Lukas Hasler Recital Recap

Sunday 27 February, the Baltimore Chapter hosted Lukas Hasler in recital at The Shrine of the Little Flower, the first in-person recital for the chapter since October 2019.  This recital is part of U.S. tour that takes Lukas to Virginia, California, and Massachusetts as well. Beginning with the Prelude and Fugue in d minor, Op. 37, No. 3 by Felix Mendelssohn, Hasler presented a varied musical program which fully utilized the resources and French Romantic style of the three-manual, 41-rank Casavant Frères, Op. 2092 which was built in 1951. After the Mendelssohn, we heard Saint-Saëns’ Fantasie No. 1 in E-flat Major followed by the Capriccio sopra la serenità, an homage to Frescobaldi by contemporary German organist Jürgen Essl.  In contrast to the Essl, the organ’s reeds were then featured the Spanish Baroque Tiento Ileno de séptimo tono por A La Mi Re by Juan Cabanilles.

Lukas Hasler then presented three transcriptions, all written and played with great technical skill and artistic nuance.  First up was the first movement of the Piano Sonata in G Major, KV. 283, by W.A. Mozart. The transcription, by Lukas, is from an arrangement for two pianos by Edvard Grieg. Greig originally composed the second piano part (a “freely composed accompaniment”) for use when teaching piano students. After the Mozart, Lukas played a beautiful, self-arranged transcription of the Moonlight Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2 by Beethoven. The third transcription, the Prelude in g minor, Op. 23, No. 5 by Rachmaninoff was arranged by the American organist Gottfried H. Federlein, FAGO in 1923. In 1921/1922, Federlein was also the President (then known as Warden) of the American Guild of Organists. 

Wrapping up the program was the jaunty Boléro de Concert, Op. 166 by Louis Lefébure-Wély. As an encore, and as a musical prayer for peace in Ukraine, Lukas played an arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.

A free-will offering was taken, with proceeds benefitting both the Baltimore chapter and the console restoration (not related to the photo) for the organ at The Shrine of the Little Flower. Photo Credit: Lukas Hasler (Twitter: @LukasOrganist)