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Duo Majoya‐organist MarnieGiesbrecht and pianist Joachim Segger‐appeared on stage fittingly attired in cowboy hats, shirts, and neckties. Two selections from Joe Utterback’sImages opened the program: thesejazz/blues-infiected pieces were effortlessly performed. Burge’s “Windows” (CathedralArchitecture), a thoughtfully programmatic composition, used the brightness
of the organ to beautiful advantage asa contrast to the piano. Wadsworth’s Longlac Tableaux was comical and delightful: the nastiness of “Black Fly Season” was unmistakable in the ever‐present buzzing figures either in the piano or the organ, with occasional slaps from the organ part; “The Aurora in Snow” created asense of stillness, amesmerizing-moment frozen in time explomhg the upper registersof the ergan In contrast to the more percusswe repetltive figures In the plano.
The performance of WindRiders ofAlberla, aprogrammatic piece in five movements commissioned from Cary Ratcliff,was aworld premiere: “A Blindingof Snow” was filled with shards
of sound in the organ and perpetual swirling motion in the piano, whereas “A Cluster of Aspens” includedasymmetrical and shivering melodic fragments tossed back and forth between the two instruments; “Whooping Cranes” featuredjazz-like rhythms and melodic fragments that favoured large (long-necked?) intervals; “A Circling of Hawks” was rhapsodic and expansive, whereas “Dust Devils” was an energetic whirling dervish that flitted from one instrument to the other and then disappeared completely.
Jacobus Klopper’s The Last Rose ofSummer was a loving, attimes hymn-like, tribute that includedbeautiful moments of counterpoint and showcased both performers in solo roles. The program ended with the energetic finale of Denis Bedard’s Duet Suitefor Organ andPiano. One could not hope for amore satisfying end to aperfect, early‐afternoon program, in the lovely Jack Singer Hall, on the equally splendid Casavant. What a gift it is to hear these two pros share theinenergy, good humour, and incredible talent! |