That was my reaction to last night’s concert with organist Katelyn Emerson, who played a brilliant performance of Francis Poulenc’s Concerto in G minor. This was perhaps only the second or third live performance of the work that I’ve heard but by far the most electrifying and exciting. As I watched and listened, one word kept coming to me: Masterful! (Thankfully there was a live video feed of the organ console where we could see Katelyn’s hands and feet. I was astonished at how many times she pushed the sequencer to advance to the next registration level—seemed to me almost every other note!)
Katelyn also played a virtuoso organ part in a large work which followed, Leoš Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, which was described as “More an orgy than a mass… a glorious explosion of life.” I would call it dissonant, loud, and boisterous.
Click here to hear a bit of the rehearsal: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19MfUDyvgo/
Here’s a short excerpt from the program notes : … untamed and wildly alive, it begins, in an electrical storm of brass fanfare with rolling timpani thunder. The Kyrie is as opposed to its penitential origins as possible: surging orchestral textures of frank eroticism and ecstatic soprano solo introducing the extreme vocal challenges throughout. A limpid and joyous beginning to the Gloria gives way to thrilling brass and organ, ever-present timpani, and a riotous Amen.
You may remember that I met Katelyn for the first time in 2015 in Boston at the Church of the Advent. We almost met again in Iceland where she played at concert at the Hallgrims Church in 2016, but although we were in contact throughout, we never saw each other in person. Then in March 2022, the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists invited Katelyn to play two concerts in Honolulu and Kauai (https://insanityblog.online/2022/03/13/glorious-elegance/https://insanityblog.online/2022/03/13/glorious-elegance/) and Katelyn was my houseguest.
It was Sunday afternoon that we were walking towards Gloucester Cathedral when I heard someone call my name. It was Katelyn!
Yesterday we drove a couple of hours to Avebury, where the Avebury Henge and Stone Circle is older than the more famous Stonehenge, built in the Neolithic Period, between 2850 BC and 2200 BC. Like Stonehenge, it has a number of large stones arranged in a circle, but it has many more stones and is very much more spread out. Luckily the weather has been absolutely cool and gorgeous our entire time in Britain—otherwise this visit might not be so pleasant.
Evensong last night was sung by the combined cathedral choirs of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford. I notice that all of the choirs now include girls as the trebles — where before there were only boys. The sound, though, is still glorious!