Steve Young at St. Anthony of Padua Church

Steve Young was our organist at Old South Union Church for many years,  and we all admired and miss him.  He moved on, but Susan and I try to get to his recitals, at which he is a master.  I believe I played with the New Bedford Symphony in this massive and imposing church, which does Italian Baroque proud. (I remember the piece was "The Huns" by Liszt, with prominent organ part;  The organ was at about A-420 or so, and the orchestra couldn't tune up to the organ.  We wound up hiring a guy on a Moog, and he couldn't count.  I don't know which could be worse.)
The organ is an older Casavant, and sounded pretty marvelous in that acoustic. Steve's recital included:
Felix Mendelssohn: Prelude and Fugue in C minor
Cesar Franck: Pastoral
Aloys Claussmann: Scherzo
Jean Langlais: Plainte
Thierry Escaich: Verset #1
Josef Rheinberger: Sonata XI
Rachel Lauren: Douze courtes Pieces
William Bolcom: Prelude on Sweet Hour of Prayer
John Weaver: Toccata

I assume this is the largest church in New Bedford.

St. Anthony of Padua Church

The stonework reminds one of Sienna.

A small organ up front, probably for smaller worship services.

The large Casavant, up a flight of 52 steps.

The concert was broadcast on a large screen near the altar. The screen flickered and blinked throughout the

performance which was pretty annoying.  One stopped looking after a while.

I asked Steve how he felt about sharing the stage with the Virgin Mary,  and he said

he was quite comfortable with it.

I've never seen a 32' flute in the pedal division before.

Like most organs of its time, it was more grand than glorious, more

glowing rather than Fiery.  But Steve did a wonderful job of letting the organ

showcase the program.  Bravo, Steve!