Dr. Leon W. Couch played a solo organ recital at First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego, NY, April 17, 2011. Dr. Leon W. Couch played a solo organ recital at First Presbyterian Union Church in Owego, NY, April 17, 2011.
In the "Always on Sunday" Concert 2011 Series, Dr. Couch presented a diverse recital with works spanning the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The program included masterworks by Dieterich Buxtehude, Johannes Pachelbel, J. S. Bach, Janet Linker, and Louis Vierne, including two movements from Vierne's infamously difficult Sixth Symphony. The generous verbal program notes seemed to keep people entertained. More engaging, the church projected an up-close video of Dr. Couch's hands and feet. The audience was able to see fancy footwork, hands jumping on the keyboards, shaping of musical lines with the swell pedal, deft stop pulling, furious page turning, and the like all live.
First Presbyterian Union Church houses a beautiful late-nineteenth-century mechanical-action organ built by Hutchings. Although relatively small (for an organ), it produces many of the lush sounds preferred by nineteenth-century audiences with an amazingly large range of dynamics. The effect can be gentle, magnificent, and arresting.
Dr. Leon Couch is represented by the Concert Artist Cooperative, an international roster of concert artists: http://www.concertartistcooperative.com/couch.html . You may also hear live recordings on his website: Performance.ProfCouch.us/ .
You may see some PSAs here: http://owegopennysaver.com/index.php/2011/04/11/always-on-sunday-features-solo-organ-recital/ and http://www.newsradiowebo.com/?p=9224 .
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20110423204322360