The Philadelphia Orchestra Digital Stage will offer the free streaming premiere of the Philadelphia Orchestra Organ Concert, presented by St. Bartholomew’s Conservancy, at St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York on May 24, 2022. Bach’s concert of compositions for organ and orchestra at Saint-Saëns at Amy Beach was conducted by David Robertson, with organist Paolo Bordignon and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, and featured the monumental 12,422-pipe organ of Saint-Barthélemy, the largest in New York and one of the largest in the world. The concert supported St. Bartholomew’s Conservancy mission to restore St. Bartholomew’s Church, a National Historic Landmark.

Recorded live, the first stream of the concert will be offered free to everyone for seven days, from June 30 to July 7. Free digital tickets can be reserved at www.philorch.org/st-bartholomew-organ-concert.

The concert program includes a repertoire for organ and orchestra from the 16th – 20th centuries – works by French and Belgian composers Gigout (a pupil of Saint-Saëns), Jongen, Fauré (“Pie Jesu” from the Requiem, with M. Costanzo), Duruflé (an Impressionist master composer for the organ whose musical training spanned from Rouen Cathedral to Notre-Dame), Saint-Saëns (the finale of his Symphony No. 3, “Organ”); Gabrieli’s late 16th century Canzon in Double Echo; and the orchestration by Leopold Stokowski of Bach’s “Little” Fugue in G minor; and by Handel, Eternal Source of Light Divine (with M. Costanzo). The program also includes the world premiere of the arrangement for organ and orchestra of a late work by American composer Amy Beach (Mrs. HHA Beach), parishioner of Saint-Barthélemy, Prelude on an Old Folk Tune (“The Fair Hills of Eire, O!”), originally composed for solo organ.