Last night was the Organ Plus concert with Jieun Kim Newland and our fantastic instrumentalists: Charles Coldwell, Luke Reed, Darel Stark and Sara Ricer. I have to say that the audience was extraordinarily quiet and attentive. No one talked, no one’s phone went off, and no dogs barked! (As happened in last month’s First Monday concert!)

Thank you for a wonderful evening of beautiful music. You continue the great tradition of LCH in a wonderful way. (K.B.)

Hi, Kathy. Congratulations for a wonderful concert. (R.R.)

Fabulous concert! Great performances, instrument groupings, and pieces! It was just wonderful.Thank you! Signing up for the series emails! PS – you looked great too!  Nice outfits. (A.M.)

A nicely varied & very enjoyable concert with lots of organ, which we really like! (D.A.)

Wish I could have been there!❤️Looks magic! And those silver shoes have been playing organs Here in Norway AS well😍👏👏👏🎶Congratulations! (S.S.)

It was a wonderful program you put together, and I loved every minute! (C.B.)

Taken during the opening piece, “Concerto in C major, BWV 595.” Photo by Rudy Riingen. All other photos on this page are by Bill Potter.

We had only played about halfway through the first page of this piece when I realized that the portable stand lights were turned off. Horrors! You can tell that the photo was taken when the lights were off. Of course there was no way to stop, so I had to just plow on.

The rest of the concert went like clockwork and I was pleased with our performance. The next piece was for organ and recorder, Benedetto Marcello’s “Sonata in D minor, op. 2, no.2.” Charles Coldwell certainly showed his virtuosic prowess on the recorder with this selection, in addition to the Bach “Trio Sonata in G major, BWV 1038,” which followed Johann Krebs “Fantasia on ‘Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” and “Fantasia in F minor” played on trombone with Luke Reed.

Then it was my turn to play the Albinoni “Adagio in G minor.” As it wrote in my previous post, Carl Crosier was on my brain during the whole performance. If you didn’t feel the raw emotion in this piece, I surely did. The tempo was perhaps a little slower than it could have been, but I felt we stretched every suspension almost to the point of no return—but we moved forward nonetheless.

Sara Ricer’s lovely oboe playing was next while I moved to the little organ for Bach’s sinfonías from Cantatas 12 and 156, followed by Albinoni’s “Trio Sonata in B minor.”

Luke Reed came back to play Monteverdi’s “Laudate dominum” complete with its Monteverdi trills! As written in his bio, he learned much of his style and appreciation for early music from his time singing baritone with the Charleston Renaissance Ensemble (he is a native of Charleston, SC).

We closed the program with the first movement of the Bach-Vivaldi “Concertó in A minor, BWV 593a”, a rousing finish to a fun program.

One down, four to go!

[Ed. Note] I miscounted! I really have FIVE more concerts to play in the month of December. Yikes!