When the Philadelphia Orchestra got a magnificent new concert organ in 1960, Samuel Barber was engaged to write a bravura piece for the dedication concert. The enormous instrument--at that time one of the world's largest organs--was the gift of the philanthropist Marty Curtis Bok, and she personally commissioned Barber to write the dedication piece. Bok and Barber had a long history together--as a 14-year-old, Barber had been one of the first students at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, which Bok had founded. For his part, Barber had a lifelong interest in the organ. He had started his professional career at age 12 as an organist.. Though there are a few early unpublished organ pieces, it was not until 1958 that he published his first solo organ work, Wondrous Love, Variations on a Shape-Note Hymn. The Toccata Festiva is a much more ambitious piece, using the full sound resources of the orchestra and of a large, powerful concert organ.Barber begins with a forceful passage for...