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SOPP706: About our summer organ trips to Poland, Denmark, Ukraine and Latvia

8/30/2023

Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

A: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

V: Hi guys! This is Vidas.

A: And Ausra.

Vidas: Hi guys! Let's start episode 706 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. Today we decided to discuss a little bit about our last summer organ trips. So we hope you will enjoy our conversation about all the recitals that we played in various countries.

Ausra: Our first concert trip was to Poland where we played on the romantic style instrument built by Schlag & Söhne.

Vidas: So let's list all of them. So right at the end of May and then in August we made two trips. One trip was to Denmark and the third one was to Latvia. And in between Warsaw and Denmark I traveled alone to Ukraine to Lviv to play two recitals there. So let's start from the top. What was the most important memory for you from Warsaw?

Ausra: Well I was very excited because this was an Evangelical Reformed Church. Yes it was the only church in Warsaw which wasn't bombed during the second World War and it has this historical instrument. The most memorable thing was actually very beautiful stained glass. And the church was very spacious and because it was Confirmation Sunday on which we played recital there was a long and really nice service that we attended and people sang hymns very loudly. I really enjoyed that. What was the most memorable thing for you on this trip?

Vidas: You know we tried to play a piece for two manuals on one manual, Mozart’s Fantasia in F minor, K. 608 and it actually worked pretty well because we usually play it on two manuals. One of us is playing on the main manual and the second part is played on the secondary manual Both of them could be either with or without 16’ depending on the composition of the mixture but the second manual on that organ was like in many German romantic organs, much weaker than the main manual. So we couldn't play in balance with each other and we decided to play it on one manual but played it one octave lower.

Ausra: I think it sounded really well because the arrangement of this piece for hands doesn't have pedals so my second part was played an octave lower. It gave this nice foundation sound.

Vidas: Plus we had 16’ already in the manual. So it was really full sound.

Ausra: And of course another nice thing was because we could understand most of what Polish people were speaking to us in Polish which was really nice. And we also tried to speak Polish ourselves. So it was a good practice session for us too, like an intensive Polish language course.

Vidas: Right.

Ausra: And of course another thing I need to say is why I really liked that confirmation service. Because our host, the organizer who invited us, improvised wonderfully. He is truly a very good improviser and brilliant organist.

Vidas: His name is Michał Markuszewski.

Ausra: Yes, It's just amazing. Really unbelievable. I think this congregation should really be very happy to have such a high level organist.

Vidas: OK So now let's turn our attention to Ukraine

Ausra: Yes And now I think you need to talk about it because now I just waited for you at home worrying and eating a lot of junk food.

Vidas: It was a long trip because flights are forbidden to Ukraine during the time of war. But I really wanted to support Ukraine and everybody probably remembers how I created many meditations based on Ukrainian folk songs and I played many of them in recitals in Lithuania and abroad and on youtube. So the time came when organizers from Lviv Organ Hall actually invited us both to come to But for health reasons Ausra cannot sit on buses or trains for a long time. So she will have to wait until the flights are back operational and the war is over and it's safe to fly to come back to Ukraine. But this time I went alone and it was a long 18 hour bus ride. And basically what was the most memorable from this trip is probably how sincere Ukrainian audiences are. In both concerts I played the same program but with a little bit different encore based on Ukrainian folk songs. And I also premiered my variations on the Ukrainian national anthem, organ solo version. And in both evenings the audience stood up when they first heard the theme which is understandable because it's their national anthem even though I harmonically altered and distorted a little bit that harmony but it was still very much recognizable. So after the theme they started to applaud and I didn't understand why. I thought they should wait until the end. But obviously a lot of people don't read the programs and they didn't realize it's a variation cycle. But it was still very moving to hear this reaction from people. So appreciative of their national anthem and what happened later is that they sat down and I continued to play and after the first variation somebody also started applauding because the theme was clearly audible too but not as much. So then they realized that it's a longer composition and waited until the end. It was a very moving experience to go to Lviv during the time of war and support Ukrainian people with the music that was dear to them.

Ausra: Yes and I was really proud of you but also very fearful and I was so thankful that you did not have any accidents in there and no air alarms.

Vidas: Yeah, like a couple of weeks before my trip there was this terrible missile strike to an apartment building and eight or more people died there.

Ausra: And then after you came back I think in two days they started to have air alerts at night, sirens going on almost every night.

Vidas: So I was lucky that there were no air alarms and I could perform in peace because if there was air alarm then people had to wait in the special shelter that they have in the concert hall until the air alarm is over and it's safe to come back. Sometimes it lasts for three hours. So it's very difficult for people if it's a full house. And both evenings, Saturday and Sunday, it was a full house of people.

Ausra: Plus I think I read on the internet that in both events they had additional seats for like 120 people.

Vidas: The organ is from the pre Second World War era from Czech maker Rieger-Kloss. And it's not the same Rieger-Kloss that we have in Lithuania, built in the 1980’s or 1970’s. No squeaky sounds, no high and sharp sounds. It's a romantic instrument. It's very wonderful. And the hall which is a former Mary Magdalene Catholic church has beautiful acoustics suitable for not only concerts of organ music but for chamber music and orchestral music as well. So it's a very busy cultural venue.

Ausra: Although you complain a little bit how the manuals are very sensitive and you need to be very careful to control your touch.

Vidas: Yeah it has electro-pneumatic action in perfect shape and I had to be very careful.

Ausra: Yes, especially after playing so much at St. John’s church.

Vidas: So then of course in August we traveled to Denmark, to the Svendborg Organ Festival. We already traveled there four years ago.

Ausra: Yes and I enjoyed this trip so much more this time because we did not get lost while changing from train to train because four years ago we got lost while changing from train to bus. So anyway, the entire trip went without any accidents. And last time four years ago I was really sick and although it happened before the pandemic hit the world, I am somehow convinced that at that time I really had COVID because all the symptoms and everything were very similar. I had such a hard time playing that big recital. But this time everything went really well and it was nice to go back to the place that we already knew.

Vidas: Yeah, we played on four manual Marcussen organ. It was recently renovated and enlarged with a special Swell division. So it's now suitable for even more romantic music.

Ausra: However I was happy that this time I chose to play baroque pieces.

Vidas: Yeah because it's still very much a baroque instrument. So modern pieces and baroque pieces sound much more convincing.

Ausra: And of course here we played again an organ duet version of variations on Ukrainian national anthem and a few solo Ukrainian pieces. It was really nice because refugees from Ukraine came to our concert. Some of them were even holding posters. When we bowed down after the concert we could see them holding posters that we are from Ukraine. They really enjoyed it and they were really touched by our playing. I talked to one woman from Ukraine and we both cried actually. And it was a really very touching and moving experience. It really touched my heart. Of course, we had a very wonderful dinner after the concert with Tore Bjorn Larsen who was our host and the man who organizes this festival at the St. Nikolai church. And of course on the day of our recital we attended his church service as well and we heard him play. We enjoyed his postlude so much. It was music by Danish romantic composer Nils Gade. Actually I haven't heard him before but he's a composer worth playing and considering adding him to your repertoire.

Vidas: So we basically looked up his music and acquired some of these organ works. It’s really beautiful music and worth much more attention.

Ausra: And after this concert we had a very long and meaningful conversation with Tore about the situation in Europe in general and how things are going with a war in Ukraine. Yes it's nice to meet people abroad who think similarly as we do. So it was really nice that he understands our problems and thinks about history in the same way as we do too, which doesn’t often happen now, especially in the Western countries.

Vidas: After this trip I sent him a link to a documentary called The Soviet Story. It was funded by the European Council, written and directed by Latvian director Edvīns Šnore. And it's a story about how Soviets built their empire and all the terrible things that they did. This documentary is aimed at people living in the Western countries. And in the first five minutes they mention Ukraine and the great famine Holodomor when 3 to 14 million people perished in the winter of 1932-1933. So anyway, this film is really worth watching if you want to understand what the Soviets did and what their regime is capable of doing today. So it was great to come back to Denmark. This is a beautiful town and it’s mostly visited by retired Danish tourists.

Ausra: It's an attraction for tourists to come to see all the boats because they have a boat museum on the coast. It's really nice. It's a quiet nice little town to spend time relaxing, maybe to take a boat and to go into the sea.

Vidas: So then after Denmark we took a road trip to Latvia and spent a few days there, played one recital plus tried out and recorded on four additional organs. And together with the Danish organ in Svendborg in 10 days we actually played on six different instruments. It was a very intensive schedule. So in Latvia we were invited to play in an organ music festival in the little village church called Zlēkas. Our friend organ builder Jānis Kalninš is a pastor in two Lutheran parishes nearby (Ugāle and Zlēkas). Both churches are historical monuments and Ugāle has the oldest preserved organ in the Baltic countries from 1701 built by Cornelius Rhaneus. It’s an instrument which we were very happy to try. We heard many stories about it but never actually had a chance to visit.
Ausra: And finally we could see that eagle sitting on the top of the organ facade with movable wings. And it's funny because when I first saw the picture of this organ I thought that it's a duck not an eagle. And one friend recently commented that this eagle looks more like a goose. So really funny, a little bit too fat to be an eagle. But anyway I guess maybe the master who made all these carvings didn’t see a real eagle when he was working on these sculptures.

Vidas: In general, this trip was so great That we could actually try out so many different kinds of instruments, old and new, large and small. For example, we played the recital on a two manual and pedal Romantic Hermann organ which is actually a medium size instrument but from 19th century 1875. It has quite a wide pedal board. We had to adapt how we played the pedal part of our compositions. And now after this trip I'm making all kinds of mistakes while playing on our own pedal board at home because it's much narrower.

Ausra: While playing this Romantic organ for me the hardest thing was that I couldn’t see the score very well because the light was going straight up into my eyes at the yey level. The pedalboard was pitch black. It's such a disbalance. It was really hard to manage. Otherwise, there was no problem with the action and everything worked really well.

Vidas: But inside the Zlēkas church it was really cold.

Ausra: It’s unbelievable because I really didn't think it might be as cold in August. So I only brought my festive blouse with short sleeves and I ended up putting my street jacket on during the recital because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to play. It was as cold as usually we get inside old churches in the spring.

Vidas: True but we were glad that we selected a really appropriate program for this concert, consisting of music mostly by German romantic composers. And it worked really great. Mozart’s Fantasia in F minor also worked very well. We played it on one manual like in Warsaw. I played my own St. John's Suite. Some of the movements were dedicated to our Latvian organ friends.

Ausra: I think that the best on the program was Fantasia in Eb major by Adolf Gustaf Mankell, Swedish Romantic composer. It really projected very well too. But of course everything else that we played sounded wonderful too.

Vidas: The next day we went to Janis’ church service in Ugāle and we listened to how organ sounds during church service. Klāvs Berks, the organ builder student is an organist there and he played church music. So we were delighted to hear some really beautiful sounds of this unique organ.

Ausra: This young man is really an amazing person and really worth knowing and finding out about his works because actually he was still a teenager when he built his own organ at home.

Vidas: He was 15 when he started and 16 when he finished.

Ausra: So it's really amazing.

Vidas: And he is now 18 years old and is working in Janis’ workshop and at the same time is studying organ playing. We were glad to meet him as well. After that service we actually had a nice chance to try out and record on this oldest organ in the Baltic states.

Ausra: What did you find the most remarkable about that organ?

Vidas: Changing stops with both hands. Otherwise it's impossible to.

Ausra: Yes, it's very tricky especially to pull out a stop knob for the Rückpositive because in order to do that you basically have to be at the same level as the stop knob is. If you stand a little bit higher than it is, you won't be able to pull it out.

Vidas: Maybe this instrument requires more restoration than it currently has. After it's finished maybe stop changing will not be such a problem.

Ausra: yes and it says a lot about its organ builder because there are some very bizarre features on this instrument. How did you like the pedalboard?

Vidas: Pedalboard was probably the widest that I have ever played.

Ausra: I don't think there is a wider pedalboard anywhere in the world

Vidas: It’s from C to e’ so more than two octaves. There is a short octave C, D, E at the bottom octave without any sharps. But traditionally when you have a short octave it's meant to save space. So they would have sharps. But if you press C#, it would sound like D. On this organ all the keys are diatonic C,D,E but C# and D# are omitted. So basically you are playing just the white keys for the first four nodes C, D, E, F and the distances between them is wider than usual. In general you cannot reach the ends of the pedalboard with both feet because it's very wide. If you try to play with both feet two octaves C to c’, it's impossible to reach. For example Ausra tried to play Prelude in C minor, BWV 546/1 by Bach.

Ausra: It has that big leap without any pauses So it's unbelievable. You have to simplify the pedal part. Instead of two octave jumps, play an octave. Because it's just simply physically impossible. Even Vidas who has much longer legs than I do could not do jumps like that.

Vidas: Basically playing this organ with ease requires amazing mastery.

Ausra: Yes it really does because the Hauptwerk is really deep in the facade. So for example I reach down the pedal board and while playing on the Hauptwerk I use the full length of my arm. I have to stretch it as much as I can.

Vidas: The sound is amazing though. It's an amazing organ with such an ornate facade and it works so perfectly in the church in an ensemble with an ornate altar. It's just an unbelievable piece of art.

Ausra: It's very good that we tried this organ out without playing a recital on it yet because if we will get a chance to perform, we will know how to select the repertoire because it requires some untraditional decisions and adjustments and being mentally prepared.

Vidas: And afterwards we went to the modern concert hall in Ventspils “Latvija” which has concert organ built by Klais in 2019.

Ausra: It was finished right before the pandemic hit the world.

Vidas: it has four manuals and ultramodern design with all the bells and whistles of the modern concert organ that it's supposed to have, all the combination sequencers. Everything is very convenient for the performer. The consultant for this project was prominent Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna.

Ausra: I'm really afraid of heights and the organ console is high up. If you assist somebody, then it's really scary because there are choir stairs which don't have rails. So it's really scary because you can just fall down and injure yourself or worse. It was very interesting after playing on two historical organs to sit down and play on this ultramodern instrument. It would be very well suited for playing together with an orchestra. It's rather loud and powerful enough. It’s also suitable to play music with different ensembles. And of course for modern music. However, I don't think that historical music would sound well on it.

Vidas: Not really. You played one piece by North German Baroque composer Christoph Wilhelm Druckenmüller. It was just for fun, it wasn't historically accurate.

Ausra: So it’s a very different experience from historical organs.

Vidas: And then we moved to Liepaja. For three days we stayed and relaxed there.

Ausra: Do you call it relaxation?

Vidas: Well not really because we played two different organs there in three days.

Ausra: Actually in two days because we just arrived on Sunday evening and we had two days, Monday and Tuesday to spend in Liepaja.

Vidas: The organ that we first tried was in Holy Trinity Cathedral. It's a Lutheran Cathedral. It has the largest tracker action organ in the world. In 1885 when it was completed it was the largest organ in the world. It's a magnificent 131 stop instrument built by 5 organ builders throughout the decades. J. H. Joachim, H. A. Contius, K. P. O. Hermann, K. A. Hermann and B. Grüneberg. Janis Kalnins facilitated this fantastic visit and it was an amazing experience to spend two hours on such a gigantic historical instrument, to record and to try it out. I played on this organ three times before during recitals but it was the first time for Ausra so Ausra, tell us about your experience.

Ausra: It's really big. I could play on the first, the second and on the third keyboard but I could hardly reach the fourth keyboard. So I haven't used it. If I would have to play the fourth keyboard during recital I would just add the coupler and play the stops from the fourth manual on the third manual. It’s a great experience, even finding the right stops is a challenge on this organ because they are arranged in a really tricky way. It seems like not having any logic at all. And it has all these colorful stop knobs which look funny. I'm just thinking what if an organist is color blind how they might orient themselves in such a case? Another amazing thing is that I have never seen so many ventils in one place, ventils which let the air into each particular windchest like stacks and stacks of them.

Vidas: It has 12 ventils total. The reason that we see this bizarre layout of stops seemingly without any order is because this organ was built throughout the decades. It was never renovated or rebuilt but always enlarged. Organ builders who worked on it throughout the 19th century made it larger and larger. So it's even larger than Riga's Cathedral organ which was actually a rival instrument for them by the time it was finished and is of course more famous. Now the organ in Riga has 124 stops but this organ is larger with 131 stops.

Ausra: Another thing is that I have never played such a heavy pedal board.

Vidas: Yes because it doesn't have a Barker machine. It is all mechanical and as Janis explained it has many pallets for each key to move. There are many winchest for each pedal division and it’s really hard to play.

Ausra: So it's really a tracker monster.

Vidas: Therefore we see some stops in one spot, some in another spot on the console, some over here and some over there. The Hauptwerk also has many windchests but has a Barker machine so it's easier to play.

Ausra: It's a wonderful experience. Truly amazing. Very unique instrument.

Vidas: And then we have to finish our Latvian trip. We unexpectedly decided to ask for a possibility to play the two manual and 28 stop instrument at the St. James’ Roman Catholic Cathedral. It was open because it was Assumption Day (August 15). For Catholics it's a festivity. There was an evening Mass being prepared but there was no organist.

Ausra: And no priest, there was only one old lady who was selling religious items. We asked her permission in order to get on the organ loft but she said she cannot do that because we need to ask permission from the priest or the bishop. She tried to call the bishop and the priest but nobody answered her calls. Janis finally helped her to convince over the phone and she finally let us in because she knew him. He had been there a few years ago, did some adjustments for the organ and we tried it out. So what do you think about this organ?

Vidas: If it was restored or at least renovated, It would have been really a beautiful pneumatic instrument. Now we only could play the keyboards because the pedals had one or two sticky sticky or broken keys.

Ausra: When we sat down at the organ I noticed on the pedalboard that there was a mask from the time of the pandemic and there was some kind of brochure which kept a couple of pedal keys in the upward position and I thought we shouldn't probably touch it. But Vidas did and it was a mistake because that key just started to sound.

Vidas: It was broken.

Ausra: So this brochure and this mask kept it from getting lower and starting to sound. Because it was A in the bass octave, you could not use either one of the surrounding keys. No G, no G sharp or A flat, no A, no B flat and no B. What's the point of using pedals if you cannot use so many pedal keys? So we just played compositions for manuals only.

Vidas: I also improvised a little bit on two pedal notes C and F.

Ausra: We tried to play softly so that people could pray because it's a Catholic cathedral. It was really dark and really mysterious inside. It's really beautiful. It has 3 towers, not as the Lutheran churches that we saw which usually have only one tower. The organ facade is very nice too but this instrument needs a lot of renovation work.

Vidas: So to summarize our summer experience, it was a really active summer, full of concerts. We also played some Lithuanian organs in between that time and the harmonium and reed organ concerts too. Now that we have a folding reed organ and a portable electric harmonium, we can play concerts anywhere, even where there isn’t any instrument. So thank you so much guys for listening and we hope you enjoyed this episode. Please send us more of our questions. We love helping you grow and remember, when you practice -

Ausra: Miracles happen!

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