For his second visit to Trinity University’s Parker Chapel, organist Nathan Laube said he got a little adventurous in programming his recital, part of the Tuesday Musical Club’s 100th Artist Series.
“I remember being really impressed with the organ the last time I was here,” Laube said, remembering his concert in 2017. “You can get an idea in your head about the sound you might expect [from an organ], but nothing prepares you for the actual moment where you start hearing those sounds in a space.”
The musical and emotional centerpiece of Laube’s Feb. 6 program was his own transcription of Franz Liszt’s B minor piano sonata.
“What motivates the piece? What actually makes the piece tick?” Laube found himself asking about the work, one of Liszt’s most complex pieces. “I first learned the piece at the piano. You start to create a roadmap of the work.”
Laube said he began work on the organ transcription during the pandemic lockdowns, sneaking in at night to a church in Stuttgart, where he was living.
“I wore all black clothing! I was sort of like a garden gnome that came alive, and snuck in,” Laube remembered.
As he worked on the piece, something became evident.
“Liszt’s constant experimentation with sustain and decay, and savoring the dissonance between those two, but also the expressive power of each, [became] for me, a very important element of this piece,” Laube said.
That push and pull is evident in this recital, where Laube’s performance of the Liszt sonata seems to suspend time.
The concert also includes music by French composers Charles-Marie Widor, and Jean Roger-Ducasse. Laube said the French helped transform the organ and its possibilities in the 19th and early 20th century.
“It went from being a rather severe instrument of the Catholic Church in the monarchical time to being an instrument that really brought the organ for the first time into the concert hall, and we have composers like Widor to thank for that,” Laube explained.
Using a food analogy, Laube said, “The French love recipes, flavors and sonorities. They have such a beautiful way of balancing fat and acid, you know? You find this in all of these recipes, and I think you find this in the way that they treat organs.”
Enjoy a gourmet meal in sound by using the audio player at the top of this page to listen to the full recital. A short excerpt is embedded below.
