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What a delicious delight, for the ears and the palate, occurred Friday night on the Concerts at First Presbyterian Saginaw program.
The guests for the evening call themselves Organized Rhythm -- a pairing of percussionist Joseph Gramley from the University of Michigan and organist Clive Driskill-Smith from the University of Oxford in England.
First let it be said that percussion in Gramley's hands does not mean loud and percussive. He was often, in the concert, the soft and mellow sound -- on his vibraphone in Bach's "Jesu," on the marimba in Creston's relaxing "Meditation" and in his multi-instrument solo evoking the sounds of the ocean in a brand new piece, "(Cycles) America" by Japanese composer Umezaki.
Everything was a surprise on their program; new musical experiences all even with old standards like Holst's "Jupiter" from the "The Planets" and Saint-Saens "The Carnival of the Animals."
Holst's superb piece was receiving its first performance of the Gramley/Driskill-Smith arrangement and found Gramley's sheet music flying as he played timpani, marimba, cymbals and glockenspiel -- his crash of the cymbals matching Driskill-Smith's on the organ.
In their "Carnival" arrangement, we got a reading of the Ogden Nash poems before each piece, which totally enhanced the work. "The Aquarium" was full of lush sounds from both men and "The Cuckoo in the deep woods" sported a lovely distant and deep sound on the organ with Gramley's sole sound a cuckoo.
And in the new "(Cycles) America," recorded sounds of ocean waves and an old gramophone recording of Walt Whitman reading "America" mixed with Gramley playing strains of Dvorak's "New World Symphony" in a totally unique and enjoyable piece.
As for the palate part, First Presbyterian volunteers put out an impressive English tea spread -- all made from scratch, we were told -- for a post-concert reception that was very, very civilized from table decorations to elegant tea service to the finger and cucumber sandwiches, cookies and clotted cream.
Jolly good evening.
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