Organ Recital

I know what many of my readers are probably thinking at this moment. My friend Bruce, who spends much of his time in Jackson, Wyoming tells me that when they gather with their friends (Bruce is 76 and his wife Sandy is a bit older) they have an agreement that all organ recitals will be limited to five minutes. That is a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that they do not want to spend their valuable gathering time among friends telling each other about what has recently gone wrong in their bodies. There is truth in this humor just as there is truth in most humor. The older we get, the more we have to discuss and describe about our triumphs and failures, or at least our maneuverings, with our health-related issues. Some people are very private about such things, either never wanting to show supposed weakness or aging, or just embarrassed or preferring to remain in quiet denial. Others of us look for any excuse to tell the world about ourselves, no matter what the issue, particularly if it can be done with humor, probably because laughing at ourselves is often the best medicine for the human condition. I have recently been very fixated on the successful elimination of my long-term edema problem, just as the rest of the world has focused on Donald Trump’s swollen ankles. I can’t seem to get enough of referencing my new first love, my compression socks. Some medical palliatives like catheters are very unpleasant sounding, but others, like compression socks, are much more fun-loving for some reason. To be fair, there are probably catheters that are easier to deploy than putting on some brands of compression socks, but no one makes fun of a person on a catheter, where anyone wearing compression socks is fair game. So now that I have spent my few minutes of allowable organ recital time, let me turn to the real subject of this story, and while you will quickly comprehend my mental wandering, you will also once again either admire or want to denigrate me for the randomness of my storytelling.

Last night, on a somewhat impromptu basis, we attended an organ recital. As much as we are all familiar with the concept of an organ recital, I’m not so sure many of us have ever actually attended one. This particular organ recital was the Spreckles Summer Organ Festival recital held at the Spreckles Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park, home of the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world. Balboa Park in San Diego has a rich history spanning over 150 years. The land was set aside as a public park in 1868, making it one of the oldest public recreational areas in the United States. Originally called “City Park,” it was renamed in 1910 to honor Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who was the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. The park’s most transformative period came with the 1915-1916 Panama-California Exposition, which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and showcased San Diego’s potential. This exposition led to the construction of many of the park’s iconic Spanish Colonial Revival buildings. The beautiful structures, including the California Building with its distinctive tower, were built for this world’s fair. Balboa Park houses over 15 museums, multiple theaters and the famous San Diego Zoo, and among them is also the Spreckles Organ Pavilion.

The Spreckels Organ Pavilion is one of Balboa Park’s most distinctive and beloved landmarks. Built for the Panama-California Exposition, it was a gift to the city of San Diego from sugar magnates John D. and Adolph B. Spreckels, who were prominent figures in San Diego’s early development. These are the same men who built the railroad over the mountains into San Diego as well as the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island. The pavilion houses the massive outdoor pipe organ, with over 5,000 pipes ranging from tiny whistle-sized tubes to massive 32-foot bass pipes. The organ was manufactured by the Austin Organ Company and cost approximately $100,000 at the time ($3 million dollars equivalent today). The pavilion’s distinctive architecture features a curved colonnade design that creates excellent acoustics for outdoor performances. The structure’s open-air design allows the organ’s sound to project across a large seating area that can accommodate around 2,400 people on benches. San Diego has maintained a civic organist position for over a century, making it one of the few cities in the world to employ a full-time municipal organist. The organ and pavilion have undergone several major renovations over the decades to preserve both the instrument and the structure. Notable restorations occurred in the 1980s and 2000s to maintain the organ’s functionality and the pavilion’s architectural integrity.

The Spreckels Organ Pavilion hosts free concerts year-round, with regular Sunday afternoon performances that have become a cherished San Diego tradition. The venue also serves as a popular location for weddings, special events, and festivals, maintaining its role as both a cultural institution and community gathering place in the heart of Balboa Park.

The idea of going to the organ recital was not of our own thought. It so happened that our nine-year-old granddaughter Evelyn had a school friend in Brooklyn who moved to Studio City earlier this year. Apparently, Evelyn and her pal Eden are kindred spirits who’s friendship has transcended the continental divide. Evelyn, with her blonde hair and blue eyes and Eden, with her dark hair and sweet brown eyes, make a pair like the young Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey in Beaches. Eden’s mother and grandmother chose to bring her down for a mini-break so that she and Evelyn could have a few days (including a sleep-over) at a local resort hotel in San Diego. Eden’s family is musically inclined and it was they who suggested going to the Spreckles Organ Pavilion for the Summer Festival show last night. We decided to join them as part of our mission to pick up Evelyn from her friendship rendezvous. We’ve been coming to San Diego regularly for fifteen years and have lived here full-time for six years and while both Kim and I were aware of the Spreckles Organ Pavilion and have been to Balboa Park many times, I’m not sure it ever occurred to us to attend an organ recital there. It’s such a big San Diego tradition and it is so accommodative with free admission and parking adjacent, that a summer’s evening holds few better ways to be spent than to watch the sun set and the pavilion lights rise as the majestic organ reverberates in your bones with its familiar crescendos.

It so happens that many of the organists in the Spreckles Summer Organ Festival agenda play very contemporary music to delight the local crowd. Things like Freddie Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody, George Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm, Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag, Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’, and Cole Porter’s Begin the Beguine. We got to hear from a more traditional organist and other than knowing the composer’s names like Bach and perhaps Camille Saint-Saëns, we were mostly musically lost. But its hard not to feel the power of the massive organ and be impressed by the coordinated hand and foot operation required to operate the beast. All in all, while we are not likely to go to the pavilion every week, we may think to take guests more regularly since its a resplendent way to spend a summer evening and it does make one feel more cultured and the world more special for it.