This new album of organ concertos features the King of Instruments in magisterial works by American composers past and present. It also integrates the superb talent of organist Paul Jacobs with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s distinguished success in the field of contemporary music under their six-time GRAMMY Award-winning conductor and music director, Giancarlo Guerrero. The two works by Wayne Oquin and Christopher Rouse were both premiered by Paul Jacobs, who is the only organist ever to have won a GRAMMY Award.
Organ Concertos
OQUIN • PARKER • ROUSE
Paul Jacobs, OrganNashville Symphony • Giancarlo Guerrero
The organ concerto tradition goes back to the 17th century and the Baroque era, but composers have constantly adapted this age-old genre to their own expressive ends – this recording provides ample evidence of its appeal today. The Organ Concerto by Horatio Parker, today remembered as Charles Ives’ teacher, emerged at a time when composers were seeking an authentically American voice and was hailed by one critic as “imposing and brilliant.” Dedicated to Paul Jacobs, Christopher Rouse’s Organ Concerto is notable for its contrasting dark and light sonorities both in instrumentation and harmonic colour. Wayne Oquin’s Resilience reflects the human capacity for tenacity and perseverance; the composer describes it as “a 13-minute exploration of two seemingly limitless spheres.” The programme ends with Ives’ Variations on “America” – a piece for solo organ composed for the Fourth of July celebrations in 1892.
III. Presto
Organist Paul Jacobs has performed to great critical acclaim on five continents and in each of the 50 United States. The only organist ever to have won a GRAMMY Award, he is an eloquent champion of his instrument both in the United States and abroad. Recent highlights include the premiere of a new organ concerto written for him by Lowell Liebermann, and a performance of Messiaen’s Livre du Saint-Sacrement at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. A fierce advocate of new music, Jacobs has premiered works by Michael Daugherty, John Harbison, Stephen Paulus and Christopher Rouse, among others.
Giancarlo Guerrero is a six-time GRAMMY Award-winning conductor and music director of the Nashville Symphony. He has championed contemporary American music through numerous commissions, recordings and performances, presenting eleven world premieres and fifteen recordings of works by the country’s most prominent composers, including Jonathan Leshnoff, Michael Daugherty, Terry Riley and John Adams. He recently completed a six-season tenure as music director of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic.
The Nashville Symphony has been an integral part of the Music City sound since 1946. Led by music director Giancarlo Guerrero and president and CEO Alan D. Valentine, the 83-member ensemble performs more than 160 concerts annually, with a focus on contemporary American orchestral music through collaborations with such leading composers as Jennifer Higdon, Terry Riley, Joan Tower, Aaron Jay Kernis, Michael Daugherty, John Harbison, Julia Wolfe, and Hannibal Lokumbe. Its recordings have earned 27 GRAMMY Award nominations and have won 14 GRAMMY Awards, including two for Best Orchestral Performance.
Tales of Hemingway
American Gothic • Once Upon a Castle
Bailey • Jacobs
Nashville Symphony
Guerrero
– Gramophone
Organ Concerto • Concert Champêtre
Suite française
Lefebvre • Chojnacka
Orchestre National de Lille
Casadeus
– Gramophone
Mount Rushmore
Pacific Symphony • St. Clair
– MusicWeb International
Symphony No. 2, ‘America’
Hail the Coming Day • Concerto for Organ and Orchestra • PHOENIX
Mikula
Slovak National Symphony Orchestra
Trevor • Roháč
– WFMT (Chicago)