We’re mixing our sports metaphors, but here goes. Hockey players know it’s tricky switching from ice- to roller hockey. There are basic similarities, yet blades and wheels behave quite differently.
Sándor Szabó pulled off the musical equivalent of this transition on Friday at Morristown’s Presbyterian Church. After thundering on the 4,000-pipe Austin organ, he sidled onto another stool and hammered away at a piano.
Here is a mashup of this demanding performance. We have combined Sándor’s finales from César Franck’s Grande Pièce Symphonique for organ and Franz Liszt’s famous Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 for piano. (Time: Three minutes.)
Sándor, who is music director at the Central Presbyterian Church in Summit, did not skate between benches quite this fast–though he probably could have:
Click to play
[audio:https://morristowngreen.com/files/2010/10/Sandor-Szabo-finale-shorter.mp3|titles=Sandor Szabo finales mashup]“They are opposite instruments,” acknowledged Sándor, a native of the former Yugoslavia. Piano keys are pushed “always to the bottom,” he explained, while organ keys are played more gingerly as the organist listens for the delayed response from the pipes.
The Grande Pièce Symphonique signaled a dramatic shift for 19th century organists, who began trying to emulate the musical palette of symphony orchestras, Sándor said. César Franck, a Frenchman, was influenced by Beethoven and Liszt.
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, meanwhile, demonstrates the influence of gypsy music on Romantic composers. Liszt, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms and Dvorzak, among others, “borrowed” bits and pieces of gypsy melodies, Sándor noted.
Sándor Szabó plays Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2:
You can catch Sándor on Nov. 14 at the Short Hills Congregational Church, where he will play Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto; admission is free.
Morristown’s free Fridays on the Green lunchtime series concludes this week at the Presbyterian Church with a concert by violoncellist Marnie Kaller and pianist Rick Kaller, performing folk-inspired tunes accompanied by Nancie Lederer on violin and Mary Bariarz on violin and viola.
Okay, Sándor, if you had to pick just one instrument. . . organ or piano?
“For Bach, I would choose organ. The organ explores the more rationale side. It’s very academic. You need a lot of skills to write a fugue,” he said.
“For Romantic, I choose piano. It’s the more emotional side. You just need expression to write a beautiful Romantic piece.”
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