Organ concert

I never got my grateful Sunday post up because I didn’t have any time yesterday!  After church we went straight to my in-laws house and then when we got home from there the kids and I went to an Organ concert. 

Apparently when our Stake Center was being built there was an organ builder in the Stake and he started building a really great organ, then they ran out of money and had to finish it the best they could so for all these years it’s been waiting to be finished properly.  At least this is the story as I understand it.  So, the Organ was finally renovated and they had a concert to celebrate.  There were five performers.  The first was our own Stake Organist and then three accomplished organists from BYU and finally the Tabernacle Organist. Did you know that the Tabernacle organ has 11,623 pipes??  I had no idea it was so many!  The Stake center organ we heard last night had 876 pipes if that gives you a frame of reference at all.   

Now, I have never really heard an organ concert before.  I’ve heard the organ accompany singing at church and that’s about it for me. So, I was amazed at what a beautiful instrument it is for solo performance.   There were several times that I really wanted to applaud even though it wasn’t the end of the performance.  The music was so moving and simply gorgeous. It’s amazing how many different kinds of sounds an organ can make.  My favorites were the classical pieces that were played.  It was awesome.  It makes me want to go to the Tabernacle for the organ concerts there…I think my kids were really surprised  too and I was surprised they both really liked it too.  At least that’s what they told me. I’m glad to know they can appreciate culture.   

Have you ever heard and Organ played solo?  What did you think of it?