The Patricia Byrne Memorial Concert Series
March 18, 2025 | 7:00 PM
Ken Cowan, Organ
Members of the Alabama Symphony
Dr. Jeff R. McLelland, Conductor
PROGRAM
"Adagio in G Minor"...................................................................................................... Tomaso Albinoni (1910-1998) arr Remo Giazotto
“Organ Concerto No 2 in G Minor, Op 177” Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901)
Grave Andante
Con moto
INTERVAL
“Symphonie Concertante, Op 81” Joseph Jongen (1873-1953)
Allegro, molto moderato
Divertimento: Molto Vivo
Molto Lento
Toccata: Moto Perpetuo
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ken Cowan is one of North America’s finest concert organists. Praised for his dazzling artistry, impeccable technique and imaginative programming by audiences and critics alike, he maintains a rigorous performing schedule which takes him to major concert venues and churches in America, Canada, Europe, and Asia
Recent feature performances have included appearances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa California, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, Spivey Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall, as well as concerts in Germany and Korea In addition, Mr Cowan has been a featured artist in recent years at the national conventions of the American Guild of Organists held in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, has performed at many regional conventions of the AGO, and has been featured at several conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.
Ken received the Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music, studying organ with Thomas Murray. Prior to attending Yale, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with John Weaver. His major teacher during high school years was James Bigham, Organist/Choirmaster at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, in Buffalo, NY, which is not far from his hometown Thorold, Ontario, Canada.
In 2012 Mr. Cowan joined the keyboard faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University as Associate Professor and head of the organ program. Previous positions have included Associate Professor of Organ at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ, where he was awarded the 2008 Rider University Distinguished Teaching Award, and Associate Organist and Artist in Residence at Saint Bartholomew’s Church in New York City.
Jeff R. McLelland is the Director of Music and Fine Arts at Independent Presbyterian Church His responsibilities include that of organist, the direction of all choral activities, and the administration of the nationally prestigious November Organ Recital Series and annual Religious Arts Festival Prior to his appointment at Independent Presbyterian Church in 2000, McLelland worked for seventeen years in academia as organ professor at Mississippi College and William Carey University. He has worked as a church musician since he was 14 years old.
A native of Hattiesburg, MS, Dr. McLelland received degrees in organ performance from The University of Southern Mississippi, The Eastman School of Music, and The University of Alabama, where he studied with Paul Andersen, Russell Saunders, and Warren Hutton respectively. Actively involved in professional music organizations, McLelland is a past Dean of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) chapters in Birmingham AL, Jackson MS, and South Mississippi and has served on the AGO Executive Council as Regional Councillor for the southeast United States. He has also held two terms as the Vice President of College and National Auditions for the Mississippi Music Teachers Association McLelland is also a staff member of the Mississippi Episcopal Conference on Church Music & Liturgy
McLelland performs frequently throughout the eastern United States for churches and AGO chapters and was a featured performer at the 1997 and 2001 Southeast Region Conventions of the AGO In August of 2003, he accompanied the Christ Church Cathedral Choir of Cincinnati in a residency for Salisbury Cathedral, England. He completed an organ recital tour of Germany in 2011 including performances in Bamburg and Naumburg. and St. Mark’s Cathedral, Vienna.
In June of 2004, McLelland took the IPC Choir to sing a residency at St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. The IPC Choir performed throughout Italy in the summer of 2007, which included singing for Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. They toured Prague, Bratislava and Vienna in 2011, Spain in 2015, and France in 2022. The choir is well represented on recordings with thirteen releases since 1965, including The Lord is My Light (2007), A Babe is Born (2010), and O Clap Your Hands (2016) under the leadership of McLelland.
ABOUT THE SERIES
This concert series was established to present internationally acclaimed organ concert artists to perform music for organ and orchestra as a unique gift to the city of Birmingham. This series is scheduled to be presented each year in March for three seasons. The repertoire heard in these concerts is usually only heard in venues that are supported by Conventions of the American Guild of Organists and in concert halls that contain a pipe organ large enough to be accompanied by an orchestra, i.e. Chicago and Philadelphia. Independent Presbyterian Church possesses an organ of highest quality and a room of appropriate size and acoustic to present this music. The Patricia Byrne Memorial Concert Series will enhance the international reputation that has been established by the established Religious Arts Festival and the November Organ Recital Series, which have been annual events for 55 and 60 years, respectively.
THE ARTISTS
Ken Cowan, Organ
Dr. Jeff R. McLelland, Conductor
STRINGS
Violin 1: Daniel Szasz, Mayumi Masri, Esther Roestan, Liuwenji Wang
Violin 2: Tara Mueller, Bram Margoles, Serghei Tanas, William Ronning
Viola: Zak Enikeev, Rene Reder, Tiantian Lan
Cello: Warren Samples, Mary Del Gobbo, Thomas Maternik
Double Bass: Sam Rocklin, Eion Lyons
Harp: Katheryn Hoppe-McQueen
WOODWIND
Flute: Lisa Wienhold, Tessa Vermeulen, Katherine Woody
Oboe: Jim Sullivan, Machiko Ogawa Schlaffer
English Horn: Siobhan Ciulla
Clarinet: Brad Whitfield, Amanda Eich
Bass Clarinet: Lori Ardovino
Bassoon: Tariq Masri, Taylor Smith
Contrabassoon: Benjamin Atherholt
BRASS
French Horn: Adam Pandolfi, Kevin Kozak, Nina Tarpley, Kerrig Kelly
Trumpet: Nick Ciulla, Joe Ardovino, Emma Kosht
Trombone: Jay Evans, Massa Ohtake, Arie VandeWaa
Tuba: Andrew Miller
PERCUSSION
Timpani: Jay Burnham
Auxiliary Percussion: Mark Libby
PROGRAM NOTES
The opening composition is often referred to as Adagio or Adagio in G minor, written by Albinoni and arranged by Remo Giazotto The ascription to Tomaso Albinoni rests upon Giazotto's discovery of a manuscript fragment obtained shortly after the end of World War II from the Saxon State Library in Dresden. It consisted of a few measures of the melody and bass line from a slow second movement of a church sonata composed by Albinoni, possibly as part of his Op. 4 set, around 1708. Giazotto constructed this single-movement work based on this fragmentary theme. It was published in 1958 under a title which, translated into English, reads Adagio in G minor for strings and organ, on two thematic ideas and on a figured bass by Tomaso Albinoni.
Born in Liechtenstein, Josef Gabriel Rheinberger was a major figure of European stature during the second half of the 19th century. In demand as a teacher of composition at the Munich Conservatoire, and esteemed as a composer as the Bavarian Court Kapellmeister, he made his mark on a whole generation of musicians. He was one of the leading figures in the “Cecilian Movement” which, in a world of increasing secularization, propagated the return to religious values of the past, expressing itself in a renewed interest in Gothic architecture and polyphony. Rheinberger’s organ works are a happy blend of the Romantic spirit of his time, and with a healthy dose of polyphony and counterpoint, he was a worthy successor of Felix Mendelssohn
The Concerto in G Minor by Rheinberger is the second of two for organ, dating from 1894 It follows the usual three movement form, though it has none of the conflict between solo instrument and orchestra which we expect in a romantic concerto, and no cadenza to allow the soloist to show off his technique It is scored for a small orchestra of strings, two horns, two trumpets and timpani
The monumental Symphonie Concertante, written by Joseph Jongen in 1926, is a tour de force, considered by many to be among the greatest works ever written for organ and orchestra. Numerous eminent organists of modern times (such as Virgil Fox, Alexander Frey, Jean Guillou, Michael Murray and Olivier Latry) have championed and recorded it. Jongen used to refer to his Symphonie Concertante for organ and orchestra as "that unfortunate work." True enough, it did run into several obstacles on the way to its unveiling. Commissioned in 1926 by the Philadelphia department store owner Rodman Wanamaker as part of a series of concerts with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the work was intended for the inaugural of the restoration of the great Wanamaker Organ, an enormous instrument of 1670 pipes and 455 ranks built for Wanamaker's store in 1911. Jongen was set to travel to Philadelphia to play the premiere in early 1928, but his father died in the fall of 1927, and Jongen postponed his trip to the United States. Delays in the restoration project pushed the premiere back again to the end of 1928; and the planned concert was scrapped altogether after Wanamaker's unexpected death in March 1928. The work had its world premiere in Brussels that year; finally, the U S premiere took place in 1935, at Carnegie Hall It was finally performed for the first time with the Wanamaker Organ and the Philadelphia Orchestra on 27 September 2008 Fortunate to have survived its difficult birth, the Symphonie concertante is now considered one of the greatest 20th-century works for organ and orchestra
About this piece, Meg Ryan writes: For the Symphonie, begun in 1926, Jongen calls on singing melodies and traditional forms, offers immediate emotional gratification, and requires an organist of almost superhuman capabilities As Jongen's friend Eugène Ysaÿe pointed out, the Symphonie Concertante might better be called a symphony for two orchestras, since "the role you assign to the King of Instruments and its abundant resources is not limited or restricted; it is clearly a second orchestra that enriches the first." At 35 minutes of almost non-stop, rigorous playing, this "second orchestra" can be manifested only by a veritable “Jedi Master” of the organ, one who has the brawn, stamina, and grace - in a word, “The Force” - to stand up to the thickly scored orchestra and make the King of Instruments dance.
The sprightly opening movement defies the organ's potentially overwhelming strength with a richly textured yet weightless jaunt through a fugal figure begun in the orchestra About this opening Jongen wrote: "Unlike many composers who have recourse to fugues at the end of their work, the present composer has introduced a fugue at the very beginning " And to great effect: The sonata-form movement is a conversation between two giants, alternating and combining themes. It closes with a surprisingly understated, quietly lyrical chord and pedal note
The second movement begins as a scherzo with a quick, almost improvisatory passage for organ. This alternates with slower, more expressive music throughout, with a 7/4 meter that gives the movement a delightfully impish awkwardness, like twisted carousel music. This theme is transformed into a solemn song, and folds in hints of the first movement's opening fugal statements. After a great swell in the orchestra and a journey for the scherzo theme through a range of orchestral colors, this movement, too, ends quietly: organ, harp, and flute in arpeggiated dialogue, culminating with a delicate triangle stroke conjoined to the final organ pedal.
For the third and longest movement, Jongen said that he wanted "organ and orchestra to realize the best union possible" through a close interplay of instrumental colors. It begins with a sensual flute solo whose color rolls out into harp, woodwinds, and finally strings. Luminous calm builds ever so slowly toward a dark, passionate climax with an explosion of brass and organ The mysterious sparkle of organ, harp, woodwinds, and strings returns, and the movement wanes again into peace
The tranquility of the slow movement is shattered by the brilliant Toccata finale It's the testosteronedriven showpiece for both orchestras, the gratification that has been so sweetly delayed for the first three movements Written in the style of the great French toccatas of Widor and Vierne, the grueling and radiant moto perpetuo organ part carries the movement through a series of increasingly intense climaxes Urgent calls and responses between organ and orchestra, particularly brass, ascend to a forceful coda, which blazes to the end
The Joseph W. Schreiber Memorial Organ
Independent Presbyterian Church Birmingham, Alabama Opus 90, 2012
by Dobson Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd.
Given to the Glory of God and in loving memory of Joseph W Schreiber, who served Independent Presbyterian Church with excellence and dedication for 34 years.
UPCOMING SERVICES AND CONCERTS AT IPC
April 17, 2025 | 6:30 PM MAUNDY THURSDAY SERVICE
April 18, 2025 | 12:00 PM GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE
April 20, 2025 | 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 AM EASTER SUNDAY SERVICES
May 18, 2025 | 4:00 PM
THE IPC CHOIR SPRING CONCERT featuring Robert Schumann’s Requiem and other German works
Rev. Kevin J. Long, Pastor 3100 Highland Ave S Birmingham, AL 35205 www ipc-usa org