Organ Recital at Rosary Cathedral

Today, my husband (Ted) and I attended an organ recital at the Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral in Toledo, OH. The organist was Paul Monachino, who is the Director of Music / Organist for the Cathedral. The Cathedral is beautiful with a painted ceiling and intricate architecture. I recommended taking the Virtual Tour.

I was very much looking forward to this concert. Ted took the day off to attend with me. It was his first time to hear a pipe organ live. We arrived early and choose a pew towards in the middle and sat on the right, so that we could see Paul at the organ console.  The organ pipes are not visible.

We both enjoyed the concert. Paul started with Chaconne by Francois Couperin, which I recognized as Michael has provided me with his recordings of this piece. Next was Prelude and Fugue in C Major; BWV 547 by Bach followed by Three Early American Hymn Tunes: Woundrous Love, Simple Gifts, and Amazing Grace. The last piece before intermission was Prelude and Trumpetings (1961) by Myron Roberts.

For the second half of the program, Paul performed Charles-Marie Widor's Symphony No 4. in F Minor. This symphony has 6 movements: Tocatta, Fugue, Dolce, Scherzo, Adagio,  Finale. The Finale definitely sounded like a finale!

One of my goals is to eventually be able to describe the actual music (not just list the titles of pieces) so that others can be inspired to give organ music a chance.