Guilford, Vt. — Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG) is hosting its 7th annual Spring Recital & Holiday Cookoutbeginning at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 24, at Tree Frog Farm in idyllic rural Guilford. This year’s Tracker Organ program focuses on music from the North German baroque, repertory for which the c. 1897 instrument is uniquely suited.
All the works on the program, except one, are concerted. The exception is Dietrich Buxtehude’s Toccata in F, played by the afternoon’s guest organist, Ken Olsson. It starts the show with some virtuosic fireworks.
Following the Buxtehude are pieces by composers we might call his legatees. Johann Sebastian Bach, who once walked 250 miles to meet the master and hear him play, is represented by two works: the tiny Canonic Trio in F and the exuberant Sonata in D major for viola da gamba and keyboard. Then comes a Trio Sonata in B-flat by Georg Philipp Telemann.
The final piece is a Bach cantata — not, however, by Bach. Meine Seele rühmt und preist (“My soul exalts and praises”) was long listed as his Cantata #189 but is now known to have been written by the Dresden composer Melchior Hoffmann. Hoffmann succeeded Telemann as music director of the Neue Kirche in Leipzig, a post which Bach had coveted but lost to Telemann! Michael Duffin is tenor soloist in the Hoffmann cantata, assisted by the Guilford Chamber Players.
Both the Bach Canonic Sonata and the Hoffmann Cantata have appeared periodically over the decades on programs with the Guilford Tracker Organ. Those performances were presided over by the late A. Graham Down, who installed the instrument in the Organ Barn and thus planted the seeds for Friends of Music at Guilford a half-century ago. Their appearance on this program is a tribute to his vision.
The Organ Barn is at Tree Frog Farm, 158 Kopkind Rd., off Packer Corners Rd. in Guilford. From Brattleboro and points north, follow signs from the Guilford Country Store on Rt. 5 just south of Exit 1 off I-9; from the south take the Keets Brook Rd. turnoff from Rt. 5 in Bernardston and follow signs from there.
Admission to the concert is $15, and the optional cookout that follows is $10 per person. The meal includes grilling options for vegetarians and carnivores alike; a variety of salads, sides, and fruit; plus a sundae bar and beverages; BYOB. For information and reservations for the concert alone or concert plus cookout, contact the FOMAG office at (802) 254-3600 or office@fomag.org. Visit online at www.fomag.org.
