EUGENE, ORE. —A surprise Bach fugue popped up in the middle of the Oregon Bach Festival’s serious symphonic organ program on July 11. Unscripted, amid a sophisticated night of two world premieres, Bach Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543 sent the audience soaring into Bach-adoration.

“Organ Symphony with Paul Jacobs” unfolded at the Hult Center’s Silva Concert Hall, only partly full, but what the heck. The 2,448-seat Silva is huge, almost as vast as Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. With all its warm wood and panels, the Silva has far better acoustics than the Schnitzer, though the comparison is a stretch; the Schnitzer doesn’t win any prizes for its sound properties.

World-renowned organ virtuoso Paul Jacobs, 47, pulled the jubilant fugue out of his skillful hands (and feet), no score required, after playing two world premieres: Damien Geter’s Prelude and Fugue (and Riffs, too) and contemporary composer Lowell Liebermann’s 30-minute, four-movement, often lyrical but always challenging Organ Concerto, Op. 141.

Geter’s piece is a transcription of J.S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 2 in C Minor from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1. OBF instituted a plan to commission orchestral transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s keyboard works, and Geter’s—the multi-talented composer and bass-baritone has Portland roots as artistic advisor to Portland Opera and the Resonance Ensemble—was the first. This nine-minute piece used OBF’s 100-strong Modern Orchestra to produce bold jazz-infused sounds that put even more power into the Bach repertoire. Florida’s Jacksonville Symphony, co-commissioner of the piece, will play it Sept. 29.

Gemma New, the 37-year-old New Zealand phenom, conducted, and she drew the most out of the full orchestra throughout the program. Winner of the 2021 Sir George Solti Conducting Award and a second-year OBF vet (she conducted Sea Symphony in 2023), she stretched her arms, birdlike, over the stage to include every instrumentalist and moved gracefully and forcefully to each change of pace and mood. She is as much fun to watch as Jacobs, who by the way had his back to the audience.

I would have preferred at least seeing him and the organ in profile, and I think he could have followed conductor New just as well as he did in his orchestra-facing position. But New and Jacobs know what they are doing, so they must have had their reasons for that position. 

The official word from OBF is that a lot of thought was put into the positioning of Jacob and the organ. OBF smartly installed for the program’s first pieces two onstage screens that showed Jacobs’ coordinated fancy footwork and multi-keyboard handiwork. The screens went dark after intermission because the organ was more fully a part of the orchestra in the final piece, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78, “Organ” than it was for the premieres.

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The 19th-century French composer himself played the organ, so his symphony was a fitting end to the two-hour concert, which included a 20-minute intermission. The 36-minute two-movement piece went from somber to majestic, and the orchestra and organist went with the flow, though the organ didn’t stand out as it did in the previous pieces. The symphony’s theme was adapted in the 1977 pop song, “If I Had Words,” featured in the pig lullaby in the movie, Babe. Who knows what the conservative French composer would have said. You never know where music is going to migrate.

The audience stood and thunderously clapped for the final Saint-Saëns’ piece, though perhaps they were responding to the entire excellent program. I preferred the contemporary premieres, and the off-the-cuff Bach fugue. It is such a treat to hear Bach brought up to date, as much as I love his irrefutably beautiful and everlasting 18th-century work. But OBF knows that it has to evolve with tastes and times to keep audiences interested.

Another word about Jacobs, who has headed up the organ program at Juilliard for 20 years and OBF’s elite Organ Institute for the last decade. He’s the guy who played Bach’s complete organ works for 18 hours in 2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death. Jacobs was 23 years old at the time, and since then–or maybe before–he has argued that the organ needs to reclaim a position in symphonic music.

If you witness Jacobs play— as he pulled out stops and pumped swell pedals on the “king of instruments”—you realize you are listening to the reigning king of organ. Organists say that the speed of note-striking and number of notes played are not the most important aspects of a well played organ. Rather, adding layers of color, majesty and power are the keys to a well-played and respected organ. Jacobs does it all.