A successful Halloween Member’s Recital in Vancouver involves oddities and delights none can truly anticipate. It all began with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, but with the Toccata performed by James Loeffler, a very young mad-scientist. As he was finishing, out from underneath a large white cloth beside the console emerged Michael Dirk…his monster, in rather Frankenstinian glory (just in time to do the Fugue). A toddler, not quite two-years-old, was the next performer. Little Edgar Poon was dressed as Chekhov (From “Star Trek”), and was set to do a quiet improvisation. For months now, he has delighted in pressing down keys whenever sitting at an organ (and has even been at the Philadelphia Wanamaker behemoth). Father David Poon deftly crouched behind the bench (ornamenting, expanding, and creating harmony to accompany the little themes), wisely drawing the performance to a close just as a little finger seemed excited at the prospect of pushing general piston 4. Yasuko Tsuno artfully navigated through Beethoven’s opening Allegro con brio to Symphony no.5, with the help of a gigantic spider. Then gypsy Susan Ohanessian swirled through the haunting Franck Pastorale, with the page-turning assistance of her husband, taking a break from running his steam engine. David Poon returned to play Ganon’s boss music from the classic video game, Zelda: A Link to the Past…but clearly needed to pick up more heart containers, for it came to an abrupt end with him “losing his life”! Escaped convict and ne’er-do-well Sam Balden was the MC for the evening, and took a break from his poetry and seasonal history lessons to play the eerie Kyrie from Preisner’s Requiem for my Friend, and the celebrated Funeral March (by Gounod) of a Marionette (of Hitchcock fame).To conclude the evening, barbarian prince Michael Molnar (anachronistically) played Durufle’s stirring Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la Cathedrale de Soissons (say that five times fast), and Boellmann’s mighty Toccata from the well-loved Suite Gothique. Horrible seasonal jokes were delightfully given and painfully received, and a lavish reception was presented afterwards. St. Andrew’s-Wesley remains an excellent Gothic location, and the Vancouver Centre continues to get stranger and stranger each year!
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By Michael Molnar
