BAY HEAD — All Saints Church in Bay Head celebrated the 50th anniversary of its pipe organ over the weekend, with a packed house show of The Bristol Music Series.
The pipe organ in the church, built in 1974 by the Canadian firm, Cavavant Frères, Limitée, of St. Hyacinthe, Québec, was 50 years old on Easter Day. The rector, wardens and vestry at All Saints Church sponsored a celebratory concert and formal reception to mark the anniversary, and the residents of Bay Head and the surrounding communities came out in droves to the church, located on Lake Avenue.
The church was full 15 minutes before the start time of 7:30 p.m. Stephen Pinel, music director of All Saints said, “We printed 125 programs and ran out, so it was well-attended.”
The concert started with words of welcome from the Rev. Kathyrn L. King, the rector at All Saints, who pointed out that the parish’s music program still rests largely on the legacy of Dr. Lee Hastings Bristol, Jr, who served 47 years as the church’s organist between 1940 and 1977.
Dr. Bristol was an executive with Bristol Meyers, an excellent musician, and a nationally respected churchman in the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The program featured organ soloist Michael J. Diorio, conductor Mark Trautman, and the 10 instrumentalists comprising the All Saints Chamber Orchestra. The program was in two parts: Each part began with a liturgical composition for organ and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Pinel told The Ocean Star, “These cheerful pieces were originally intended to be used as processional music during church services, and are fast and spritely in their effect.”
“The major offering on the program was the fiendishly difficult, three-movement Concerto in D minor for organ and orchestra by Johann Sebastian Bach,” said Pinel. “It combined rapid finger work, passing musical motives back and forth between the organ and the orchestra.”
Pinel further said, “Organist Diorio and conductor Trautman proved themselves to be quite up to the task of performing this difficult composition. The concerto employs the use of a Taille, a Baroque tenor oboe, not in common use today. It was played by the well-known virtuoso Dr. Adrienne Foutz.”
Other selections on the program included two Romantic numbers by Charles Eduoard Lefebvre and Alexandre Guilmant, two nineteenth-century French composers.
Both of these featured lush harmonies with sweeping vocal lines in the strings. Of the two solo pieces on the program, one of them, a Fuga by Johann Adam Reicken, had a subject with a long series of rapid repeated notes, according to Pinel.
A reception followed the awe-inspiring performance was organized by Betsy Sayen, one of the daughters of Lee Hasitngs Bristol, Jr. It included a huge, two-by-three-foot sheet cake with an image of All Saints on the top of the cake.
A variety of choice wines were served by Mark and Linda Cauduner, the owners of the Working Dog Winery in Robbinsville, two cherished parishioners at All Saints. A toast was offered by Henry Bristol, a son of Dr. Bristol, charging the congregation with the continuing care of this fine instrument for another 50 years.
The entire program, including the reception, was free to all attendees.
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