Description

Jennifer Pascual is the Director of Music and Organist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. She is joined in this recording by her colleague Lynn Trapp who is Director of Liturgy and Music at Saint Joseph Church in Baltimore, and an organist at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. The recording features organ music for four hands and feet and is recorded on the pipe organ at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. 

The organ music they play spans a wide period of compositional styles. From works by Mozart to a contemporary composition by Ralf Bölting. There is something for everyone on this CD from standard organ literature to more well known works like John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever” to Richard Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries”. There are some works for a single organist playing but many of the works were written as duets for four hands and four feet like Gustav Merkel’s Sonata in d minor. Orchestral works like Saint-Saëns “Danse Macabre” or Richard Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries” take on a new dimension when played with four hands and four feet. Click here to watch Jennifer Pascual and Lynn Trapp play the Wagner on YouTube. 

The George Kilgen & Son company of St. Louis, Missouri built both pipe organs at St. Patrick’s Cathedral; the Chancel Organ in 1928 and the Great Organ in the cathedral’s rear gallery in 1930. From 1993 to 1997 the Peragallo Organ Company of Paterson, New Jersey, cleaned and refurbished the enormous instrument, later reworking the echo division to serve as a tonal bridge between the previously independent cathedral organs with a complete diapason chorus, trompette harmonique and triforium trumpet at the cathedral’s crossing. Under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Pascual, the recent renovations of the Cathedral enabled changes to the organ’s specification in the form of two additional cornets, four sets of celestes in the choir, and the trompette en chamade to cap the pedal reed chorus. Both console control mechanisms were also fully updated to the latest fiber optic technologies producing instantaneous mechanical responses from either end of the building.

For a recording of Daniel Brondel or Michael Hey playing the organ at St Patrick’s Cathedral follow the links.