Harpsichordist ARTHUR OMURA
During the Covid-19 "Safer at Home" period,
Glendale Noon Concerts will bring our programs
to you via streaming on Facebook Live and Youtube:
The AUGUST 5, 2020 program can be viewed at this link
beginning at 12:10 pm PDT:
https://www.facebook.com/arthur.omura/videos/1983828401754315/
The concert is also available for viewing on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RFWVoPR9j8
Glendale City Church Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt6zEXA-8F7CPOixLDWxGBA
Facebook stream: GLENDALE NOON CONCERTS
Every FIRST & THIRD WEDNESDAY at 12:10 pm PDT
On Wednesday AUGUST 5, 2020 at 12:10 pm PDT:
ARTHUR OMURA - harpsichord
https://www.arthuromura.com
(Scroll down for artist bio & program notes)
Program:
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685
- 1750, German)
Chromatische Fantasie und
Fuge, BWV 903 for harpsichord
Marcel Dupré
(1886
- 1971, French)
Prelude and Fugue, Op. 7,
No. 3 for organ
Naji
Hakim
(b.
1955, Lebanese-French)
Aria for harpsichord
Aria for harpsichord
Gershwinesca for organ
The first harpsichord is a Ronald Haas from the late 80’s.
The reed organ is a Mason & Hamlin, probably from the 1890’s or so.
The second harpsichord is a Hubbard French Double after Taskin, dating from the early 70’s
The second organ is an Allen dating from the early 90’s.
Facebook AUGUST 5 event page:
The first harpsichord is a Ronald Haas from the late 80’s.
The reed organ is a Mason & Hamlin, probably from the 1890’s or so.
The second harpsichord is a Hubbard French Double after Taskin, dating from the early 70’s
The second organ is an Allen dating from the early 90’s.
Please keep checking this site for updates.
A list of upcoming concerts will be posted soon.http://glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com
A list of upcoming concerts will be posted soon.http://glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com
Streaming on Wednesday AUGUST 19, 2020 at 12:10-12:40 pm PDT:
BRENDAN WHITE
SOLO PIANO RECITAL
Eleanor Alberga
(b. 1949, Jamaican)
It's Time
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
(1892-1988, British)
Nocturne: Djâmî
WITH A DONATION:
Or by mailing it to 610 E California Ave, Glendale, CA 91206 to the Friends of Music.
Concert schedule: www.glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com
Glendale City Church also presents the Second Saturday Concert Series,
and sponsors the Caesura Youth Orchestra http://www.mycyo.org
Much appreciation to the Hennings-Fischer
Foundation for their mission to support art & education and their
generous grant to GNC.
RELAX DURING YOUR LUNCH HOUR WITH LIVE MUSIC
RELAX DURING YOUR LUNCH HOUR WITH LIVE MUSIC
ARTIST BIO:
Arthur Omura is a specialist in historical keyboard instruments based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He studied with Charles Rus in San Francisco, and with Dr. Ladd Thomas and Dr. Lucinda Carver at USC. He has performed at the Boston and Berkeley Early Music festivals and given numerous performances in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Omura keeps an active performance schedule as an organist and harpsichord player. He has worked with MicroFest, wildUp, iPalpiti, Les Surprises Baroques, Musica Angelica, and the American Bach Soloists. Omura has collaborated on several recordings, most recently on "Kontrapunktus", a collection of new music by composer Mark Moya written in a Baroque idiom. His interest in instrument making and organology led him to work with harpsichord builder Curtis Berak, whom he has assisted in restoring several instruments, and with organ builder Manuel Rosales. Omura is the director of music at Grace Episcopal Church in Martinez, CA.
PROGRAM NOTES:
The Chromatische
Fantasie und Fuge was probably written in Köthen around 1720, but there are
enough differing versions from the 18th century to make an accurate
date of composition difficult to pin down.
The piece is remarkably chromatic: both the Fantasie and Fuge pull the
ear away from any tonal center almost instantly. The Fantasie begins with a toccata-esque
series of diminished chords in quick succession, designed to impress and
discombobulate. Then, there is a “Recitativ”
which journeys through every key imaginable before returning gloriously to the
tonic. The Fuge subject, harkening back
to the Italian Chromatic Ricercar, is made up of a four-note chromatic line (A,
B-flat, B-natural, C) followed by another four-note chromatic line (E, F,
F-sharp, G). Chaos follows.
Marcel Dupré’s career was
remarkably uneventful, despite his prodigious musicianship; he was appointed Organiste
Titulaire at the Paris church St. Sulpice in 1934, where he remained until
the day he died in 1971. While not
playing the famous Cavaillé-Coll organ, he found time to tour the world as a
recitalist, improvising whole symphonies on the spot, and performing the
complete organ works of Bach from memory.
He also taught generations of French organists, including Olivier
Messiaen, Pierre Cochereau, and Jean Guillou, as Professor of Organ at the
Paris Conservatoire. The Trois Préludes
et Fugues Op. 7 were written in 1914 while Dupré was still a student.
Naji Hakim was born in
Beirut, but moved to Paris to take an engineering degree after the outbreak of
the Lebanese Civil War. (Lebanon, and
wider Syria, was under French Mandate until 1943.) He was dissuaded from going into engineering
by his teacher and mentor, the famous organist-improvisor-composer Jean
Langlais, who instead pushed him into the Conservatoire, where he won first
prizes in improvisation and performance,
as well as fugue, counterpoint, and orchestration. Hakim was the organist at the Basilique du
Sacré-Coeur for eight years before succeeding Olivier Messiaen at the
Eglise de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris.
He now works as a composer and performer. Gershwinesca is Hakim’s tribute to the
famous American composer, done in the style of an improvised toccata.
