Artis Wodehouse to Play 1903 Mustel Art Harmonium and 1887 Mason & Hamlin Liszt Organ

Artis Wodehouse will play her 1903 Mustel Art Harmonium and her 1887 Mason & Hamlin Liszt Reed Organ at Merkin Hall, 129 West 67th St., NYC on Monday, April 12, 2010 at 8 p.m. There will be a pre-concert lecture at 7. This will be the first time in the United States that two such keyboard instruments will share the concert platform side by side.

Wodehouse's 1887 Mason & Hamlin Liszt Reed Organ is one of the finest examples of 19th century reed organ building in America. Franz Liszt's name came to be used for this model possibly because he taught the American pianist William Mason, who also happened to be related to the family that founded the venerable Mason & Hamlin firm. The instrument is foot-pumped and operates on the suction principle, the air being drawn inward causing sets of brass reeds to sound as the keys are depressed. No body of significant music was written for the Liszt organ. Thus Wodehouse has begun a commissioning project, and the entire second half of the concert will be devoted to new music written expressly for it. Composers for the Mason & Hamlin Liszt Organ include Carson Cooman, Rachel Laurin, Thomas J. Parente.

For the first half of the program Wodehouse will play standard works written for the harmonium by Louis Vierne and Alexandre Guilmant. Like the Liszt organ, the harmonium sounds through brass reeds and is foot-pumped, but operates instead on the pressure principle like a trumpet. A sizable repertoire came to be written during the 19th C. for the harmonium, and includes composers such as Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Sibelius and many others. Distribution of the harmonium remained confined mainly to Europe, and there are very few working harmoniums in the United States. Wodehouse's Mustel Art Harmonium -- considered to be an example of the finest built during the heyday of the harmonium -- was acquired from the BBC and restored in the Netherlands.

Both of Wodehouse's instruments have undergone complete restoration and are at modern concert pitch.

Wodehouse began her work with reed organs and the harmonium in 2000 when she discovered a little 4-octave Mason & Hamlin foot-pump reed organ left out for trash. Since then, she amassed and had restored a number of representative and useful organs. Three were built by the American firm Mason & Hamlin: a Model 86K from 1916 with 16 stops, a small 49-note single manual portable from 1889 and the largest and most complex, the 1887 Mason & Hamlin Liszt Organ. Others in her collection include an Estey Artist Model Z with 16 stops (1916) and two 1950s Yamaha reed organs, a 49-note portable and an eight-stop single manual. In 2006 Wodehouse acquired a French-designed German-built double manual harmonium built in 1885 by Philippe Trayser. Wodehouse used this instrument in 2008 when she was invited to join the Mostly Mozart Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center in Schoenberg's chamber music version of Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde. This performance was broadcast nationwide and was the first time a harmonium was used with this ensemble.

In 2010 Wodehouse acquired a 1903 Mustel Art Harmonium. Mustel is considered the preeminent designer and builder of the harmonium, and the tone of the best instruments built by this firm has set the standard for all others. The Art Harmonium is a special model with expanded performance capabilities that were exploited by certain European composers who wrote for it, most notable Karg-Elert.

Admission is $15, and $10 students/seniors. The hall is wheelchair accessible. Further info: (212) 501-3317.