Edwin H. Lemare

Toccata Di Concerto

Lemare's compositions are uneven in quality, but the best are still active in the repertoire. The Toccata di Concerto is certainly full of fireworks and has the capacity to show the abilities of a great Organ. The upper parts have plenty of French toccata style, but the theme in the pedals gives the piece substance, as does the romantic, chromatic interlude in the middle of the work.

Organ virtuoso and composer Edwin Lemare was the world's highest-paid Organist at the height of his career in the early 1900's, drawing bravos from critics and the crowds who queued around the block to hear this most famous of Organists. After having served as a church Organist for a relatively short period, he began the life of a travelling recitalist, beginning with a hundred-recital tour of the USA and Canada in 1900, a career that continued until the stock market crash of 1929. Lemare was also virtuosic in his ability to transcribe great Orchestral works for the Organ, allowing audiences in those less urban times to hear works played live that they might have heard no other way.