Organists and Organ Playing

Rosales puts Kaua‘i on the map!

This afternoon I was very happy to hear that Adam Pajan opened the Inaugural Concert of the Rosales Organ (the Sloggett/Wilcox Ohana Organ) with Marcel Dupré’s Cortège et litanie, a piece I learned as a teenager with Dupré himself. Adam said that the piece was a great one to showcase the many colors of an organ, but that this month will mark the 50 years since Marcel Dupré died (he actually died on May 30, 1971.)

Fifty years! I can hardly believe it! not only that the years have passed this quickly since Dupré died, but it means that I have been playing the Cortège et litanie for more than 50 years.

Adam Pajan at the new Rosales organ

More importantly, it’s safe to say that the new Rosales organ has definitely put Kaua‘i on the map as for important organ installations here in Hawaii. Adam did a terrific job in showing off the colors of the organ as you will see by the program below:

Cortège et litanie (Marcel Dupré)
Partita on Crucifer (Charles Callahan)
Rhapsody, Op. 17, No. 1 (Herbert Howells)
Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532 (J. S. Bach)
Toccata, Fugue and Hymn on Ave Maris Stella (Flor Peeters)
Preludes for Piano (George Gershwin, trans. by Pajan)
Symphonie VI in G minor, op. 42, no. 2 (Louis Vierne)
Encore: Tico tico

You can check the All Saints website to see if they will post the video now that the concert has ended.

Download the entire concert program here. I did spot one typo — Johann Sebastian Bach’s correct dates are 1685-1750, not 1892-1983! If you want to see just the organ specification, you can click here.

I watched the concert on my big screen TV. That’s Morris Wise reading some introductory remarks.

I can’t wait to hear this organ in person, which will be Tuesday when I travel to Kaua’i to give an organ lesson to Hank Curtis and help him register the organ.

I’m pretty sure that this cake was made at Ko Bakery (Morris Wise’s company)

Here are some photos taken by Kevin Cartwright, the new president of Rosales Organs.

Congratulations, Adam! Congratulations, All Saints! Congratulations, Rosales Organs!