The Los Angeles Philharmonic to Present Paul Jacobs In All-Bach Solo Recital At Walt Disney Hall

Grammy-award-winning American organist Paul Jacobs will perform the Six Trio Sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach at the Walt Disney Hall (111 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012), on Sunday evening, April 16, 7:30 PM PST. Mr. Jacobs has said the trio sonatas are some of the most exuberant works written by Bach. The all-Bach solo recital is part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's organ series. The full program follows:

J. S. Bach Trio Sonata in E-flat major, BWV 525

Trio Sonata in C minor, BWV 526

Trio Sonata in D minor, BWV 527

Trio Sonata in E minor, BWV 528

Trio Sonata in C major, BWV 529

Trio Sonata in G major, BWV 530

Bach's Six Trio Sonatas are not only among the composer's most important creations, but also extremely difficult to play. As Mr. Jacobs humorously phrases it, "an organist must assume the role of three musicians in Bach's Six Trio Sonatas - a human making music with all four limbs."

Reviewing an earlier performance by Mr. Jacobs of the same works, Jay Nordlinger of the New Criterion wrote: "Jacobs is an excellent player. Among his qualities are crispness, clarity, tidiness, smarts. He pays attention to details, including note values: He is not one to linger over a note-to hold it too long-but rather releases it at just the right time. This makes a difference in music." (October, 2009)

Tickets from $20 to $64 are available on Los Angeles Philharmonic's event page. For more information, please visit the Los Angeles Philharmonic's website, and Organist Paul Jacobs' website.

The internationally celebrated organist Paul Jacobs combines a probing intellect and extraordinary technical mastery with an unusually large repertoire, both old and new. Reviewing Mr. Jacobs' performance of Bach's Six Trio Sonatas, Jay Nordlinger of The New Criterion wrote: "Jacobs is an excellent player. Among his qualities are crispness, clarity, tidiness, smarts. He pays attention to details, including note values: He is not one to linger over a note-to hold it too long-but rather releases it at just the right time. This makes a difference in music." (November, 2009)

An eloquent champion of his instrument, Mr. Jacobs is known for his imaginative interpretations and charismatic stage presence. Mr. Jacobs is the only organist ever to have won a Grammy Award-in 2011 for Messiaen's towering "Livre du Saint-Sacrément." No other organist is so frequently re-invited as soloist to perform with prestigious orchestras, thus making him a pioneer in the movement for the revival of symphonic music featuring the organ. Having performed to great critical acclaim on five continents and in each of the fifty United States, Mr. Jacobs regularly appears with the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Nashville Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Toledo Symphony, and Utah Symphony, among others. Mr. Jacobs is also Director of the Oregon Bach Festival Organ Institute, a position he assumed nine seasons ago.

Mr. Jacobs has transfixed audiences, colleagues, and critics alike with landmark performances of the complete works for solo organ by J.S. Bach and Messiaen, as well as works by a vast array of other composers. He made musical history at the age of 23 when he played Bach's complete organ works in an 18-hour marathon performance on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death. A fierce advocate of new music, Mr. Jacobs has premiered works by Samuel Adler, Mason Bates, Michael Daugherty, Bernd Richard Deutsch, John Harbison, Wayne Oquin, Stephen Paulus, Christopher Theofanidis, and Christopher Rouse, among others. As a teacher he has also been a vocal proponent of the redeeming nature of traditional and contemporary classical music.

Past recital engagements have included performances under the aegis of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center White Light Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the St. Louis Cathedral-Basilica, Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, as well as at the American Guild of Organists.

He has given the world premiere of Christopher Rouse's Organ Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra-co-commissioned by the National Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic-and, with the Toledo Symphony, has performed Michael Daugherty's Once Upon a Castle, a work he recorded in 2015 with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero which was released by Naxos in September 2016, and awarded three Grammys, including Best Classical Compendium.

In 2022, Mr. Jacobs celebrated the bicentennial of eminent 19th century French composer César Franck's birth with two solo organ recitals in New York City at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, under the auspices of the American Guild of Organists. Reviewing the second concert in the series, Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times called Mr. Jacobs "one of the finest organists and teachers of our day...Jacobs's textures were also beautifully varied in the 'Prière,' the trumpet mellowed by the vast space without losing its focus; the 'Prélude, Fugue et Variation' was a wistful nocturne, sensitively controlled and never overblown. The 'Final' moved from roaring lows to shimmering highs, its dotted-rhythm motif bounding before its pile-on conclusion." (June, 2022)

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Performing Stephen Paulus's Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra and Joseph Jongen's Symphonie for Organ and Orchestra with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under the baton of Gil Rose at Boston's Symphony Hall in February 2022, Mr. Jacobs was roundly praised by critics of the Boston Globe, New York Times, Boston Classical Review, and the Musical Intelligencer. "Jacobs is a musician of astonishing abilities. He has, of course, all his instrument's technical demands perfectly in hand (and feet). But most striking is Jacobs' ear for voicings and balances, as well as his intuitive grasp of the spirit of the music at hand." - Jonathan Blumhofer, Boston Classical Review (February 19, 2022)

"Jacobs and the orchestra expertly navigated its many emotional and coloristic vicissitudes," wrote Geoffrey Wieting in The Boston Intelligencer, February 22, 2022. "With sparkling fingerwork over a sustained pedal melody, the finale, Jubilant, seemingly took root in the French Romantic organ toccata tradition."

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