Sunday, January 8th was the Baptism of Christ and I programmed two settings of “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam” by J. S. Bach. They were both from a collection called “Clavierübung” or “keyboard practice,” which is sometimes referred to as Bach’s German Organ Mass because there are chorale preludes on the Ordinary — the Kyrie, the Gloria, etc.

Well, you’ll never guess that when I got into the car two Sundays ago, and as soon as I turned on the ignition, guess what was playing on “With heart and voice,” from public radio? Yes, it was “Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam!” What was so amazing was that the performer was Joan Lippincott, my former teacher from Westminster Choir College!

For this past Sunday, I had asked Rodney Gehrke, our guest recitalist, to play something for the postlude as a “teaser,” in order to entice people to come back in the afternoon for his recital. So he told us he would play the final movement from Maurice Duruflé’s “Choral variations on ‘Veni creator spiritus'”

So when we got into the car on Sunday morning, as soon as I turned on the car, you’ll never guess what was playing on the radio — yes! the Duruflé ‘Veni Creator!’

I am always so happy to hear our organ in recital — you see, in our building the organist has the worst seat in the house because one does not get a sense of the true balance between the Great and the Swell divisions. Rod’s playing was so extremely clean and his colorful registration of the organ stops made for a delightful afternoon of organ music.

Thank you all for coming!