by Samuel Barber (1910-1981
THE STORY GOES that one day in 1960, Eugene Ormandy, then music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, received a telephone call from Mary Curtis Bok Zimbalist, the outstanding philanthropist who had founded Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music back in 1924. "Eugene, are you standing?" she reportedly asked the conductor. "Please sit down, I'm giving you that pipe organ you've been longing for." To Ormandy's question, "Do you know how much it will cost?" Mrs. Zimbalist simply replied, "Don't worry about that." The organ, built by the Aeolian Skinner Company of Boston, ended up costing $150,000. For its dedication, Mrs. Zimbalist turned to her old friend Samuel Barber, who had been one of the very first students at the Curtis Institute, to compose a new work for organ and orchestra. (Mrs.Zimbalist's daughter-in-law Nellie Bok later recalled that the fourteen-year-old Barber had been the second person to walk through the newly-opened doors of the Institute.)' Barber did not accept a fee for his work, which he completed in the spring of 1960, a few months before the scheduled premiere.
(To bring part of the story up-to-date without dampening the celebratory music that Barber wrote, the "new" organ at the Academy of Music was not universally praised - the dry acoustics of the hall may have had as much to do with this as any unworthiness of the instrument itself. Over the next two decades, it gradually fell into disuse and was eventually sold and removed from the building.)
A Brilliant Organfest
Toccata festiva, written to display the wide expressive range of the new instrument, as well as the virtuosity of the Philadelphia Orchestra, is built around the transformations of a single theme, first introduced by the brass right after a brief introductory flourish. This theme, taken up by the organ as well as various orchestral instruments, is in turn fanfare-like, lyrical, playful and grandiose. Its frequent recurrences unify a piece that otherwise contains great contrasts in tempo, dynamics, and sound color.
There are two extended organ solos, the first a lyrical passage, much of it over a single long-held pedal tone, and the second a cadenza for pedal only. The program book for the first performance notes that this cadenza was written with the cooperation of Barber's friend Thomas Schippers, the eminent conductor who was also an accomplished organist. The cadenza adds a great deal of brilliance to a work that, originally written to celebrate a single joyous occasion, has gone on to earn a permanent place in the organ repertory.
Barber composed Toccata festiva in 1960 for the dedication of the new Aeolian-Skinner organ at Philadelphia's Academy of Music. The Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy played the world premiere on September 30, 1960; Paul Callaway was the organ soloist.
This work runs about 15 minutes in performance. Barber scored it for an orchestra of piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, english horn, 2 clarinets, bass cfarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, xylophone, percussion (tam-tam, bass drum, cymbal, triangle, snare drum, xylophone), and strings, plus the organ solo.
The Cleveland Orchestra is performing Toccata festiva for the first time at this weekend's concerts.
This weekend's performances are supported by the national Endowment for the Arts as part of."1OO years of American Music."
Listen to Toccata festiva by Samuel Barber in MP3 online
