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| Gideon Meir (Alexander Kotov) |
The auditorium of the Brigham Young University, Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, boasts one of the city's finest pipe organs. It was built by Marcussen & Søn (a Danish family business of pipe organ builders established in 1806) and was inaugurated in 1987. The largest pipe organ in the Middle East, it has 3,165 pipes. Contemporary in design, the horizontal reed pipes on the front of the case add interest and beauty to the instrument. Performing a program on the BYU organ on November 24th 2024, Gideon (Gidi) Meir dedicated the recital to the memory of his father 'cellist Menachem Meir (1924-2024) and to that of his organ teacher David Boe (1936-2020).
Dietrich Buxtehude's reputation as a
composer lies mostly in his compositional oeuvre for the organ. Indeed, he was
the greatest precursor to J.S. Bach as a composer for organ, and had a
far-reaching influence on the generation to come, especially on Bach himself.
With Buxtehude's Praeludium in G minor, Bux WV149 issued in with a bright,
flamboyant flourish in the manuals and bolstered from the seventh bar by the
pedals’ obsessive seven-note phrase, Gidi Meir got the evening's music off to
an exuberant start. Proceeding on from this combination of ostinato and stylus
phantasticus (Buxtehude's predilection for the stylus phantasticus demands much
interpretative freedom on the part of performers) the work presents two fugues
with related subjects: the first, solemn, played mainly in the manuals, the
second an affective fuga pathetica in slow triple meter. Played here in full
registration, the Praeludium culminates in a free coda. Addressing one of
Buxtehude’s most frequently performed works, Meir highlighted the prelude's
sophistication and complexity.
We then heard two (of the countless)
settings of John Dowland's most famous "ayre" (originally a solo song
with lute accompanied) "Flow My Tears", composed in 1596 under the
name "Lachrimae pavane". In his setting of it, Dutch
composer/organist Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (referred to as the “Orpheus of
Amsterdam") does little more than transcribe for a different instrument
material borrowed from his British contemporary, here and there
embellishing and elaborating the original. Ornamenting the repeats, Meir
chooses bright, even clamorous timbres. Of all the keyboard arrangements of
this work, Dowland's "greatest hit", William Byrd’s is one of the
finest and certainly among the most imaginative. The ample pavan framework
invites Byrd (and the performer) to indulge in inventive figuration, extensive
elaboration of the melody and to revel in its contrapuntal layering. A change
of meter creates a whole different atmosphere. As to Byrd's departure from the
model, Meir's solid, hearty reading brings to light elements of the original
harmonic agenda. For the Dowland settings, Meir engaged the swell to create a lush,
velvety, Renaissance-type sound.
The thread running through Gidi Meir's
recital (indeed, running through a large portion of organ repertoire) was the
use of melodies and hymns, some ancient, on which to build works, in
particular, for chorale preludes and variations. In addition to some twenty
preludes, Buxtehude's many surviving organ compositions include a large number
of chorale preludes and variations on Lutheran chorale melodies. Of the latter
genre, "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam" ("Christ our Lord came
to the Jordan") based on a hymn by Martin Luther (1541), its text telling
of Christ's baptism, has been set into many musical compositions. Here, in one
of Buxtehude's most uplifting chorale settings, Meir uses a strongly projected
and majestic approach, the registrations fitting the piece splendidly.
J.S.Bach's chorale arrangement of "Christ unser Herr zum Jordan
kam" brims with effervescence. As the chorale melody emerges in long
notes in the pedal, the ripples of the Jordan River are evoked in fast notes
over two keyboards. The latter scoring would have been unconventionally different
to Bach's audience!
With Advent in western churches beginning
on the Sunday nearest to November 30th, Meir chose two settings of the Martin
Luther chorale "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" (Now come, Saviour of
the heathens). In Buxtehude's setting of the Bux WV211 chorale, the stately,
full-bodied accompaniment supporting an ornamented setting of the melody evokes
the solemnity of the season of Advent; it concludes with a flourish, as typical
of chorale preludes of the period. Meir's performance of it reflects the radiance
and depth evident in Buxtehude's organ works. J.S.Bach's working of the same
chorale (BWV 659) is one of the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, BWV 651–668,
all characterized by the composer's long, freely written episodes between
cantus firmus lines. Above the slow-stepping walking bass in the pedal, we hear
an alluring, highly ornamented soprano line carrying the chorale melody, the
piece evoking the mystical expectation of the incarnation.
The program concluded on an ebullient note with the chorale
prelude "Gott der Vater wohn’ uns bei" (God, the Father, stay with
us). Formerly attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach as BWV 748, researchers now claim it was composed by Johann Gottfried Walther, a scholar, accomplished
performer and composer. Born one year before Bach, Walther struck up a
friendship with Bach – his second cousin – in 1708, a friendship that inspired
him to set over 130 chorale preludes and variations on Lutheran chorale
melodies. Creating a rich, bright, reedy soundscape, Meir saw the work as a
counter-piece to the opening Buxtehude Praeludium.
For his encore, Meir chose to play
Sweelinck's Variations on "Unter der Linden Grüne" (Under the Linden
Green), an example of the composer’s mastery in the art of variation and in his
writing for the organ. Displaying Sweelinck's characteristic sense of humour,
the melody used was one popular in Holland in Sweelinck’s time. The jolly
variations offered Meir multiple opportunities to display the Marcussen organ's
variety and the beauty of its many flute- and reed stops. Adding a touch of
magic to the final variation, he activated the organ's Zimbelstern stop, (a
“toy” stop consisting of a metal or wooden star or wheel on which several small
bells are mounted. When the stop is engaged, the star rotates, producing a
continuous tinkling sound.) Meir felt this sparkling timbre reflected the night
scenery as seen by the audience through the auditorium's large, scenic front
window. Interestingly, the performer seated at the Marcussen organ was also
reflected in the window!
Gideon Meir has spent much time
familiarizing himself with this particular organ and choosing a program that
would be suited to it, to the hall and to the time of year. The recital was inspired
and uplifting.
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| Organ of the BYU auditorium.Spanish trumpets on view |
