Organist Charles Rus

CHARLES RUS PLAYS ORGAN RECITAL AT CHURCH OF THE INCARNATION

In a recital sponsored by the Sonoma County Bach Society organist Charles Rus played an elegant and provocative concert May 14 in Santa Rosa’s Church of the Incarnation. Mr. Rus responded to the Casavant organ with deft registrations and powerful interpretations, drawing a number of North Bay organists to the audience of 50. Commentary was brisk and largely positive:

Harold Julander: Mr. Rus offered a well-balanced selection of pieces from the German Baroque from the “Stylus Fantasticus” of the opening Bruns piece to the highly figurative and inventive variations of Boehm, to of course the well developed use of pedal division in the Bach works. Registrations were drawn from the French style Casavant organ to be as true to the Baroque period as possible. However, I must admit that Mr. Rus’s registration changes were strange in several of the pieces (e. g., the G Minor Fugue and the Bach Chorale), at least in the light of current understanding.

Otherwise the choices of registration I found interesting from a listener’s standpoint, and as an organist I don’t have the opportunity to take in different stop selections and their effects and in general another artist’s creativity. I thought that in the Boehm Variations Mr. Rus chose interesting and effective registrations.

Beth Zucchino: It was a superb composition and a moving performance, including all aspects of interpretation (ornamentation, registration) and the interspersing from a hymn “Lord Jesus Christ, be present now” to correlate with the composer’s intention.

David Parsons – One of my favorite Bach fugues is the F Major which Mr. Rus closed the program. It was wonderful to hear such a triumphant double fugue at the end of an exciting recital. However, I was mystified at the registration changes Mr. Rus employed throughout the Toccata and Fugue, and perplexed by his constant registration shifts in many places, especially in the profound chorale prelude “Vor Deinen Thron”. If it is possible to find a beautiful cantus firmus registration for a chorale, standard practice states that you should stick with that registration, and you do not change it over the course of a piece. Even old Virgil Fox knew that! But Mr. Rus’ energy and charming personality count for a lot, and he made the most off the colors of the instrument.

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