mark mushet photo
By Steve Newton
When I call up classical conductor and keyboardist Alexander Weimann at his home in Ladner to chat about his upcoming organ concert, my first question is “How’s Reggie doing?”
Boston-based countertenor Reginald Mobley was scheduled to perform with Weimann and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra at the Vancouver Playhouse this Friday (January 12) as part of Early Music Vancouver‘s Lumen Festival, but the show had to be cancelled when the Grammy-nominated Mobley came down with COVID.
According to Weimann, who describes Mobley as an “exceptional and unique” talent, the singer is having a tough time recovering from the disease. Canadian-American cellist Elinor Frey will perform a replacement concert at the Playhouse this Friday, performing Bach Cello Suites no.’s 1, 2, and 6.
The following day Weimann will perform a solo improvised organ concert at West Vancouver United Church, in which he reimagines the so-called Organ Mass, a tradition that was particularly popular in baroque France, where it was cultivated by composers like François Couperin.
For Weimann–who has been the music director of the PBO since 2009–his love affair with the organ started early when, as a child growing up in Munich, Germany, his music-loving mother used to take him to church every Sunday. His youthful experiences in houses of worship didn’t turn him deeply religious, though.
“Currently I would describe myself as agnostic,” Weimann explains, “perhaps sometimes an agnostic who wishes he could believe, if that makes sense. But growing up I was quite fascinated by church and by the ritual and by I guess also the theology–and particulary organs! Because of course they are big machines, right, it’s a big apparatus, and even the console where you control everything is a little bit like a flight deck. It’s many buttons and lots to push and so I think for a young boy, it’s a little bit of heaven.
“And of course then it comes with repertoire and music behind it. And it was a matter of fact the organ and its repertoire that led me to what we call ‘early music’, so baroque or music that even predates the baroque period, because of course the organ had its prime time, I would say, before the 1800s, or 1850. And if you think of it in terms of craftsmanship and physics and achievement and toolmaking and all of that, in a way it represents the state of art at that time. So it’s just a very majestic kind of instrument.”
When he performs on Saturday Weimann will be working the keyboards of the Martin Pasi Organ, Opus 10, built by Pasi and Associates of Roy, Washington, and installed in the church in 1998. He has also performed on the “spectacular” organ at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria, and the “beautiful” one at Holy Rosary Cathedral in downtown Vancouver.
It was at the Holy Rosary that Weimann recorded an album, scheduled for release on the local Redshift Music label the day of his concert, titled The Art of Improvisation–Volume 1: A Prayer for Peace. It’s part of a three-volume series of live recordings he did for the CBC before the pandemic–one on organ, one on harpsichord, and one on piano.
“The CBC had a pretty high number of listeners’ replies each time the tapes were aired,” notes Weimann, “and in particular the organ recording spoke to a lot of people, not used to listening to organ at all.”
So does Weimann have a personal favourite instrument among the organ, piano, and harpsichord? Or is that like asking a parent to pick their favourite child.
“Oh, that’s a very good question,” he replies. “I mean the first instrument I learned was the piano, that’s what I started out with, and it’s still very close to my heart. But the instrument I always fantasized about is the organ, and of course the organ I started playing as soon as I was tall enough, so about 12 or 13, because you need to reach the pedals and all of that. And that was certainly my instrument for about 10 years or so, and then through discovering early music I also discovered the harpsichord.”
Although he clearly relishes making music on the organ, Weimann’s biggest influences and inspirations were not classical masters of the instrument.
“No, that’s a little funny. The people that I would take [organ] masterclasses with, teachers, those were my immediate mentors and probably role models also, but generally I was always attracted to improvisation, and when it comes to that, mainly the field of jazz. So from my teenage years I’ve been listening to jazz, and also studied it and tried it a little bit. But at the time that I tried it it was not meant to happen–and I landed in early music, which I’m very happy with.
“But if you would ask for my heroes, the first on the Top 10 would naturally be a lot of piano players, so Oscar Peterson, and Keith Jarrett of course. And in jazz, one musician I have been following all of my life is Pat Metheny. I adore his work. And Lyle Mays, who played in his group, was one of my favourite keyboardists.”
As far as future projects go, Weimann is thrilled about the prospect of performing Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, one of his alltime favourites, at the Early Music Vancouver summer festival. But first he’ll do A Prayer for Peace, aptly titled considering the unspeakable carnage being wrought in places like Gaza and Ukraine right now.
“Mankind doesn’t seem to want to live without wars,” he observes, “and right now more than ever. But with the Organ Mass the circle sort of closes with the last verse in that sequence of prayers that are used in every mass, what we call Agnus Dei, ‘the lamb of god’, and it ends with the words ‘so give us peace’.”
(The above article was made possible by the support of sponsor Early Music Vancouver. For information on Ear of Newt’s sponsored content email steve@earofnewt.com.)
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