Pipe Dreams

Organ greats the focus of Baroque Fest concert

Bernard Foccroulle couldn’t wait to start playing the organ. When he was a mere five years old, the young Belgian dreamt of taking up the instrument, but was too small to use the pedalboard; he occupied his time learning piano until he could take an organ class at age 15.

“It is difficult to know exactly what fascinated me at that age. I remember that I always loved Bach’s music, more than my friend’s pianists,” says Foccrouille, who is now one of the world’s premiere organists. “Now, I see many reasons why I am still captivated by this instrument. One is that each organ is different, like a person. And I love the fact that organs and the organ literature form a sort of mirror of European culture and diversity.”

Indeed, organs are an old and diverse class of instrument. While the pipe organ’s roots can be traced back to ancient times, the current form has been around for about 600 years and was considered one of the most complex man-made creations until the Industrial Revolution rolled around. The instrument and two of its most well-known Baroque-era composers—Johann Sebastian Bach and Dieterich Buxtehude—are the focal point of the Thursday night concert of the 2010 Pacific Baroque Festival. (Indeed, this year’s festival, which runs from February 4-6 and includes performances by the Victoria Children’s Choir, soprano Ann Grimm, the St. Christopher singers the Pacific Baroque Festival Orchestra and its director and violinist Marc Destrubé, will feature music exclusively by Bach, Buxtehude and Georg Philipp Telemann.) Entitled “Two Giants of German Baroque Organ Music,” Thursday’s concert at Christ Church Cathedral—which Foccroulle has come from Belgium to perform—features several works by the two composers.

“Buxtehude is the climax and the summit of the North German organ tradition of the 17th century. His music is full of colours, strong contrasts and in a certain way, more ‘baroque’ and extraverted than Bach’s music. The young Bach was very influenced by Buxtehude but he chose very quickly another way, where coherence and unity are the highests values,” Foccroulle says of the differences between the two composers. “But both composers are close in many ways, especially in their trend to combine ancient polyphony and ‘modern’ rhetoric. This is probably why their music speaks to us in such a direct and vibrant way.”

Foccroulle says he has always found “an incredible source of energy and inspiration” in the music of Bach, and devoted 15 years of his life to recording the composer’s entire canon of organ works—an impressive 18-CD collection. But Foccroulle’s list of organ achievements isn’t limited to recording and performing the music of others. He also creates his own compositions, co-penned a book and embarked on many collaborative, multi-disciplinary projects over the years. He’s also one of the organizers of France’s Aix-en-Provence Festival, a large festival that focusses primarily on opera.

“I am fascinated by the capacity of opera to bring together artists coming from all disciplines, including theatre, dance, visual arts, and so on,” he says when asked about the importance of multi-disciplinary work (some of his projects have included collaborations with choreographers and video artists). “Now I would like to create new forms of concerts with organ music associated with other art forms.”

Sounds like a man whose passion for organ music is unequalled—a passion sure to be out in full force at Thursday’s concert. M

Two Giants of German Baroque Music
(part of the Pacific Baroque Festival)
8pm Thursday, February 4
Christ Church Cathedral, 930 Burdett
Tickets $20-$25
250-386-5311 • pacbaroque.com