I attended only one concert by Virgil, around 1973...and I will tell you, when he played Bach's "Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor'" I felt like I was floating about 2 feet above the floor. And the astounding light show by Revelation Lights just added so much. Audio and visual stimulation like that was just amazing. I have several of his albums, including his "Heavy Organ" at the Fillmore East.
Growing up, I listened to a lot of organ music. My mother had been a church organist, and my father, also a musician, had a lot of organ records. We listened mostly to two polar opposites: E. Power Biggs and Virgil Fox. I later discovered that people tended to side rather passionately with one or the other, but I loved them both for what they each brought to the table, and I still listen to them both frequently. Thank you for sharing this!
Virgil lays bare to share with all,,his real character, a man unique and a servant of God, so undeserving of those who have so maligned this unique man, truly the greatest organist of the 20th century.
Always respected and enjoyed Virgil's take on music...he was a MASTER. I'd hear him at National City Christian (DOC) Church in DC. It was first-come-first-served in those days. No charge for tickets. What an amazing man he was. God Rest Your Soul Virgil, RIP and Rise in Glory! Amen.
Everything Virgil said about the young chap he spoke with at the Filmore is the same as my experience. I was an aimless pot head hack musician in a rock band when I chanced to discover the Filmore albums. I was fascinated and completely ignorant of classical music. This new interest led me to attend a Fox concert in South Bend IN., around 1973. I was like that young chap. I met Virgil and shook his hand. It was not profound and it was not cinematic, but I knew that moment that something had to change. I began the serious study of piano, and took a music degree from Indiana University and Belmont U in Nashville. I went on to play and record three albums with the Christian rock group, Petra. I am writing this to say thank you, Virgil and I thank God for his grace. I know exactly what Virgil means when he speaks of "Bach's music coming straight from the lap of God".
My great Aunt followed Virgil to wherever he was concertizing! She was clever in that she befriended Virgils Mother and thru that friendship, kept track of where he would be!., I drove her down to the LA area and that was my first meeting of several to follow! When I was in college in S.F. He played at Winterland so a friend and I went!! Spectacular concert. Everyone rushed up to the stage after to get a moment of his time. We were back six or seven rows deep and I decided we should just leave but on an impulse I shouted out my Aunts name and our town and that she sends her regards! Somehow, he heard and recognized her name and spotted me waving us to the side stage door where eventually we were admitted and shortly after Virgil came over and actually remembered me from that L.A. concert several years ago!!! My Aunt said that when Virgil was talking with you, you felt like you were the only person in his world at that time! He took a good five minutes asking about my aunt, my college etc. i am fortunate to have several of his record albums autographed to me! I attended a couple of his other concerts over the years when I could! BTW, he brought the house down as he kept going up the scale at the end of the piece with yet another higher cord and another and another and when he ran out of fingers, he played that last highest note with his foot!!!., The place went wild!
This newly released video is an inspiration! What a tremendous thing to listen to Virgil and Reverend Robert Schuller discuss the role music plays in uplifting our spiritual lives. Virgil’s performance of Bach’s “Come Sweetest Death” is captured very effectively. And it’s followed by a second conversation with Reverend Schuller discussing his European concert tour of Russia, the Thomaskirche in Leipzig and concludes with his description of the design of the new Crystal Cathedral organ. And then a performance of the Boelmann “Tocatta”. Thank you for sharing!
As a teenager, wild about the organ, I was able to attend 3 recitals by Virgil Fox, and met him twice. There was and will likely never be a level talent such as his. He was a prodigy, and had the ability to connect with his audience like nobody else in the organ world. Not knowing it at the time, I attended his last solo recital in Ocean Grove, NJ. Though heavily under the curse of cancer (as am I, stage 4 as I write this), he rose to the occasion as he always did. Not something that can be experienced fully through recordings alone.
I thought it was strange that Virgil always wore a cape! When I asked him why, he said when he was done with a concert, he was often perspiring and many times at the reception after, he could get stuck greeting those fans near an open door or window which could lead to him getting a cold! Makes perfect sense! What a talented showman he was! I call him the Liberace of the pipe organ!!!
I was not lucky enough to have any serious interest in organ music while Virgil Fox was alive. But it was an album of music performed by Virgil Fox, along with an unplanned visit to the inner workings of a pipe organ that piqued an interest that has come to dominate my life. Virgil Fox took on the organ project at the Crystal Cathedral, but died of cancer just short of its completion. But so motivated by the project he was, that doctors say it extended his life by six months. I finally got to hear this organ for myself, on a particularly fateful day-- the day that Dr. Schuller announced his resignation! (This was not planned or expected when a good friend and I attended what we thought would be a routine Sunday morning service.) The thing that I learned from these shows is how much of a Man of God Virgil Fox was, and this has created for me an all new level of respect. His performance of "Come Sweet Death" was indeed amazing. And his performance of the Toccata from Boellman's Suite Gothique-- a piece of music I am intimately familiar with-- sets a new standard for other performers to meet. You can see Mr. Fox smiling as he is performing! In any case, I am sure that Bach and Virgil Fox have played some great heavenly organ together for our King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
In 1957 Virgil Fox recorded a record and performed a couple of Sunday afternoon concerts at my home Lutheran Church in Chicago. I wish I could find that record today.
He wanted desperately to dedicate the final installment of the organ in the garden grove church. Sadly he died before he could achieve it. His passion for his music was unequaled in the organ. He was probably born in the wrong era but tried his best to reach the youth and knew that they are our only future.
Thank you so much for bringing this video to the Organ and Virgil Fox-loving public. What a Master he was and knew his profession like none other. It's always a treat to hear him play and to speak. Thank you for this video.
I saw him at ambler and did the right up for the evening bulletin ps can you send me more info on his videos and DVD if you have any or a copy thankyou
@@Lu2ar - Thank you for your reply but as I'm in Australia I never got to see or hear Virgil Fox perform live. As a result I'm unable to assist you, sorry.
Ha Ha! I love that Magician, I met Mr. Fox some 40 years ago in the Elevator between Concert pieces. CCM, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. His immaculate technique, and dazzling pedals were on full display for the dedication of a new Organ in Watson Recital Hall. Attended by all the faculty, some of them left in protest of the "pure" Bach interpretation, while I was just mesmerized.
I loved Dr Robert Schuller. His message led me to Christ in the 1970’s. I loved the original Neutra sanctuary you see in this video with the “Drive in/Walk in Church. I am so sorry that his old sermons and Hour of Powers are not available on You Tube. Seems that all got lost in the family feud that destroyed his Crystal Cathedral.
E power Biggs was better - at least he respected the musical sensibilities of the composers for the organ and respected the instruments/stylistic considerations they worked with. Fox turned organ performance into a pantomime performance!
@@MrMarcvus LOL, Fox described snobs like you: "And imagine that you could put all the music on one side of the agenda with his great interpretation and great feeling and put the greatest man of all right up on top of a dusty shelf underneath some glass case in a museum and say that he must not be interpreted! They're full of you-know-what and they're so untalented that they have to hide behind this thing because they couldn't get in the house of music any other way!"
Virgil had a hand in creating the specs for the subsequent Hazel Wright organ in the Cathedral. A master of improv…..and playing complicated works from memory. He has no equal!
This is the piece that launched his early career in 1939. It was based upon an orchestral transcription of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Virgil appeared once on the Cavett show, with the organ, and did a little demonstration. Cavett was his usual full of himself condescension and insulted Virgil, the organ world and classical music in general. I never again watched a second of him anywhere.
I saw Virgil Fox in concert in Rockford, Illinois. What a heart and soul-inspiring experience. I always loved Pipe Organs. Particularly Heavy Organs. I still enjoy his work. I learned organically from Paul E. Waters. I am blessed.
And THAT is supposed to be a good thing? The man died in the 1980's, before it became the Fascist Party. Care to disagree with the facts? Even I was a republican before I figured them out.
Thank-you for making this valuable and historic recording available to those of us who treasure the art and virtuosity of the inimitable VIRGIL FOX!
I attended only one concert by Virgil, around 1973...and I will tell you, when he played Bach's "Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor'" I felt like I was floating about 2 feet above the floor. And the astounding light show by Revelation Lights just added so much. Audio and visual stimulation like that was just amazing. I have several of his albums, including his "Heavy Organ" at the Fillmore East.
Thanks John
I saw him at Wolf Trap in Virginia, felt same effect.
Growing up, I listened to a lot of organ music. My mother had been a church organist, and my father, also a musician, had a lot of organ records. We listened mostly to two polar opposites: E. Power Biggs and Virgil Fox. I later discovered that people tended to side rather passionately with one or the other, but I loved them both for what they each brought to the table, and I still listen to them both frequently. Thank you for sharing this!
Virgil lays bare to share with all,,his real character, a man unique and a servant of God, so undeserving of those who have so maligned this unique man, truly the greatest organist of the 20th century.
Amen to that, David. How have you been since I last corresponded with you years ago?
Thank you, David!
He worked so hard and gave us as youngsters, so much joy!
I would say one of the top 2 including Albert Schweitzer for whom we probably would not have been introduced to Bach's organ works.
Always respected and enjoyed Virgil's take on music...he was a MASTER. I'd hear him at National City Christian (DOC) Church in DC. It was first-come-first-served in those days. No charge for tickets. What an amazing man he was. God Rest Your Soul Virgil, RIP and Rise in Glory! Amen.
Everything Virgil said about the young chap he spoke with at the Filmore is the same as my experience. I was an aimless pot head hack musician in a rock band when I chanced to discover the Filmore albums. I was fascinated and completely ignorant of classical music. This new interest led me to attend a Fox concert in South Bend IN., around 1973. I was like that young chap. I met Virgil and shook his hand. It was not profound and it was not cinematic, but I knew that moment that something had to change. I began the serious study of piano, and took a music degree from Indiana University and Belmont U in Nashville. I went on to play and record three albums with the Christian rock group, Petra. I am writing this to say thank you, Virgil and I thank God for his grace. I know exactly what Virgil means when he speaks of "Bach's music coming straight from the lap of God".
Virgil Fox. Great artist! Spectacular music!
Was a big thrill to hear him perform live. He's one of the reasons I continued my organ studies becoming organist at several churches.
My great Aunt followed Virgil to wherever he was concertizing! She was clever in that she befriended Virgils Mother and thru that friendship, kept track of where he would be!., I drove her down to the LA area and that was my first meeting of several to follow! When I was in college in S.F. He played at Winterland so a friend and I went!! Spectacular concert. Everyone rushed up to the stage after to get a moment of his time. We were back six or seven rows deep and I decided we should just leave but on an impulse I shouted out my Aunts name and our town and that she sends her regards! Somehow, he heard and recognized her name and spotted me waving us to the side stage door where eventually we were admitted and shortly after Virgil came over and actually remembered me from that L.A. concert several years ago!!! My Aunt said that when Virgil was talking with you, you felt like you were the only person in his world at that time! He took a good five minutes asking about my aunt, my college etc. i am fortunate to have several of his record albums autographed to me! I attended a couple of his other concerts over the years when I could! BTW, he brought the house down as he kept going up the scale at the end of the piece with yet another higher cord and another and another and when he ran out of fingers, he played that last highest note with his foot!!!., The place went wild!
This newly released video is an inspiration! What a tremendous thing to listen to Virgil and Reverend Robert Schuller discuss the role music plays in uplifting our spiritual lives. Virgil’s performance of Bach’s “Come Sweetest Death” is captured very effectively. And it’s followed by a second conversation with Reverend Schuller discussing his European concert tour of Russia, the Thomaskirche in Leipzig and concludes with his description of the design of the new Crystal Cathedral organ. And then a performance of the Boelmann “Tocatta”. Thank you for sharing!
Scott Brothers
As a teenager, wild about the organ, I was able to attend 3 recitals by Virgil Fox, and met him twice. There was and will likely never be a level talent such as his. He was a prodigy, and had the ability to connect with his audience like nobody else in the organ world. Not knowing it at the time, I attended his last solo recital in Ocean Grove, NJ. Though heavily under the curse of cancer (as am I, stage 4 as I write this), he rose to the occasion as he always did. Not something that can be experienced fully through recordings alone.
I thought it was strange that Virgil always wore a cape! When I asked him why, he said when he was done with a concert, he was often perspiring and many times at the reception after, he could get stuck greeting those fans near an open door or window which could lead to him getting a cold! Makes perfect sense! What a talented showman he was! I call him the Liberace of the pipe organ!!!
I was not lucky enough to have any serious interest in organ music while Virgil Fox was alive. But it was an album of music performed by Virgil Fox, along with an unplanned visit to the inner workings of a pipe organ that piqued an interest that has come to dominate my life. Virgil Fox took on the organ project at the Crystal Cathedral, but died of cancer just short of its completion. But so motivated by the project he was, that doctors say it extended his life by six months. I finally got to hear this organ for myself, on a particularly fateful day-- the day that Dr. Schuller announced his resignation! (This was not planned or expected when a good friend and I attended what we thought would be a routine Sunday morning service.) The thing that I learned from these shows is how much of a Man of God Virgil Fox was, and this has created for me an all new level of respect. His performance of "Come Sweet Death" was indeed amazing. And his performance of the Toccata from Boellman's Suite Gothique-- a piece of music I am intimately familiar with-- sets a new standard for other performers to meet. You can see Mr. Fox smiling as he is performing! In any case, I am sure that Bach and Virgil Fox have played some great heavenly organ together for our King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
I love these guys, their ideas and dreams were big and bold!!
In 1957 Virgil Fox recorded a record and performed a couple of Sunday afternoon concerts at my home Lutheran Church in Chicago.
I wish I could find that record today.
He wanted desperately to dedicate the final installment of the organ in the garden grove church. Sadly he died before he could achieve it. His passion for his music was unequaled in the organ. He was probably born in the wrong era but tried his best to reach the youth and knew that they are our only future.
My late friend Andy Crow used to travel with Virgil when he toured with the Rodgers organ. Heard all sorts of stories 😂
Thank you so much for bringing this video to the Organ and Virgil Fox-loving public. What a Master he was and knew his profession like none other. It's always a treat to hear him play and to speak. Thank you for this video.
What is the name of the video
I saw him at ambler and did the right up for the evening bulletin ps can you send me more info on his videos and DVD if you have any or a copy thankyou
@@Lu2ar - Thank you for your reply but as I'm in Australia I never got to see or hear Virgil Fox perform live. As a result I'm unable to assist you, sorry.
Ha Ha! I love that Magician, I met Mr. Fox some 40 years ago in the Elevator between Concert pieces. CCM, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. His immaculate technique, and dazzling pedals were on full display for the dedication of a new Organ in Watson Recital Hall. Attended by all the faculty, some of them left in protest of the "pure" Bach interpretation, while I was just mesmerized.
I loved Dr Robert Schuller. His message led me to Christ in the 1970’s. I loved the original Neutra sanctuary you see in this video with the “Drive in/Walk in Church. I am so sorry that his old sermons and Hour of Powers are not available on You Tube. Seems that all got lost in the family feud that destroyed his Crystal Cathedral.
Well they are becoming available now
THE GREATEST ORGANIST THAT EVER LIVED!
E power Biggs was better - at least he respected the musical sensibilities of the composers for the organ and respected the instruments/stylistic considerations they worked with. Fox turned organ performance into a pantomime performance!
@@MrMarcvus LOL, Fox described snobs like you: "And imagine that you could put all the music on one side of the agenda with his great interpretation and great feeling and put the greatest man of all right up on top of a dusty shelf underneath some glass case in a museum and say that he must not be interpreted! They're full of you-know-what and they're so untalented that they have to hide behind this thing because they couldn't get in the house of music any other way!"
music starts aat 11:53. your welcome.
i was familiar with e. power biggs before is knew about fox.
Virgil had a hand in creating the specs for the subsequent Hazel Wright organ in the Cathedral. A master of improv…..and playing complicated works from memory. He has no equal!
Wonderful man wish I could have met him.
Me too!
What a gentleman.❤️🙏
to David Snyder: Bach most likely had his detractors as well. Criticism of greatness makes those criticizing feel somehow connected to it.
Virgil was speaking of his OWN death as well, which he knew was fast coming.
By this time, Virgil was very ill, and didn't live for much longer.
Tacky solicitation.
quite the showman.
12.000 pipes.... My goodness!
I was told that some of today’s pipe organs are bigger than that.
Ambassador Fox
Is that Mrs. Hazel Wright sitting up there?
@bombarde1701@: According to what I heard, the Haze Wright organ was in the new church (The Crystal Cathedral) that was completed in the early 1980s
I miss him in the worst way I honestly believe he was Bach reincarnated. He had the heart and soul. Hard at times not to get emotional.
This is the piece that launched his early career in 1939. It was based upon an orchestral transcription of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Where is the audio, I want to HEAR the music!!??
I always can’t help but think that he is partly black. Amazing organist.
A while since I’ve heard such a load of old drivel. Great entertainer but completely unhinged. The Liberace of the organ.
I have that disc. But, mine is conventional black. It’s still a knock out disc.
At first glance I thought Virgil was appearing on the Dick Cavett show... :)
He did once. see above
Maestro Fox was the guv’nor!
I noticed a brief clip of the Dick Cavett Show. Is that an Easter egg? Thank you for posting these rare recordings!!!!
Virgil appeared once on the Cavett show, with the organ, and did a little demonstration. Cavett was his usual full of himself condescension and insulted Virgil, the organ world and classical music in general. I never again watched a second of him anywhere.
This is a long way from Baroque music
When was this recorded?
I'm just curious did Sebastian Bach die in 1750 or is that not correct just curious.
If this is by Bach, it seems to me a good example of him exstemperising. I can just imagine him sitting at the organ, feeling for the next chord
I saw Virgil Fox in concert in Rockford, Illinois. What a heart and soul-inspiring experience. I always loved Pipe Organs. Particularly Heavy Organs. I still enjoy his work. I learned organically from Paul E. Waters. I am blessed.
As Virgil once said,,"I see no problem touching the man next to you" lol,,, He's gayer than i am, ha ha,,, i had a chance to meet him , very nice guy
Virgil Fox was so long-winded he could have supplied the air to the entire organ.
Vox Celeste stop
Virgil was a TRUE conservative REPUBLICAN!
And THAT is supposed to be a good thing? The man died in the 1980's, before it became the Fascist Party. Care to disagree with the facts? Even I was a republican before I figured them out.
I am of the belief that he was largely apolitical. He had no time for political nonsense.
meh
So much, TOO much, emphasis on lauding organs, buildings, a world-famous organist, and worldly things. The antithesis of what worship really is.
Il a franchement l'air ridicule avec sa tenue de cosmonaute, en plus il souri toujours en parlant.
Quand on a rien de bon à écrire, on s’abstient.
These dudes are creepy as all get out.
Such a Trumpian introduction