It is a jaded eye that looks at a massive pipe organ — its multiple keyboards, monster foot pedals and colossal conical tubes reaching toward the heavens — without being impressed. Especially if said pipe organ happens to be the immovable and breathtaking center of focus, not in a cathedral or an old horror movie, but in a large concert hall.
“In many ways, that organ is my baby,” said Peabody organ department coordinator Donald Sutherland, who had a hand in its design. “[It] represents my life’s work at Peabody.”
Sutherland will be the featured performer this Sunday in a program that celebrates of the 10th anniversary of the custom 3,000-pipe Holtcamp organ and also the 10th anniversary of the conservatory’s first major renovation to a campus building — Griswold Hall.
In three selected concert pieces, the organ plays in rotation with a brass section, an orchestra and multipercussion instruments.
With members of the Peabody Concert Orchestra, conducted by Edward Polochick, Sutherland will present Joseph Rheinberger’s Concerto in G minor for Organ and Orchestra and Alexandre Guilmant’s Symphonie No. 1 in D minor, Op.42 arranged for organ and brass and performed at one of Griswold’s opening recitals.
Peabody alumnus Svetoslav Stoyanov will perform with Sutherland in Samuel Adler’s “Xenia — A Dialogue for Organ and Percussion”.
“This is a multipercussion set-up,” said Stoyanov, an assistant at Peabody and member of New York City’s Concert Artists Guild. “I will be playing tempo blocks, cymbals, triangles and a glockenspiel.”
Stoyanov refers to “Xenia” as a colorful piece, involving a lot of communication between organ and percussion.
“Sometimes we go along with each other and sometimes we interrupt each other,” he said. “In a very down-to-earth way, even an audience not programmed to listen to contemporary music will feel comfortable and enjoy it.”
Interestingly, both Sutherland and Stoyanov see the organ as a giant, the king of all instruments.
“There is nothing as grand or as overwhelming as the pipe organ,” Sutherland concluded. “I think Baltimore should know that we have a fine, elegant instrument sitting right here at the Peabody [and] it’s not just an instrument to be heard in church or synagogue.”
IF YOU GO
Anniversary Concert in Griswold Hall with Donald Sutherland at the organ
Venue: Peabody Conservatory — Leith Symington Griswold Hall
17 East Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore
When: 4:00 p.m. Sunday
Admission: $15
Info: 410-659-8100 ext. 2
NOTE: Concert will also include vocal presentation by student Lindsay Thompson and Griswold Piano Scholarship recipient Kimberly Kong.
