Organ Pipes at St. James Cathedral

Both loud and soft

Organ recital program at St. James' weekday "Midday Series"

St. James Cathedral has twice-weekly recitals (mostly organ).

Two pieces struck me in today's "Midday Series" recital, performed by organist John Gardham:

1. I didn't know Elgar's orchestral Enigma Variations (Variation 9, known as Nimrod) was also arranged for organ. It has a less tranquil feel in the organ version. Somehow the pipes from the single (grand) instrument have a louder and stronger sound than the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

You can listen to the two variations below:

Daniel Barenboim with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
in 1997 season at Carnegie Hall

Organist Diane Bish at the Second Baptist Church in Houston, TX

2. Healey Willan's delicate pieces. Willan was a Canadian organist who composed both liturgical and non-liturgical music.

I cannot find a Youtube version of the recital pieces, but you can listen to short excerpts of the three pieces (about 30 seconds each) to get an idea of how they sound at the Amazon MP3 list - just scroll down to the middle of the page.)

The pieces are: Ecce Jam Noctis, Ave Maris Stella and Aeterna Christi Munera from Preludes on Plainchant Melodies - #s 8, 10 and 11 in the list.