Great Review from Robert Delcamp in The American Record Guide, July/August 2016! see below, bottom of page
*****Five Star Review in Choir & Organ, May/June 2016!  see below, at bottom of page
Great Review from Robert Matthew-Walker in The Organ  see below, at bottom of page

Diane Luchese plays four landmark organs in Baltimore in repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Cathedral of Mary Our Queen - 2007 Schantz 130 ranks
Olivier Messiaen: Adoro te from Livre du Saint Sacrement
Jean-Louis Florentz: Pleurs de la Vierge from Les Laudes, op. 5

Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church - 1931 Skinner Organ Co. 4m
Keith Carpenter: Sister Rosetta Calling the Sinners Home
John Cage: Souvenir
Pozzi Escot: Mirabilis IV

Christ Lutheran Church 2007 Andover - 82 ranks
Sofia Gubaidulina: Hell un Dunkel
Arvo Pärt: Annum per annum
Robert Cogan: No Attack of Organic Metals

Mount Calvary Church  - 1961 Andover (C B. Fisk)
Mauricio Kagel: Râga; Rondeña
György Ligeti: Harmonies

Light and Dark and In Between
A Progressive Recital Featuring Four Organs in Baltimore
Diane Luchese, organist

As in many other facets of our civilization, the past few decades have also introduced increasingly rapid changes and technological advancements to both the art of organ building and musical composition for the pipe organ, demonstrating the vibrant health of one of humanity's oldest musical instruments. From its third-century BCE roots, the organ continues to evolve, and treasured historical instruments that have survived over several centuries inform and inspire contemporary builders in their designs and creative experimentation. Composers continue to exploit the organ's capabilities, some venturing to push the envelope of expressive possibilities. The abundance of contemporary repertoire and variety in available instruments testify to this vital time in the organ's history. This CD aspires to create a kind of time capsule that both samples eclectic compositional styles of the past 50 years and captures a few diverse examples of pipe organs one might typically encounter in a representative American city.

The format of this CD is that of a progressive organ recital featuring four organs in Baltimore, Maryland. Taken together, these instruments represent a range of aesthetics in design within 75 years of organ building practices. The oldest of the four is the 45-rank electropneumatic Skinner Organ Company instrument (op. 839) at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church, installed in 1931, with tonal finishing by G. Donald Harrison. In sharp contrast, and also of historical importance, is the 51-rank Andover-Flentrop (op. 35) at Mount Calvary Church, built by Charles B. Fisk in 1961, employing both mechanical key and stop actions. This historically-inspired instrument was built just prior to Fisk changing his company's name to C. B. Fisk, Inc. Two installations from 2007 are also included: an 81-rank Andover (op. 114) at Christ Lutheran Church with mechanical key action in the manuals and electric key action in the pedals; and an electropneumatic 126-rank Schantz (op. 2275) at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, which includes the resources from its earlier 1959 M. P. Möller (op. 9200). The program begins at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. Just as I was to begin playing the Messiaen movement, the noon bell at the Cathedral began tolling, and so it seemed fitting to include it here.

The innovative techniques of Olivier Messiaen's musical language helped position him amongst the most significant twentieth-century composers, and his acclaimed contributions to modern organ literature have now become standard repertoire. Messiaen's lifelong technical explorations with rhythm, time, pitch constructions, birdsong, symmetry, texture, and color, coupled with his supreme desire to express intangible spiritual mysteries, shaped a distinctly unique and compelling compositional voice. The Cavaillé-Coll organin the magnificent space of Sainte-Trinité in Paris, where Messiaen played for decades in his position as organistinspired creative experimentation with organ timbre that often resulted in unconventional registrations. Adoro te (I adore Thee), the opening movement from Messiaen's last organ composition, Livre du Saint Sacrement, is an expression of adoration to the unseen presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This movement's slow tempo and arch form, registered in a conventionally Romantic manner with full foundation stops and Swell reeds that crescendo to full organ and then subside, is reminiscent of his earlier work, Apparition de léglise éternelle. Despite the similarities, fifty years later Adoro te asserts itself as a mature work that exemplifies the culmination of Messiaen's harmonic practices. The diverse harmonic constructions (e.g., modal harmonies, added-note chords, superposed chords, chords of resonance, both whole tone and chromatic chords) project a rich palette of colors. These slowly unfolding harmonies create a monolithic sonic atmosphere conducive to prayerful adoration, which the highly reverberant acoustics at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen fully support.

Messiaen taught many gifted pupils, including Jean-Louis Florentz. In addition to Messiaen's influence, the study of natural sciences and ethnomusicology played a profound role in Florentz's stylistic development. He served as a Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Conservatoire de Lyon 1985-2000. Florentz's ethnomusicological work included trips to parts of Africa, where he studied the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian liturgy. Pleurs de la Vierge (Tears of the Virgin) is the fifth of the seven movements that constitute his first organ cycle, Les Laudes, op. 5. Its subtitle, Kidan za-Nageh (or Morning Office), reflects the works derivation from the Ethiopian liturgy, and the intention behind Laudes is to solemnly honor the Virgin Mary. Florentz states that he tried to make these Laudes musical icons of Mary weeping for the persecution of Ethiopia, but they should also be regarded as songs of hope in a world delivered from tribulations and wars. In a 1993 article written by the composer in Contemporary Music Review, he stresses the importance of organ timbre in this work, and explains his employment of mutation stops, reeds, and several fundamentals at the same pitch level to produce harmonic vibratos. In addition to the undulations resulting from his conceived registrations, other prominent style features found in this movement include the use of cross rhythms, modal language, incantation- like phrasing, and heterophonic texture adapted to the organ.

Unlike Florentz and Messiaen, who were quite meticulous with respect to notating specific registrations in their scores, Sofia Gubaidulina's Hell und Dunkel (Light and Dark) explores organ timbre chiefly through juxtaposed contrasts and densities, rather than through precise registrations. In a conversation that appeared in 1998 in Perspectives of New Music, Gubaidulina (born in Chistopol) asserts that her intention as a composer is to strive for depth as opposed to innovation, although the vivid timbres and instrumental effects that characterize her music nevertheless capture listeners with their often-novel execution. Her music departed from the compositional norms associated with the aesthetic principles of Soviet Russia, and she credits the support of Shostakovich with helping her remain true to herself and continue developing along her individual path. And yet, in 1979, Gubaidulina was blacklisted as one of Khrennikov's Seven at the Sixth Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers for her unapproved participation in several festivals of Soviet music in the West, where music other than the appropriate representation desired was presented. Hell und Dunkel was composed three years prior to this official denunciation. Gubaidulina's exploration of light and dark presents a variety of oppositions: high vs. low registers, loud vs. soft, short melodic fragments vs. sustaining harmonies, quick notes vs. long sustained notes, ascent vs. descent, chromatic vs. diatonic clusters, conjunct vs. disjunct figuration, and interval inversions (2nds/7ths and spans of 3rds/6ths). The essentially ascending trajectory and increasing momentum of the exposition is reversed in the recapitulation. Following the climax, the denouement features figuration that descends eventually to the pedal as soft, diatonic clusters simultaneously ascend. Distinguishing features of her compositional style are evident throughout, e.g., ametrical rhythms, glissandi, tremolos, chromaticism, a rough relief, and a preference for motivic segments over long melodies.

Like Gubaidulina, Estonian-born Arvo Pârt struggled with the Soviet regime. After facing a compositional crisis, his study of plainsong and early European polyphony inspired a new direction, with spirituality and simplicity at the core. This breakthrough in the 1970s led to the development of his tintinnabuli style, which features a technique essentially consisting of a melodic voice (M-voice) synchronous with another voice that sounds the tones of a tonic triad (T-voice). Annum per annum (Year by year) consists of five movements (K-G-C-S-A) that correspond to the five sections of the Mass Ordinary (Kyrie-Gloria-Credo-Sanctus-Agnus Dei), which are celebrated daily, year by year. These movements are similarly constructed of two sections that are each four measures long, with the exception of the extended second section of A, which twice repeats its final measure in ascending registers. At the works midpoint (halfway through C), the mode switches from minor to major. Despite many similarities among the movements, Pärt's specific registrations and the right hand figuration help each achieve distinct individuality. The five movements are framed with an introduction and a coda; both employ an iambic rhythm that intones the pitches D and A, mesmerizing the ear to the D tonic governing the entire piece. Although the introduction begins fortissimo, after about 50 seconds the blower is switched off and the intoning continues until the wind is depleted. The diminishing wind on the Andover organ at Christ Lutheran Church allows for a vivid sonic experience, so I urge you to turn up the volume. Finally, the coda begins pianissimo and crescendos to full organ in approximately 40 seconds.

That an organ can sustain indefinitely when its motor is kept on is just one of its superpowers. Composer/theorist Robert Cogan wrote in his award-winning text, New Images of Musical Sound, Unbreathing or superbreathing, organs in any case are ancient sound synthesizers. Cogan's groundbreaking theoretical work in tone color analysis is on par with the technical precision and sensitivity to timbre exhibited in his own compositional designs. No Attack of Organic Metals explores connections between pre-recorded sounds and those of the organ. As Cogan states, No Attack of Organic Metals originated in the surprising idea that there exist many potential analogies between organ sounds and the sounds of our everyday electromechanical environment. In performance, speakers are placed near the pipes so that as the organ sonorities are complementing, contrasting, or in dialogue with the electromechanical sounds, one will not always be distinguishable from the other. In addition to the organ and pre-recorded sounds, slide whistle and vocal utterances contribute to the texture. To indicate the various complexities of his performance instructions, Cogan developed a graphic notation whereby the durations of events are indicated by seconds, and pitches (whether played or sustained by key weights) are indicated by letter names and register numbers. (See the sample page from this score.) The two assistants required for performance assist with registration changes, the placement of weights on the keyboards, and the vocal sounds. Near the end, an extended climactic section combining organ, electromechanical sounds, and vocal cries leads to an impressive pulsation, resulting from the acoustical beating of the sustaining A# and B that conclude the piece. Originally composed in 1973, this recorded performance uses the revised edition from 2012.

American-born composer Keith Carpenter's earliest musical experiences were playing guitar in rock bands. Formal compositional training followed in American universities and through additional studies with Tristan Murail and Louis Andriessen. Carpenter's passion for American vernacular music is often displayed idiomatically in his music. Rosetta refers to gospel singer/songwriter/guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe, whose spiritual lyrics and rhythmically rocking accompaniments crossed over style boundaries onto new soulful terrains, influencing numerous subsequent artists that include Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jimi Hendrix. Composed in 2014, Sister Rosetta Calling the Sinners Home explores the invisible boundary between traditional sacred liturgical music and gospel music. While it is somewhat common to differentiate sacred pipe organ literature from gospel performance on Hammond electronic organs, both are essentially concerned with spiritual expression. Carpenter's piece, conceived specifically for pipe organ sonority, achieves common ground between contemporary sacred organ music i.e., of composers such as Olivier Messiaen and Arvo Pärt and stylistic elements found in gospel church music, e.g., soulful melodies, syncopation, swing rhythms, and blue notes. The colorful solo stops and warm strings of the Skinner organ at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church provide ample registration possibilities for Carpenter's expressive thematic material.

Few, if any, composers have challenged our basic assumptions about music more than John Cage. Although his organ compositions are few in number, one that has captured world attention is Organ2/ASLSP, currently in the midst of a 639-year realization that is taking place in Halberstadt, Germany on a superbreathing organ simultaneously growing as the performance unfolds. Through the six-plus centuries still remaining to complete that performance, we are almost guaranteed that the king of instruments has a long life ahead (at least until September 5, 2640). Just four years preceding the composition of Organ2/ASLSP, Cage completed Souvenir, which was commissioned by the American Guild of Organists. The form of Souvenir can be described as a chain of six short thematic ideas linked together and then restated two additional times. Except for the opening theme, which modifies slightly with each iteration, the other ideas restate exactly. Regarding the fourth idea, beneath the sustaining manual chords (which I registered with strings), Cage notates the pedal part on two different staves. I realized this passage taking advantage of the pedal divide system found on the current console at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church. Souvenir's nonlinearity, circular form of repeating themes, unchanging heptatonic pitch collection, and steady meter imbue it with the characteristic of monotony, while at the same time we areparadoxicallyengaged with unpredictable surprises.

In the Preface to his score, Mauricio Kagel explains,  Rrrrrrr . . . consists of 41 autonomous pieces of music, all performable separately and all beginning with the letter R. The respective instrumental settings (organ; choir and piano; percussion duo; wind instruments, double basses and percussion; solo voices; jazz combo) are published in separate volumes. A performance of all 41 pieces constitutes the Radio Phantasy Rrrrrrr . . . . Kagel's individual titles within originate from different languages; most titles are words somehow related to music (e.g., Râga, Ripieno, Ragtime-Waltz, Rondeña, Rauschpfeifen), while other titles are simply programmatic (e.g., Rossignols enrhumés, Railroad Drama). The organ volume is comprised of eight pieces, the first and fifth of which are presented here. The first title, Râga, brings to mind modes or melodic formulae that form the basis of Indian improvisations and compositions. What is especially striking about this piece is its entirely monophonic texture, absent of a drone that we might hear if this were music in an Indian style. Rondeña, the title of the fifth piece, is one of the regional variants (from Ronda) of the fandango, a Spanish dance. For this piece I chose a single flute stop on each manual to execute Kagel's pianissimo dynamic marking, although Kagel's score suggests that a very aggressive, bruitist interpretation of this piece is also possible: fff!

Although György Ligeti completed only four organ compositions, his contribution to organ literature can still be considered nothing less than significant. Breaking through conventional barriers, Ligeti's approach to the organ necessitates uncharacteristic playing techniques and manipulations to the instrument, thereby introducing listeners to foreign sonic landscapes. Harmonies is the first of his Zwei Etüden für Orgel. As the title suggests, the organist plays harmonies, i.e., a total of 230 chords that are comprised of ten pitches played using all ten fingers. In each measure, just one finger moves up or down by a half step in a somewhat symmetrical process to form a different harmony, the exception being the final few bars, where several fingers individually cease playing as the texture thins to simply three pitches and a single low C pedal note. The measures (or chord alterations) unfold without regularity or steady tempo. Although the organist is simply playing changing harmonies, listeners are unable to perceive the actual pitches played or the processes at work because Ligeti requires a denaturing of the sound by interfering with the organs wind, suggesting several solutions on how to achieve this. In this recorded performance, one assistant is slowly and continually changing the stops, which are pulled out only halfway so that the insufficient wind interferes with the pipes ability to produce clear pitches. Another assistant, positioned inside the organ, is manipulating the wind reservoir to destabilize the wind pressure. (A spectrogram of this recording of Harmonies appears on the cover.) In her book, The Poetics of Simple Mathematics in Music, Pozzi Escot analyzes this etude and unveils its beautiful proportions and symmetry, which Ligeti intentionally obscures and distorts in a ghostly fashion.

Composer/theorist Pozzi Escot's analytical writings elucidate both the significant structural features of compositions and also the mathematical niceties of symmetry, proportion, and geometry of some designs. Likewise, we can characterize Escot's music by its bold dissonances, angular melodic lines, contemporary pitch structures, nonlinearity, and free rhythms, as well as appreciate her musical expression of number and mathematics via concise forms and precisely crafted ideas that are devoid of extraneous development, wherein every single note convincingly asserts itself as an integral and deliberate part of a solid architectural framework. Mirabilis IV exemplifies this aesthetic through its well-proportioned formal design, use of the golden mean along temporal and spatial axes, symmetrical arrangement of pitch distribution, and employment of Fibonacci numbers. The geometry of Escot's sonic structures can also be appreciated visually in her notational practice, as you can see by the given sample page from her score. The works title is a reference to the text of Hildegard von Bingen's 1155 Antiphon O quam mirabilis est, although Mirabilis IV does not parody or resemble Hildegard's chant. In her Preface, Escot explains, Mirabilis IV is a plain chant without a text to be performed at any given time, and for all occasions, celebrating. As in all plain chants of our middle European world of over a thousand years ago, and the global view of original musics, Mirabilis IV has no indications of tempi, durations, dynamics, meters. And so this recording concludes where it began, in the awesome space of the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. This seemed an ideal setting for Escot's Mirabilis IV, a sublime and marvelous musical celebration of the creative forces and manifestations in the world around us.