The Restoration of the pipe organ at Our Lady of Refuge Church is now complete thanks to the help and support from many. NYC Organist Renée Louprette recorded this work on September 6, 2013 at Our Lady of Refuge in Brooklyn. We thank her for taking the time to come and record this work - as her donation to the organ restoration project.
The pipe organ will be played in public for the first time since the restoration on October 18, 2013 at its dedication and blessing. Olivier Latry, one of the world's most celebrated organists, a titular at Notre-Dame Cathedral Paris will play the organ. Before the recital begins Bishop Nicholas Anthony DiMarzio, the Ordinary of Brooklyn, will bless the organ with Father Michael Perry, Pastor of Our Lady of Refuge Church using a catholic French blessing service - in which Olivier Latry will improvise on the organ in between short prayers.
You should buy your tickets in advance. The parish has already purchase a large number of tickets.
olrbrooklyn.org/organ-recitals-in-new-york-city/
Notes from Renée Louprette:
César Franck’s Trois pièces (Fantaisie in A, Cantabile, Pièce Héroïque) were commissioned by Alexandre Guilmant, the great organist, pedagogue, and early music scholar-editor, for a recital at the newly-opened Palais du Trocadero Cavaillé-Coll organ in Paris in 1878. These were Franck’s first substantial organ works since the Six pièces of 1861. Where the Six pièces fulfilled an ecclesiastical function as an outgrowth of Franck’s own improvisations during mass at St. Clotilde in Paris, the Trois pièces were conceived in the new symphonic style pioneered by Charles-Marie Widor and Camille Saint-Saëns. Conceiving these pieces for performance in the concert hall, Franck placed greater emphasis on drawing orchestral effects from the organ. Pièce Héroïque is the unrelenting and triumphant third piece in the collection. Two primary themes—the first rhythmic, the second more melodic—are woven into a rhapsody, giving way to a majestic presentation of the second theme as a choral at the end. This work highlights many particularly beautiful color combinations of stops on the restored Kilgen Organ, Op. 5163, in particular the fonds or foundation stops (principals, flutes, strings), the Harmonic Flute of the Great division, and the powerful reeds.
Restoration carried out by:
A. R. Schopp's Sons, Inc. is the largest supplier of organ pipes in the United States today.
arschopp.com
Quimby Pipe Organs, Inc. is a member of ABOBA and is one of the finest organbuilding firms in the USA today.
quimbypipeorgans.com
