Boom Crash Bach

There are certain types of weather that go with certain types of music. For example, Reggae calls for a hot summer day. Bluegrass reminds me of early spring mornings. Classic rock begs for driving during a brisk, windy fall day. And organ music? Well, organ music needs lightining and thunder and rain.

So here's the setting. A big cathedralesque church called Templo de Campañia. It was built in 1765 by the Jesuits, the exterior is Churrigueresque and the interior has a simple beauty to it. It's one of the sites of the annual Guillermo Pinto Reyes international week+ long festival that occurs here. Mass ends, pews are moved, darkness falls, lights are dimmed, and out walks a man with white, shoulder-length hair. He bends over the balcony in a low bow (the organ is on the upper floor, we watch him play via a projection onto a screen). He's dressed in black, which is undoubtedly the most appropriate color for a man with white long hair who plays the organ. He gives off an air of mild insanity, which, again, is the most appropriate state of being for a man dressed in black with white long hair, who plays the organ. The organ itself is a sort-of mad man instrument. The chords and blurred sound and sheer size of the instrument conjur this image of a tortured soul hunched over the keyboard in the dark of night in an echoing church.

His name was José Suárez. He was quite good. Or at least I think he was quite good, he is very accomplished, so others seem to think that he is very good as well. In truth, this was my first organ concert ever and really the only other person I knew who played the organ was my Grandma Betty and I don't think she was very good.

But the concert was so much more than his playing. About halfway through his 4th piece, a low, rolling thunder could be heard. An occasional flash could be seen through the windows. It gathered in a slow crescendo, only to climax during his last piece, which was, by far his best (Fantasía y fuga en la menor BWV 561 by Bach). It was quite a spectacular finale and I'm not sure I will ever be able to attend another organ concert unless it is accompanied by lightining and thunder.