Organ Concert with Violin

»It should not just fill the ear, but move the heart.« This is what Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach said about his famous father’s music – and the opening Sinfonia of the »Ratswahlkantate« BWV 29, written in 1731 by the Baroque composer, provides a splendid start to this concert. Our featured guest is a young organist who is now in high demand internationally: Sunkyung Noh from South Korea, who curated the programme together with our second concertmaster, Minkyung Sul. It spans a marvellous arc from the past to the modern era. The Renaissance work by English composer Thomas Tomkins swings between lively and contemplative music. The G minor Chaconne by Italian composer Tomaso Antonio Vitali, composed around 1745, has been arranged many times, with one of the most romantic versions created by Belgian composer Léopold Charlier in 1911. The Passacaglia from Joseph Rheinberger’s Organ Sonata No. 8, written in 1883, creates its effect through the crescendo of variations over a repeating bass line. The Korean-German composer Isang Yun created his avant-garde piece »Fragment« in 1975: It captivates with its intriguing elaborations and dynamic variations. »Fratres«, premiered in 1977 and available in many instrumentations, with its almost hypnotic thematic variations, is one of Arvo Pärt’s key works. The 1917 composition »Carillon«, one of American composer Leo Sowerby’s early works, sounds like a carillon – and the moving closing piece is the rousing finale of Louis Vierne’s last organ symphony from 1930.