Organ recital

An organ recital is a concert at which music specially written for the organ is played.

The music played at such recitals was typically written for pipe organ, which includes church organs, and symphonic organs (also known as concert organs). However restoration of theatre and cinema organs (such as the Wurlitzers) allows performances of many pieces that can only be played on theatre organs.

Recitals appear to have arisen from playing before and after religious services. In 19th-century synagogues, organs appeared before their use in services was allowed; instead their purpose was to give concerts before the sundown Shabat service. Sweelinck's duties included the giving of extra-liturgical concerts in Amsterdam's Oude Kerk.

Pipe organs are not, in general, portable instruments. The venues for organ recitals using those instruments are thus the churches, theatres, or halls where the organs are housed. Some instruments of about a century ago were built to be listened to while strolling, such as those at the Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia or the museum of San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor, which is not heard to best advantage from any one spot.

However, with some organs the console is portable to a limited extent (such as, for example, being attached to a platform that can be raised or lowered, which is often the case for theatre organs, but less often the case for church organs, with some exception, like the Crystal Cathedral organ in California. Where this is the case, the console is moved for the recital so that the audience can see the organist playing.

The Wanamaker Organ is played twice daily, Monday through Saturday, free of charge, for patrons and those who visit Macy's Department Store in the Wanamaker Building in Philadelphia. The Grand Court Organist is Peter Richard Conte, and when he is touring, assistant organists perform to ensure the organ is played every day.

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