On Friday, September 25, for one night only, the virtuoso organist from Princeton University, Eric Plutz, will put on a performance of Louis Vierne’s “Great 5th Symphony” from the historic St. Anne’s Church in Washington, D.C.. The performance will be live-streamed on the St. Anne’s website, which can be viewed by interested parties via this link.
According to his biography, Eric Plutz is the house organist at Princeton University, where his responsibilities include playing for weekly services at the chapel, academic ceremonies, and solo concerts, as well as accompanying the University Chapel Choir in services and concerts. At Princeton, Plutz also coordinates a weekly “After Noon Concert Series” at the University Chapel, lectures on music, and teaches organ performance.
The concert is part of a series of performances Plutz organized to honor the 150th anniversary of composer Louis Vierne’s birth. The series was originally intended to cover all of Vierne’s organ symphonies, but the world pandemic threw a wrench into these plans, forcing the organist to cancel his original lineup. Now, Plutz is taking to live-streamed performances in order to celebrate the famed French composer’s sesquicentennial.
Louis Vierne was a consummate musician who held the position of principal organist of Notre Dame de Paris from 1900 until his death in 1937. Vierne’s catalog of compositions includes Mass settings, piano concertos, chamber music, poem settings, and various vocal works of both sacred and secular themes. He wrote six symphonies for organ, the third of which was covered by the German progressive-rock band Inquire, who called the work “the beginning of a new movement, what we call ‘rock and roll.'”
Eric Plutz’s recital of “Organ Symphony No. 5 in A minor,” also referred to as “Vierne’s Great 5th Symphony,” is set to start streaming at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday September 25, 2020. Be sure to save the link so you don’t miss a moment of what will surely be a riveting performance. For an example of Plutz’s fine skill on the keyboard, take a look at his impressive rendition of Marco Enrico Bossi’s “Scherzo in G Minor,” featured below, which he gave in 2019.
For more information, visit the event page on Facebook.
And today we celebrate...