>> >We're looking for an American organ concerto to be performed by a
>> >professional soloist with our community amateur orchestra..
>
>> Anne, you might look into the Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Harp of Howard
>> Hanson. It's maybe 20 minutes in length and quite colorful. Big (quite
>> difficult) pedal cadenza in the middle. Fun.
>>
>> Aaron Copland also wrote a symphony for organ and orchestra. It's about 25
>> minutes in duration. I pulled out the score but don't know the work so can't
>> give any "insider" info. The organ part appears very substantial. Boosey &
>> Hawkes is the publisher.
>>
>> Doug Marshall
>
>Neither work falls within the capability of an average community
>orchestra.  Both are VERY HARD orchestral scores.
>                                                Karl E. Moyer
 
I would with respect disagree with Karl on the subject of the Hanson
concerto. While "difficult" is difficult :-) to assess on an absolute
scale, the comparative difficulty of Hanson to Copland is easy to assess.
The Copland is indeed very hard--big, virtuoso symphony orchestra is a
prerequisite. The Hanson, on the other hand, can be well served with a
chamber size group of strings and a harp. A good community orchestra with
plenty of rehearsal time could very well do the Hanson justice. As always
with Hanson, the more strings the merrier, but depending on the acoustic of
the church a small band will do nicely. The recording I produced with David
Craighead uses the Rochester Chamber Orchestra strings--fewer than 20
players altogether--and they sound quite lush in the ample acoustic of
Asbury Methodist in Rochester.
 
Hanson's earlier 1926 Organ Concerto uses the full symphony orchestra, but
to the best of my knowledge has never been performed in modern times. (Much
the same fate befell the Sowerby Symphonic Concerto). In 1941, to improve
the chances for performance, the composer radically revised and simplified
the work to produce the work we know today as the "Concerto for Organ, Harp
and Strings".
 
John M. Proffitt
General Manager & CEO
KUHF-FM, Houston
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