— Organists and Organ Playing —

Afterglow for Glow

December 16, 2019
I played the organ for both concerts.

This weekend’s two performances of “Glow,” by the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble, directed by Tim Carney, joined by Karol Nowicki’s Karolers, had it all — a polished choral performance, varied and well-balanced repertoire, sacred and secular selections, audience carols, beautiful choral tone, texts in English, Latin, Russian, French, German, Polish, Tagalog, Hawaiian and even a lot of fun!

Tim must have taken into consideration that I’d need extra time between pieces, due to the Johannus organ pistons not working and my having to add and subtract all the stops by hand. So it seemed I played every other piece, and sometimes had two or three pieces to set up the stops for my next piece.

The Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble and Karol’s Karolers

Here was the program, which was performed on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon:

Break forth, o beauteous heavenly light (J.S. Bach)
Diffusa est gratia (Giovanni Maria Nanino)
Angels we have heard on high (arr. Stephen Paulus)
Once, as I remember (Italian carol, arr. Charles Wood)
Audience Carol: O come, all ye faithful
Bogoroditse devo (Sergei Rachmaninov)
Gaudete (15th c. French)
Es ist ein’ Ros’ entsprungen (Michael Praetorius)
Masters in this hall (French)
Audience Carol: The first Nowell
The Shepherd’s farewell (Hector Berlioz)
See amid the winter’s snow (John Goss)
King Jesus hath a garden (Dutch tune)
Myn lyking (Richard R. Terry)
Glow (Eric Whitacre)
—intermission
Touro-louro-louro (Nicolas Saboly)
I wonder as I wander (John Jacob Niles, arr. Carl Rütti)
Lulajze, jezunui (Polish carol)
Audience Carol: Joy to the world
O nata lux (Morten Lauridsen)
Wassail song (English, arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams)
Carol of the drum (Katherine K. Davis)
Pasko na naman! (Felipe P. de Leon)
Sans Day carol (Cornish carol)
Bring a torch, Jeannette, Isabella (French)
Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer (Johnny Marks, arr. Ed Lojeski)
This Christmastide (Donald Fraser)
Silent Night (Franz Gruber, last verse in Hawaiian)

A big crowd for Sunday afternoon’s performance; Friday’s audience was also good.

I really had my hands full with playing the fast, difficult accompaniment for Stephen Paulus’ arrangement of “Angels we have heard on high,” and the syncopated, jazzy accompaniment for Carl Rütti’s “I wonder as I wander” — luckily, I had the HVAE’s regular pianist, Eric Schank, turn pages for me as the notes whizzed by.

We knew something fun was going to happen when the men of the choir donned antler headpieces for “Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.” Sunday’s audience, in particular, just roared with laughter, especially when “Rudolph” was lifted into the air, and the “reindeer” started dancing.

See Rudolph? Sorry I wasn’t sitting on the other side when I could take a better picture.

Tim Carney wrote on Facebook:

Profoundly grateful for our beautiful concerts this weekend. The singers of Hawai`i Vocal Arts Ensemble were at their best, and Kathy Crosier played our new organ beautifully. Our guests, Karol’s Karolers were delightful, and when we combined, for Rachmaninov’s Bogoroditse Devo, Lauridsen’s O nata lux, and Sargent’s Silent Night, the performances were sublime. Thanks to all who perform, attend, volunteer, and support us.

My Symphony buddy, organist Samuel Lam, came to the Sunday concert, and invited me out for Chinese food afterwards—a welcome relief after a too busy week: four concerts on three islands and zillions of notes later!

I survived!