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Celebrating the pipe organ, the King of Instruments


2001 C.B. Fisk organ at Finney Chapel of Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Oberlin’s New ‘French’ Fisk

The accent is convincing, but the context? On our next Pipedreams program, we listen to a new instrument fashioned in the manner of the great organs by 19th century French builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. But we’re not in a famous Parisian church, rather we’re on the Ohio plains southwest of Cleveland, at Finney Chapel of Oberlin College where the C.B. Fisk company of Gloucester, Massachusetts, set out to provide students with an experience they could only otherwise achieve abroad.

We celebrate in style, with solos and orchestral pieces, as faculty recitalists Haskell Thomson and David Boe show off a new instrument which adds to a teaching resource unparalleled at any other American school. Join us at Finney Chapel to savor Oberlin’s New French Fisk, this week on Pipedreams.

Program Broadcast dates:

Music played in the program

ROBERT SIROTA: In the Fullness of Time. CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Maestoso, from Symphony Number 3 in c, Opus 78 –Oberlin Orchestra, Paul Polivnick, conductor; David Boe, organ; recorded September 28, 2001

ERMEND BONNAL: La Vallée du Béhorléguy, au matin, from Paysages euskariens. LOUIS VIERNE: Final, from Symphony Number 1 in D, Opus 14 &ndashDavid Boe, organ; recorded September 29, 2001

LOUIS-JAMES-ALFRED LEFÉBURE-WÉLY: Scene pastorale. OLIVIER MESSIAEN: Sortie, Le vent de l’Esprit, from Messe de la Pentecote –Haskell Thomson, organ; recorded September 29, 2001

JOSEPH JONGEN: Lento misterioso, 3rd movement and Toccata, 4th movement, from Symphonie Concertante, Opus 81 –Oberlin Orchestra, Paul Polivnick, conductor; Haskell Thomson, organ; recorded September 28, 2001

Oberlin Conservatory and the Westfield Center will sponsor an international summer symposium on French Romantic Organ Music, Cavaillé-Coll in Oberlin will be held on campus June 12-15, 2002.

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