celebration of the present cathedral building’s centennial. The original organ builder, W.W. Kimball Co. of Chicago, ended production in the late thirties, so the instrument, featuring nearly six thousand pipes in a three-story chamber on the left side of the chancel, is among the last of its kind. The ninety-eight ranks of pipes, crafted to emulate the sounds of instruments in an orchestra, along with the four-manualed console and windchests with electro-pneumatic action, had not been modified or updated before being cleaned, reconditioned and recently reinstalled at the cathedral by the Spencer Organ Co. of Waltham, Massachusetts.
This “American Symphonic” style of organ, with a tonal design emphasizing color, depth, contrast and power, will be featured during a 24 February 2012 Boulder Bach Festival concert entitled “Bach Inspirations” to be performed by organist Michael Unger at 7:30pm. Unger, multiple organ competition winner and recording artist on the Naxos and Pro Organo labels, will interpret chorale preludes by Bach (BWV 662, BWV 650 and BWV 680), his Passacaglia in C minor (BWV 582), and major nineteenth century organ works by Schumann and Liszt that were inspired by Bach.
This concert will be repeated the following evening at 7:30pm on the Salmen Organ at First Congregational Church in Boulder.
