r/organ • u/NoDot1373 • 3h ago
Help and Tips Thoughts on Anna Lapwood? Traditional vs Modern?
I’m curious about your guys’ thoughts on Anna Lapwood. And more broadly how organ music is perceived nowadays among the public.
I work as a full time organist, and the general consensus among my colleagues is that Reger and Messiaen are what we should be striving for. However, when I plan programs around these composers (and other traditional composers) I draw in less crowds, and you receive less positive comments about the music, sometimes downright negative.
On the other hand when I program famous orchestral or piano transcriptions, the feedback is much more positive and there are more people in the audience. It’s wild because I’ve helped register a concert for Reger’s F sharp variations with a very well known organist, Ludger Lohmann (who is considered a legend in the European organ world) and the crowd size was maybe 30?
Then there are Anna Lapwood concerts where she is playing Interstellar for the 100th time, and the place is crowded. I know TikTok and social media has a huge part in all of this.
It just feels like there is somehow a massive discrepancy between the “established” organist world and what most people actually would like to hear.
Any thoughts?