Inauguration concert

Participants

The organ professors Matthias Maierhofer, David Franke, Johann Vexo and Daniel Maurer will play

Program

Works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Charles-Marie Widor, Max Reger, Louis Vierne and others as well as organ improvisations

Four professors from France and Germany will play organ works in the concert hall of the College of Music Freiburg on May 31, 2024. The occasion is two new organ courses offered by the university in cooperation with Strasbourg. Pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Max Reger, César Franck and Charles-Marie Widor will be played, as well as organ improvisations in which the professors will take turns playing.

The organ recital is the inauguration concert of the two new Master's courses "Organ - Interprétation à l'orgue" and "Organ - Improvisation à l'orgue" in the Master's Music program. These were newly introduced by the College of Music Freiburg in cooperation with the Conservatoire and the University of Strasbourg for the winter semester 2023/2024(press release). It is the first practical and artistic music degree program offered by a German and a French university. Students will learn about the two most influential organ traditions in the world and gain a qualified degree in both France and Germany.

The concert offers the opportunity to get to know the very different German and French organ aesthetics, says Prof. David Franke. The organ professor at the College of Music in Freiburg, who organized the concert, compares the program to a menu: "The pieces from the French organ tradition by Charles-Marie Widor and César Franck have a fine, elegant sound with poetic melodies and refined contrasts, just like elegant French cuisine. The works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Max Reger have a full, rounded sound, as rich and satisfying as a German main course. And for dessert, we all improvise together on the concert organ."

On the organ: David Franke, Matthias Maierhofer, Johann Vexo, Daniel Maurer

Alongside David Franke, who will perform Max Reger's "Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue" (op. 57), Prof. Matthias Maierhofer from the College of Music Freiburg will play Johann Sebastian Bach's "Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor" (BWV 582). "This is a piece with North German, but also French influences, as the theme comes from the French composer André Raison," explains David Franke. Two organists from France will also be performing: Johann Vexo, professor of organ at the conservatory and at the "Académie supérieure de musique" in Strasbourg, will play "Choral No. 2 in B minor" by French composer César Franck, inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's "Passacaglia". In addition, Daniel Maurer, Professor of Organ and Organ Improvisation at the Académie Supérieure de Musique de Strasbourg, will perform two movements from the 6th Symphony by Parisian composer Charles-Marie Widor (op. 42 No. 2).

At the end of the concert, the professors take turns at the organ: they improvise one after the other and next to each other, pass notes and keys to each other, sit together briefly or play alone. "On this evening, as has been the case for centuries on the Upper Rhine, the two most important and very different organ aesthetics in the world will come together. It will be an exciting cultural journey between Germany and France for the audience," says David Franke.

In the run-up to the concert, an international master class on the historic organs of Strasbourg will also take place on Thursday, May 30, 2024, with the participation of all four professors.