On FACEBOOK streaming: Glendale Noon Concerts 8/5/20

Streaming on FACEBOOK: Glendale Noon Concerts 8/5/20 
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

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:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1159937427698234/

Please keep checking this site for updates.
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

PLEASE HELP THESE CONCERTS TO CONTINUE 
WITH A DONATION:

https://adventistgiving.org/#/org/ANPPGL/envelope/start

Or by mailing it to 610 E California Ave, Glendale, CA 91206 to the Friends of Music.

The Glendale Noon Concerts series is presented by Glendale City Church every first & third Wednesday at 12:10-12:40 pm. www.glendalecitychurch.org

Concert schedule: www.glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com

Glendale City Church also presents the Second Saturday Concert Series,

http://glendalecitychurch.org/index.php/ministries/second-saturday-concert-series.html  

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

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 18^th 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.