Gunnar Idenstam, organ Erik Rydvall, nyckelharpa

Pre-concert Talk

Pre-concert Talk with Alan Morrison on stage at 2:15pm.

Spivey Hall’s organist in residence Alan Morrison gives engaging, insightful talks about the music. These talks begin forty-five prior to concert time for selected Organ series concerts and are free for all ticket-holders.

About the Artists

Swedish organist Gunnar Idenstam “is one of the most talented organists on the international concert scene” (Corriere del Ticino). His improvisations “occupy their own universe – part hard apocalyptic rock, part elfin folklore, part nave-shaking French symphony” (Gramophone), but “in such a convincing way, that you cannot talk about the crossover music of classical and pop, but more about a kind of music that… unfolds in its own beauty” (Nord West Zeitung).

Among the foremost Swedish folk musicians of his generation, Erik Rydvall began playing the violin at age 5 and discovered at age 18 the nyckelharpa – a traditional string instrument for popular dance and festive music, played with a bow, using a key box to determine the pitch of melody and bass strings. A set of resonating sympathetic strings adds to its characteristic sound. “What is evident is both its variety of sound and virtuoso possibilities” (MusicWeb International).

Nyckelharpa and pipe organ are “a thoroughly delightful pairing… both Rydvall and Idenstam are also past masters of the sort of improvisational give-and-take that that music ‘created in the moment’ requires…as enjoyable as it is completely surprising” (Fanfare).

Concert Program

Selections from the artists’ 2019 Toccata Next CD release, Northern Dances: Folk Music from Scandinavia and Estonia, and solo organ works.