RAVISHING, ROARING, AND ROMANTIC
Sunday, February 8, 2015     3:00 PM

Music of Rheinberger (for violin and organ) and Reger, with Carlos Elias, violinist

Organist Craig Jaynes will be joined by Carlos Elias, international performer and director of strings and orchestra at Cedarville University.

Continuing with a theme of contrasts, this program features two composers in the Romantic style whose writing is, in many ways, nearly opposite.

Josef Rheinberger was a melodic master and exercised his gift amidst harmonies of simple loveliness. He was certainly capable of contrapuntal writing, but simply used it as tool in his tuneful compositional kit.

His works for violin and organ are almost totally unique among serious composers. The dearth of original works for these two instruments is puzzlesome, especially when one hears how wonderful the combination can be.

Max Reger wrote with lots of ink and his works can be nearly opaque with sound. He is at his best when serving as one of Bach’s successors as a master of the art of counterpoint and it is this aspect that will be emphasized in this program.