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Longwood Gardens Aeolian Restored, dedication recital sold out!

Started by KB7DQH, February 05, 2011, 01:54:44 AM

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KB7DQH

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20110204_Longwood_cultivates_its_musical_mission.html

QuoteIn the concert hall, church or manse, nothing declares a certain level of ambition like a grand organ.

But when Longwood Gardens' organ rumbles to life Friday night after a seven-year, $8 million restoration, ambition will echo far beyond the instrument itself.

QuoteLongwood's leadership felt strongly enough about the restoration of the organ - which reversed changes made in a 1950s remake of the instrument - that it was paid for not by special philanthropy, but through Longwood's general budget.

QuoteThe aim was to return aspects of the 1929, 10,010-pipe organ to their original state, rebuilding the wind chests and mechanisms, while adding a new console and computer player. Silent for a decade, the organ will now make up for lost time with a busy performance schedule. When live organists aren't present - players such as Peter Richard Conte, who performs at the sold-out rededication, and concerts by others that continue through the weekend - the instrument will come to life by way of a new computer player.

QuoteAmong the works on Conte's program is a short, rarely played piece written in 1925 by a 15-year-old visitor who penned it as a gesture of thanks to the du Ponts for all his visits to Longwood.

The composer: Samuel Barber.

Longwood Gardens depicts, in the words of its teenage author, "entering the conservatory for the first time, or for the hundredth time, and of the thoughts which confront him. Entering, he hears the organ, with, perhaps, Dupré or Courboin at the console, playing a majestic chorale of some master . . .

"And now my music must express . . . the flowers, the perfumes, the music, and all the beauty have awakened. It is too wonderful to understand, and too impossible."

The listener is enveloped in peace, and then he hears a sparrow.

"All this becomes merged into a little 'grazioso' melody of peace, and after a while, in this same mood, the composition closes. The visitor has found peace in a new world, and only a faint recollection of the first theme reminds him of that which he has left."

As marriages of the musical and horticultural go, that one might be hard to top.

Organ concerts and demonstrations continue throughout the weekend. Go to www.longwoodgardens.org for more information.

I guess it could be considered an "inspirational instrument" ??? ;D

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."