The organ in the Christos Lambrakis Hall at the Athens Concert Hall resembles a building “a musical apartment complex,” as soloist Ourania Gassiou describes it. At first, only a tiny light illuminated its four keyboards, while faint notes of Bach’s “Passacaglia and Fugue” emerged from its massive pipes. But step inside – unlock a side door, venture beneath its three hidden tiers – and this mighty colossus becomes tactile. Its sound passes through 6,080 pipes, ranging in size from mere millimeters to nearly 5 meters. Unlike the piano, Gassiou explains, the organ has infinite voices. Its levers, or registers, breathe life into sounds that might evoke trumpets, flutes, or a wholly unique melody: an orchestra at your fingertips. During her December 23 recital, Gassiou’s selections bridge Bach, and Hans Zimmer’s “Interstellar” as well as Handel, Corelli and others, showcasing both the organ’s range and her own versatility. “What made me fall in love with it is the freedom of choice you have over how everything will sound. You could say it’s like making your own orchestrations,” she says. It’s a craft that requires hours of rehearsal, a memory bank of registers, and the deft mastery of all four limbs. [Nikos Kokkalias]
