PITTSBURGH, Dec. 8: The organ loft in St. Paul’s Cathedral is more crowded than usual this evening, for this is not just one more in the celebrated series of recitals. We are celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary, to the day, of the dedication of the glorious Beckerath organ, and some thirty members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (violins, violas, cellos, basses, oboes, timpani), under the direction of Michael Lankester, are here to add to the joyous uproar. The organist is Guy Bovet, from Geneva, one of the precious few who unite virtuosity with artistry; he is a prolific composer and a renowned hand at free improvisation.
I’m standing next to the console in a good position to study Guy’s pedal technique. Looking across the violins, I see a rather short and wiry man standing by the timpani. Because of him we are all here. Last spring he decided to commission these players to come to this birthday party. He didn’t know where the money would come from. “Bill, we’ll just pray,” he wrote me. He is Paul Koch, music director and choirmaster at St. Paul’s since 1949. And my friend and music master since 1939.
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