There was much cheering in the area organ world when Bradley Hunter Welch was named the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s resident organist, in 2018. Winner of the 2003 Dallas International Organ Competition, with a doctorate from Yale, Welch had already distinguished himself as a touring recitalist as well as church musician.
The Meyerson Symphony Center’s big C.B. Fisk organ can be overwhelming, but Welch understands — and masters — it as few others have done. He did so again Sunday afternoon, in the DSO’s Gould Family Organ Recital Series. Both program and playing balanced flair, substance and subtlety.
The program opened with a nod to the DSO’s recent performance of Austrian composer Franz Schmidt’s apocalyptic 1937 oratorio The Book with Seven Seals. The Prelude of Schmidt’s “Hallelujah” Prelude and Fugue in D major for organ was subsequently adapted for the oratorio’s finale. After the Prelude’s alternation of big quasi-chorale statements and fancy flourishes, the Fugue spun out gnarly twists and turns of chromaticism.
Welch served up a buoyant Bach A minor Prelude (BWV 543), with just the right “give” here and there to make the music’s rhetorical points. I hear the Fugue a little slower than Welch’s tempo, but he dispatched it nimbly. Registrations were more varied than some scholars now advocate, but they were tastefully done.
The late Frederick Swann was seen and heard by millions as organist for the televised “Hour of Power” from the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. Welch paid tribute with four of Swann’s compositions, three based on hymn tunes.
Fanfare à St. Clotilde alludes to the Paris church whose famous organists included César Franck, Charles Tournemire and Jean Langlais. The organ’s heroic trumpet and tuba stops sounded dramatic summonses, and Swann later worked in a sly allusion to Langlais’ Hymne d’action de grâce “Te Deum.” The tuba introduced Great is Thy Faithfulness, but then the hymn tune was explored on purring string stops, gentle flutes and a solo oboe.
In Amazing Grace buzzy reeds and a bagpipe-like drone yielded to lush string sounds. Festival Toccata on St. Anne (”O God, our help in ages past”) declaimed the theme on loud pedal stops, beneath manual cascades, then in fragments echoed from one manual to another, concluding with a showy pedal glissando.
Adoration, by Florence Price, an African-American composer recently rediscovered, was a pleasant palate cleanser: a melody accompanied by pulsing chords, then lush “blue” harmonies on string stops.
The French organist and composer Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911) was one of the first organists with an international concert career. Something of a populist as well as a scholar, he developed the dramatic first movement of his First Organ Sonata, in D minor, from two easily grasped themes. The gentle “Pastorale” suggests shepherds piping, the final movement supplying appropriate flash and flair.
Welch played with unfailing authority and musicality, and, where called for, real virtuosity. And his friendly comments supplied just the right touch. The printed program included just a list of pieces and Welch’s bio; program notes and organ specifications were available only via a tiny QR code. Who wants to fumble with a smartphone during a performance, or be distracted by glowing screens?