Organ Concerto (Leifs)

The Organ Concerto, Op. 7 is an organ concerto by Icelandic composer Jón Leifs. Its origins go back to 1917, when Leifs was just 18, and was completed in 1930. It is an uncompromisingly dark work somewhat linked to medieval music, with influences from the tvísöngur tradition in a dissonant triadic context. It lasts about 21 minutes, and contains three movements, with a short introduction and finale framing a much longer Passacaglia consisting in thirty variations. Its theme comprises the total chromatic, critic Alex Ross described as Bach walking in the tundra.

A performance of the work in March 1941 in the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin caused a scandal, with only twenty spectators remaining in the hall by the end and critic Fritz Stege condemning Leifs' agonizingly narrow-minded intellectual world. This marked the end of the Icelandic composer's career in Nazi Germany, though he was not allowed to leave the country until 1944.

Recordings

Organ concerto

An organ concerto is a piece of music, an instrumental concerto for a pipe organ soloist with an orchestra. The form first evolves in the 18th century, when composers including Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel wrote organ concertos with small orchestras, and with solo parts which rarely call for the organ pedal board. During the Classical period organ concerto became popular in many places, especially in Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia (whether called there a concerto, pastorella, or sonata), reaching a position of being almost an integral part of the church music tradition of jubilus character. From the Romantic era fewer works are known. Finally, there are some 20th- and 21st-century examples, of which the concerto by Francis Poulenc has entered the basic repertoire, and is quite frequently played.

The organ concerto form is not usually taken to include orchestral works that call for an organ used as an extra orchestral section, examples of which include the Third Symphony of Camille Saint-Saëns, Gustav Holst's The Planets or Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra.

Organ Concerto (Poulenc)

The Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings in G minor is a concerto composed by Francis Poulenc for the organ between 1934 and 1938. It has become one of the most frequently performed pieces of the genre not written in the Baroque period.

History of composition

Organ Concerto (Williamson)

The Organ Concerto is an orchestral work by Malcolm Williamson.

History of the Work

Williamson's Organ Concerto was written in 1961, to a commission from Sir William Glock specifically for that year's BBC Proms season. The première took place at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 8 August, and was performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Adrian Boult (a staunch advocate of Williamson's music) with the composer himself as soloist.

Stylistically, the work is jagged, dissonant (though with moments of uninhibited tonality) and often wildly percussive, which is a marked contrast to much of the other works on which Williamson was working at the time, such as the ever-popular choral works Procession of Psalms and Agnus Dei, the picturesque Travel Diaries for piano solo, and the grand Piano Concerto No. 3 (completed a year later, in 1962). Many listeners at the time were bewildered by the (allegedly) bizarre sound-world of the concerto, and there were mixed reviews from the press. The Daily Mail had the headline: "This won't do, Mr. Williamson!". Williamson himself later recalled that "the concerto's first performance was received with enthusiastic abuse by the more conservative elements of the British organ world for being too venturesome, by Baroque enthusiasts for its use of the romantic organ, and by some critics for not being sufficiently venturesome!" However, subsequent performances have showed it to be one of Williamson's best works, and is held in high regard by many.