October 28th, 2013: Organ series: Stephen Cleobury

I decided to go to this organ recital at Benaroya Hall on the evening of Monday, October 28th. I had never heard the Watjen Concert Organ in a solo recital, and there was Bach, Mendelssohn and Schumann on the program, so I figured it would be nice. Stephen Cleobury was the organist, and apparently he's a rather well known British organist who is also the director of the King's College Choir.

I'm not sure why this was the case, but I found myself bored throughout most of the program. The two Bach pieces he played were not famous works and were not among Bach's best. The Mendelssohn was also exactly what you would expect from an unknown Mendelssohn work. I don't know what it was really. I found myself surprised at how unengaged I was. The music was beautiful, and the organ sound was majestic; I just couldn't get very into it for some reason. I did notice that Cleobury seemed to be sight reading a lot of the pieces, and that could have been a factor that contributed to the lack of impact on me. Or perhaps with all the multitasking required on the organ, it always appears as though the performer is sight reading. I don't know.

The most amusing part of the evening was the man who sat next to me in Box B. His facial expression resembled the angel Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life, he had a possessed look in his eyes, and he stank. He kept talking to me before the recital began, explaining to me the difference between an organ with electronic functionality vs. one where the action of pressing the key down directly and physically opens the valves. And he said things like "I've been coming to these recitals since that instrument first spoke. In 2000." I really wouldn't have minded if he didn't stink.

Anyways, the whole program had a kind of progression through time theme to it. The first half went Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Reger. Then the second half started very early again with Couperin, but then went Franck, Vierne and Messiaen. Before the second half began, Cleobury picked up a microphone and spoke to the audience for several minutes. I couldn't understand half of what he said due to a combination of the thick British accent and the fact that I was situated almost directly under the speakers. Clarence next to me seemed to understand every word though.

I found myself drifting into half-asleep states throughout a lot of the performance. I know that the Franck was a very grand, technically impressive piece, and it garnered above average applause. Upon its conclusion Clarence looked at me with an intense gleam in his eye. I heard parts of it, but I was drifting in and out of consciousness at others. It's not that I was even that tired, I just became tired as soon as a piece would be going for a few minutes.

I'm definitely going to be going to another of these organ recitals, because I'm really curious what it was that made me so disengaged on Monday. I want to know if a different organist and different repertoire will make things different.

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