Arts - Organ concert goes Bach to Bock - Organ concert goes Bach to Bock

    “Bach to Bock” was the title coined by musician and Webber-Camden resident Richard Balkus for his recital March 11 on the newly rebuilt pipe organ at Elim Lutheran Church in Robbinsdale. If Dick Balkus had said “Back to Bach,” I would have understood without further explanation what he intended to play, but I had never heard of the organist and composer Fred Bock. Being the educator, Dick Balkus, a retired public school teacher, did a magnificent job introducing us to the late Fred Bock and his hymn arrangements, as well as reintroducing us to J. S. Bach.

    Nevertheless true to his prodigious musical talent, Richard Balkus did very little talking but did a lot of fantastic organ playing. He played preludes and fugues, chorales and hymns, both the ancient ones by Bach and the modern compositions and arrangements by Bock. Part of the concert was on piano and part on pipe organ.

    The occasion for the Balkus concert was the rededication of the newly repaired and updated 33-rank Moeller organ. All the reed pipes got re-voiced; swell organ damper motors were replaced; a new set of bells was installed; and some electronic “pipes” were added. The most functional upgrade was to replace the old relay switching with a new digital and instantaneous electronic system to transfer the notes and control signals from the organ console to operate the ranks of pipes.

    I fully enjoy the music performed by Dick Balkus, not only in his all too rare concerts, but also on Sunday mornings. Balkus is very creative with his own preludes to hymns. As a keyboardist, he reads most of his music score flawlessly. On longer pieces, he makes use of his well-practiced daughter Brenna’s help turning pages. With clever footwork on the pedal manual, Dick creates sounds so deep I’d swear a truck was rumbling by along old West Broadway!