Scott Dettra plays Julius Reubke, The 94th Psalm Sonata

Julius Reubke (1834–1858) The 94th Psalm (Sonata for Organ) Scott Dettra, organ Recorded live in the Cathedral of the Madeleine Salt Lake City, Utah, USA Eccles Organ Festival, 29th Season 8 January 2023 Watch the entire recital here: @ecclesorganfestival The 94th Psalm (Sonata for Organ) I. Grave – Larghetto O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. Arise, thou judge of the world, and reward the proud after their deserving. II. Allegro con fuoco Lord, how long shall the ungodly triumph? They murder the widow and the stranger, and put the fatherless to death. And yet they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. III. Adagio If the Lord had not helped me, it had not failed, but my soul had been put to silence. IV. Allegro But the Lord is my refuge, and my God is the strength of my confidence. He shall recompense them their wickedness, and destroy them in their own malice. Although Reubke subtitled his masterpiece a Sonata, it is really a symphonic tone poem akin to Liszt’s 1850 Fantasia and Fugue on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam—only more connected and concise. True to Liszt’s mantra that a musical composition is a “sequence of states of the soul” [Folge von Seelenzuständen], with a single theme Reubke uncovers an array of emotions using the orchestral organ palette. While the recital program for the first performance in Merseburg printed the entirety of Psalm 94, the published score was prefaced only with selected verses. These verses are not meant to be taken as a literal program, but rather to provide the emotional coloring of each of the four major sections (played without pause). Beginning in no discernible key, the cyclic theme sounds in the pedals and is immediately repeated a half step lower. After a survey of the rhythmic aspects of this theme, the musical texture decreases rapidly to a monodic recitative which, as in the Ad nos, provides a transition to the modulating and polyphonic Larghetto. After a vivacious volley of arpeggios with a gradual increase of pace and harmonic tension, the section finally erupts into the Allegro con fuoco, constructed in quasi-sonata form. The first subject results from the theme in heroic dotted values. The same idea, played at half speed with Lisztian swirling 16th-note arpeggios, provides a second subject which is developed in alternation with the first. A quiet coda announces the tender and expressive Adagio in A minor. This part flows seamlessly from what has gone before and then adds a darker, more consoling theme to the earlier material and ends quoting the first bars of the work. In a final transformation the initial theme becomes the subject of a two-part neoclassical fugue. The first part (Allegro) gives way to a developmental interlude of combative fury recalling the earlier Allegro con fuoco. The second part (Più mosso) begins with strettos ultimately overtaken by warrior fanfares and a boiling toccata which leads to the terrifying and vengeful climax. (From the concert program notes, by Dr. Kenneth Udy)