Remembering Lalo Schifrin, and how an organ can make a town come alive
The Argentine composer and pianist, Lalo Schifrin, will be best remembered as the creator of the syncopated, five-in-a-bar theme for Mission: Impossible, but he was much more than that. As a child in Buenos Aires, he studied piano with Enrique Barenboim (father of Daniel) and later, in Paris, composition with Olivier Messiaen. In addition to his other TV work (Mannix, Starksy & Hutch) and film scores (Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon), Schifrin composed and arranged for Dizzy Gillespie and pioneered "Jazz meets the Symphony" concerts, with which he travelled the world. He died last week, aged 93, and we remember him with an interview from 2006.This year marks 200 years of organ music in Australia, after the first instrument was brought on a convict ship to Hobart from London in 1825. Thomas Heywood is an organist based in Bendigo and speaks to Andrew about how the gold rush a few decades later lead to an influx of pipe organs in his region, changing the personalities of the towns (and seeing Bendigo dubbed "the Vienna of the south"). The Keys Of Gold festival is happening throughout July in Bendigo, Castlemaine, Maldon and Inglewood, and Thomas speaks to Andrew about programming organ repertoire for modern tastes, and his abiding love of these grand instruments.