Spiffy Redefined

Alright. I’ve been pretty lax about this for the last week or so. Not for lack of material – for lack of time. Let me see if I can catch up a little.

Sunday, Hubby and I went down to Spiffy Hall to hear Paul Jacobs play the big Rufatti organ there. It was our second trip to see him there and the first for our friends Jim & Steve. If you have any interest at all in organ music, you owe it to yourself to find him in concert, somewhere in your area. Truly. He's worth the drive. Obviously I can’t play any of his recordings for you here, but these quotes from his bio should give you an idea of his abilities:

Paul Jacobs came to national attention as a concert organist in 2000 when he twice performed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach in 14 consecutive evenings, in New York City and Philadelphia. Later in the year he trumped that achievement by performing the complete works again in a spectacular 18-hour, non-stop marathon in Pittsburgh.... [He] has memorized the complete organ works of Brahms, Franck, and Duruflé, much Messiaen, most of Bach, and a vast range of other organ literature.

He was appointed chairman of the organ department at Julliard in 2003 at the age of 26, making him one of the youngest faculty appointments in the school’s history. And unlike some other performers, he lives up to the hype. He’s not only computer-precise in his playing, he’s musical. And he’s personable, and he makes it look so very effortless. We heard him play the snot out of Max Reger’s Fantasy and Fugue on "Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme.” When he finished, hubby turned to me and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that piece before.”

And I responded, “That’s because nobody else can play it.”

I’ve been all week trying to find a good recording of it, but I think I’ll be disappointed in anybody else’s performance. If nothing else, I know they don't take it at the blinding tempo he used.

And on top of everything else, near the end of the concert, he ‘fessed up that he had forgotten his organ shoes in New York City. He played the entire concert in his Gold Toe socks.

By the way, I thought the faux marble technique at Spivey Hall was a little on the tacky side... until last summer when I realized the Katholische Hofkirche in Dresden got exactly the same faux marble treatment.