Paul Jacobs: How can one be an artist and be a pessimist?

WETA radio in Washington, DC recently sat down for a short conversation with world-renowned organist Paul Jacobs, chairman of the organ department at the Juilliard School in Manhattan. In this short interview, Jacobs fearlessly discusses a number of subjects, including the need to adapt one's playing to the instrument at hand, and the infamous tendency of many organists to play in rather unimaginative fashion. Also discussed are his recent performance in Philadelphia of Samuel Barber's Prelude and Fugue in B Minor, newly-rediscovered by New York musicologist Barbara Heyman, as well as his famous marathon concerts of J.S. Bach and Olivier Messiaen--probably the two greatest composers to have written for the organ so far. Take a listen.