Organ concert

It was the annual organ concert (free because of the endowment by Marianne Webb and David Bateman). Last night it was Peter Conte. It was better than I expected, given that he was promoted as the organist of the Wanamaker Organ in a Philadelphia department store now owned by Lord & Taylor. He claimed that that is the largest pipe organ in the world, and explained that originally the boss of Wanamaker was a music lover, so I guess it's not as strange as it sounds. He was also promoted as a transcriptor, and for some reason I've got a prejudice against those, even though last year's was OK. He did a good job with those. However, it wasn't as exciting as last year's, speaking of which it also included Guilmant & Vierne.

• Grand Choeur in D (alla Handel) (Alexandre Guilmant)--light but engaging



• Concert variations on The Last Rose of Summer (Dudley Buck)--not bad



• Pieces de Fantasie; Dedicace & Tocatta (Vierne)--the first was awfully gloomy and meandering, but the Tocatta was nice



• Concerto in G Major (Johann Ernst, transcribed by Bach)



• Variations on a Theme by Haydn (Brahms, transcribed by Conte)--not bad



• A silly improvisation. I think he was tired.

How dreadfully bourgeois once again!

Update
I didn't mention one peculiarlity: we were not allowed to sit in the balcony rows nearer the organist, supposedly at his request, but people who arrived just before the concert started were. Worse, one young man was allowed to enter shortly after the concert started; a few minutes after the intermission was over he came in again after the organist had started playing and then left before he had finished.

There were a couple of other annoyances: the man in front of us who kept his keys on a clip on his belt, permitting them to clash against the metal seats twice; and the woman behind us who not only failed to turn off her cell phone before it started ringing, but also had to whisper to her companion.