But it is the Cathedral of the Madeleine's smaller, classically elegant Kenneth Jones organ that hosts Utah's pre-eminent pipe organ event, the Eccles Organ Festival.
This year's festival begins today with a performance by Rachel Laurin, a noted composer and improvisation teacher. She recently left her post as organist at Ottawa's Notre-Dame Cathedral to spend more time performing and composing.
"My musical life is 50 percent performing and 50 percent composing, but I try to be a 100 percent performer and 100 percent composer," said the French-Canadian.
Laurin will perform two of her own compositions, Prelude and Fugue in B Minor (1997), a brief selection which is "baroque in spirit," and Symphony No. 1 (2002). The symphony is a cyclic work with contrasting themes that appear in three of the four movements. "The themes are like sports teams - two themes are matched together to oppose each other," Laurin said. "I mix tonal and modal language, so you always have a tonal center."
The work's many moods move listeners from restless darkness to carefree lightness. It ends in a flashy virtuosic climax.
She will also play her transcription of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue. Bach wrote this work, originally for harpsichord, around 1720. "I felt that it was incredible that Bach wrote such a powerful piece for the harpsichord, and I felt like it had the potential to be played by other instruments . . . which didn't have the limiting factors of the harpsichord."
Also on the program are Charles-Marie Widor's Second Symphony and Louis Vierne's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor.
This is Laurin's first visit to Salt Lake City. Asked if she would be improvising on this concert, she replied: "With several of my own works on the program, including an organ symphony, I felt people would be saturated. Next time I will improvise."
Laurin spent 16 years playing on Montréal's Saint-Joseph Oratory tracker organ, similar to the Cathedral of the Madeleine's. A tracker organ has mechanical instead of electronic key action. Each key is connected directly by a thin flexible wooden strip called a tracker to an air valve under the corresponding pipe. "With tracker organs, there is more resistance when pressing the keys, especially when manuals are coupled together," Laurin said.
According to Madeleine music director Gregory A. Glenn, "Some guest organists have complained about the key resistance they encounter, but our people at the cathedral like it just fine."
The cathedral's organ uses electric stop action, including eight electronic memories. It also has four manuals, 60 stops and 4,066 pipes in 79 ranks. A rank is a complete set of pipes of similar timbre tuned to a full chromatic scale. Most of the Madeleine's pipes are mounted vertically, but the silver trumpet pipes, mounted horizontally, give the instrument's façade a dramatic look.
"Organ music is not as dull as some people think. It can be a very engaging art form," Glenn said. The Madeleine's acoustical environment, he added, is a wonderful space that allows the organ to breathe, like the resonating chamber of a fine string instrument.
Glenn is excited about this year's guest performers (see separate list), who include Joan Lippincott (Oct. 22), emeritus professor of organ at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., selected for this year's residency position. She will present master classes to selected university organ students and will offer private instruction.
"A number of young people have found the inspiration to become organists from these sessions," said Glenn. "They are not intended to be only for [Roman] Catholic boys and girls but people of all faiths."
The pipe organ is so closely associated with liturgical services that many people don't realize the instrument's versatility and orchestral nature. The Eccles Festival is intended to make pipe-organ music more accessible to the public. It is also Laurin's goal.
"I want audiences to learn about the organ and love the organ. It is my dream to have everyone love the organ as I do."
Opening tonight
The 13th annual Eccles Organ Festival begins tonight at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, 331 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City, the first of five concerts continuing on the second and fourth Sundays in September and October. Admission is free; all concerts begin at 8 p.m. For more information, call 801-328-8941 or visit http://www.saltlakecathedral.org/arts.php.
The rest of the lineup:
