Frank Ferko & Leo Sowerby: Organ Music David Schrader

• Frank Ferko (b. 1950):
• 1 Ferko: Music for Elizabeth Chapel: I. Variations on "Leoni" 06:34
• 2 Ferko: Music for Elizabeth Chapel: II. Variations on "St. Elizabeth" (Crusader's Hymn) 07:28
• 3 Ferko: Music for Elizabeth Chapel: III. Toccata & Fugue on "St. Anne" 06:29
• Frank Ferko:
• 4 Ferko: Variations on "Veni Creator Spiritus" 11:11
• 5 Ferko: Angels 08:43
• Frank Ferko: Symphonie brève:
• 6 Ferko: Symphonie brève: I. Andante 03:17
• 7 Ferko: Symphonie brève: II. Very Fast, Lightly 06:06
• 8 Ferko: Symphonie brève: III. Chorale 03:08
• Frank Ferko:
• 9 Ferko: Missa "O Ecclesia": Communion (After Hildegard von Bingen) 02:32
• 10 Ferko: Variations on a Hungarian Folk Tune 03:27
• 11 Ferko: Tired Old Nun 06:09
• Frank Ferko: Mass for Dedication:
• 12 Ferko: Mass for Dedication: I. Entrance 02:45
• 13 Ferko: Mass for Dedication: II. Offertory 01:33
• 14 Ferko: Mass for Dedication: III. Consecration 01:53
• 15 Ferko: Mass for Dedication: IV. Communion 03:11
• 16 Ferko: Mass for Dedication: V. Finale 03:51
• Leo Sowerby (1895 - 1968):
• 17 Sowerby: Comes Autumn Time (Version for Organ) 06:39
• 18 Sowerby: Pageant 12:21
• 19 Sowerby: Toccata 07:59
• 20 Sowerby: Organ Suite: IV. March 09:31
• Leo Sowerby: Organ Symphony in G Major:
• 21 Sowerby: Organ Symphony in G Major: I. Very Broadly 20:20
• 22 Sowerby: Organ Symphony in G Major: II. Fast and Sinister 08:33
• 23 Sowerby: Organ Symphony in G Major: III. Passacaglia 13:02
• Leo Sowerby: 2 Sketches:
• 24 Sowerby: 2 Sketches: No. 1, Nostalgic 04:26
• 25 Sowerby: 2 Sketches: No. 2, Fancy-Free 03:53
• Total Runtime 02:45:01

Info for Frank Ferko & Leo Sowerby: Organ Music

Versatile keyboard virtuoso David Schrader, heard on more than two dozen Cedille Records albums, performs attractive 20th- and 21st-century solo organ works by Frank Ferko (b. 1950) and Leo Sowerby (1895–1968), prolific composers known for their organ mastery and closely associated with the city of Chicago.

Ferko’s works, all world-premiere recordings, are heard on three different mechanical-action organs at The House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, Minnesota. The intimate Music for Elizabeth Chapel is performed on the organ it was written for: the 19-rank Jaeckel, Opus 41. Variations on a Hungarian Folk Theme, also written for the textures and colors of a small instrument, is heard on an authentic Romantic-era French organ, with 13 ranks, built by Joseph Merklin in 1878 for a church in southern France.

Ferko compositions performed on the 97-rank C.B. Fisk Opus 78 (1979) include Variations on “Veni Creator Spiritus,” based on a ninth-century plainsong hymn; Angels — Chaconne for Organ, Missa O Ecclesia: Communion, and Mass for Dedication, all based on chants by 12th-century abbess, composer, and Christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen; Symphonie brève, dedicated to Schrader; and Tired Old Nun, a novelty piece scored for pedals alone, with waltz, slow blues, and boogie variations.

Schrader offers his Sowerby program on the 68-rank Wicks Opus 2918 organ at St. Ita’s Catholic Church, Chicago, renovated in 2003 by H.A. Howell. Like the great Skinner organs that Sowerby knew well, it includes a Solo division with stops that are essential to performing the composer’s large-scale works. Repertoire includes some of Sowerby’s best-known organ music: the brilliant program overture Comes Autumn Time; the virtuosic Pageant, championed by Virgil Fox; Toccata, a recital staple for generations of American organists; and the monumental Symphony in G Major, first recorded in 1942 by British organist E. Power Biggs for RCA Victor. Schrader also includes a Sowerby rarity, the March from Suite for Organ.

David Schrader, organ

David Schrader
Equally at home in front of a harpsichord, organ, piano, or fortepiano, David Schrader is “truly an extraordinary musician . . . (who) brings not only the unfailing right technical approach to each of these different instruments, but always an imaginative, fascinating musicality to all of them” (Norman Pelligrini, WFMT, Chicago). A performer of wide ranging interests and accomplishments, Schrader has appeared with the Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, and Colorado Symphonies, and appeared as a soloist at four national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (1984, 1994, 1998, and 2006). He has also performed at the prestigious Irving Gilmore Keyboard Festival (playing separate concerts on organ, harpsichord, and clavichord) and at the Ravinia Festival; Aspen Music Festival; Oulunsalo Soi Music Festival in Oulu, Finland; Michigan Mozartfest; Boston Early Music Festival; Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; Connecticut Early Music Festival; Manitou Music Festival; and as soloist and conductor at the Woodstock (Illinois) Mozart Festival.

A resident of Chicago, Schrader performs regularly with Music of the Baroque, the Newberry Consort, and Bach Week in Evanston. He has also appeared with The Chicago Chamber Musicians, Contempo (f.k.a. the Contemporary Chamber Players), the Chicago Baroque Ensemble, and The City Musick. He is a frequent guest on WFMT’s “Live From WFMT” series of broadcast in-studio performances and a founding member of Baroque Band, Chicago’s period-instrument orchestra.

Schrader is on the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. For over thirty five years, he was the organist of Chicago’s Church of the Ascension.

Booklet for Frank Ferko & Leo Sowerby: Organ Music