Organ Concert: Christian Schmitt And Thomas Hampson by Ravel, Brahms, Franck, Mahler, Mendelssohn, From (2022/2022), Konzerthalle, Bamberg, Germany

An organ concert to look forward to – as well as our house organist Christian Schmitt, the gifted baritone Thomas Hampson will be performing! Hampson once said in an interview: »While remaining humble towards all good music, I want above all to stir curiosity and imagination.« The programme starts with Ravel's Hebrew-inspired songs of 1914 – a liturgical chant from the synagogues and an old Yiddish folk song about the eternal riddle of existence. César Franck once declared: »My organ is an orchestra!« Accordingly, his popular organ chorale, completed in 1890, the year of his death, is more of a symphonic poem. The deeply religious Maurice Duruflé composed his 1966 Mass »Cum Jubilo« in honour of the Virgin Mary in Provence, inspired by Gregorian monastic chants, which he ingeniously combined with a modern musical idiom. Mahler's two Rückert songs of 1901 strike a high romantic tone: »Um Mitternacht« (»At midnight«) revolves around the dark night of the soul, and the most famous song »Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen« (»I have become lost to the world«) describes retreating from the »Weltgetümmel«, the »madding crowd« of the world. Mendelssohn was enthusiastically celebrated as an organist on one of his tours to England, and subsequently wrote his six magnificent organ sonatas of 1845, which are bursting with a wealth of ideas. The programme will end with some wonderful music penned by Brahms, who was not particularly religious himself, but loved to read the Bible. In 1896, he said of his »Vier ernste Gesänge« (»Four Serious Songs«): »They’re damn serious and so ungodly they could be banned by the police – if the words weren’t all in the Bible.