Organ matinee In memory of Jean Guillou

Organ matinee with Ulf Norberg

Through Konserthuset’s popular organ matinée subscription, audiences get to hear Sweden’s leading organists play the building’s organ – one of the largest in Europe, with 6,100 pipes. The season's first organ matinee features Konserthuset's own organist, Ulf Norberg. He is also responsible for curating the entire series and is passionate about presenting the vast organ repertoire to a wide audience. Ulf Norberg is also the organist at Hedvig Eleonora Church in Östermalm in Stocholm.We hear his own arrangement of Clara Schumann's Bach-influenced Prelude and fugue from opus 16, originally for piano, and two well-known Gershwin songs. Organist and composer Anders Börjesson's Fantasy Variations on the Ukrainian National Anthem is a tribute to Ukraine. (Börjesson himself will participate in the organ matinee on February 20). To conclude, Norberg performs music by Prokofiev: the hyper-virtuosic Toccata and the famous march from the opera The Love for Three Oranges.***You are welcome to eat or drink something before or after the organ concert. The bar in the Main Foyer is open at 11.45–12.15 and 13.15–14.15, offering a variety of delicious food and drinks in our beautiful surroundings.

Organ matinee with Johannes Landgren

Through Konserthuset’s popular organ matinée subscription, audiences get to hear Sweden’s leading organists play the building’s organ – one of the largest in Europe, with 6,100 pipes. Johannes Landgren has served as a professor and acting vice-chancellor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, as well as in the leadership of the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts at the University of Gothenburg. Now based in Mölndal and Gothenburg, he works as a freelance musician and conductor. Landgren has toured internationally and has recorded nearly 40 CDs across a wide range of genres.Here, he performs his own compositions Hommage à Duke Ellington and Organ Fantasy on Hymn No. 325: In hope my saved soul rejoices. Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor pays tribute to a Dutch colleague, where Bach uses an old Dutch folk melody. We also hear music by Czech composer Petr Eben, Swedish composer Elfrida Andrée, and Scottish composer Thea Musgrave – who was the focus of the International Composer Festival at Konserthuset in 2018.***You are welcome to eat or drink something before or after the organ concert. The bar in the Main Foyer is open at 11.45–12.15 and 13.15–14.15, offering a variety of delicious food and drinks in our beautiful surroundings.

Organ matinee with Ligita Sneibe

Through Konserthuset’s popular organ matinée subscription, audiences get to hear Sweden’s leading organists play the building’s organ – one of the largest in Europe, with 6,100 pipes. Latvian Ligita Sneibe is trained as an organist and composer at the Music Academy in Riga, and also holds an organ diploma from the School of Music in Piteå. She has performed around the world but is now most active in Sweden and Latvia, where she often plays on the famous Walcker organ in Riga Cathedral.Ligita Sneibe begins with music from 2023 by her compatriot Indra Riše: excerpts from Natura siderum, or The Nature of Stars. It's about music inspired by human psychological traits according to the zodiac signs. Three of the twelve parts are composed for organ solo: Libra, Capricorn, and Leo.We also hear Bach's magnificent and virtuosic Toccata and Fugue in F major and finally music by Naji Hakim, Chant de Joie – Song of Joy. Hakim was born in Beirut but is active in Paris, where he succeeded Olivier Messiaen as organist at Trinité Church some 30 years ago.***You are welcome to eat or drink something before or after the organ concert. The bar in the Main Foyer is open at 11.45–12.15 and 13.15–14.15, offering a variety of delicious food and drinks in our beautiful surroundings.

Organ matinee with Tobias Olofsson

Through Konserthuset’s popular organ matinée subscription, audiences get to hear Sweden’s leading organists play the building’s organ – one of the largest in Europe, with 6,100 pipes. Tobias Olofsson has been working as an organist in Nylöse parish in Gothenburg since 2003, where he also obtained his organist degree from the Academy of Music and Drama. Olofsson regularly performs concerts as an organ soloist, as well as in collaboration with symphony orchestras. He is also active as a pianist, accompanist, and arranger.He begins with Prelude and Fugue in A minor, one of Bach's most beloved and performed organ works. It features explosive drama and breathtaking virtuosity, with the fugue possessing an almost dance-like character. We also hear music by Elfrida Andrée, a pioneering figure in Swedish music. Andrée composed a series of works for organ, including the evocative and melodic Cantilena.As a contrast, Tobias Olofsson plays well-known themes from Star Wars and Piazzolla's evocative Oblivion and Libertango. He concludes with his own piece titled Improvisation, Passacaglia and Fugue in G minor.***You are welcome to eat or drink something before or after the organ concert. The bar in the Main Foyer is open at 11.45–12.15 and 13.15–14.15, offering a variety of delicious food and drinks in our beautiful surroundings.

Organ matinee with Anders S Börjesson

Through Konserthuset’s popular organ matinée subscription, audiences get to hear Sweden’s leading organists play the building’s organ – one of the largest in Europe, with 6,100 pipes. Anders S. Börjesson has been the organist at Mariestad Cathedral since 2011, where he gives organ concerts every week. He was trained in Gothenburg by Mikael Wahlin, but also in Paris by Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin, organist at Saint-Sulpice, one of Paris's largest churches.Börjesson is also a composer, and we will hear his Paraphrase on Alice Tegnér's The Squirrel Sits in the Spruce Tree and Chorale Treatments. Additionally, well-known rock songs by the bands Metallica and Queen arranged for organ. The concert opens with Canadian Rachel Laurin's (born in 1961) both evocative and dramatic Prelude and Fugue, and we also get to hear the captivating March in C major by Frenchman Louis Lefébure-Wély (1817–1870).***You are welcome to eat or drink something before or after the organ concert. The bar in the Main Foyer is open at 11.45–12.15 and 13.15–14.15, offering a variety of delicious food and drinks in our beautiful surroundings.

Organ matinee Thomas Ospital and Emmanuel Pahud

Both create music through the flow of air, and yet they could hardly be more different: the powerful, large organ and the intimate, modest flute. In this concert, Thomas Ospital, organist of St Eustache Church in Paris, and Emmanuel Pahud, principal flautist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, demonstrate how well the two instruments go together – with dreamy, often highly virtuosic works by Jehan Alain, Camille Saint-Saëns and Frank Martin. The full splendour of the organ’s sound comes into its own in the transcription of Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre as well as in Liszt's Consolation and his variations on Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen”.

Organ matinee Vincent Dubois and Marie-Andrée Joerger

They are an unconventional and avowed duet: Vincent Dubois, titular organist of Notre-Dame in Paris, and accordionist Marie-Andrée Joerger have been performing together for many years. At their organ matinee, they transform the Philharmonie first into a French salon with works by Ravel and Debussy, then into an Argentinian café – with tangos such as Invierno porteño, Adiós Nonino and Decarisimo by Astor Piazzolla. Imposing works by celebrated French organ composers Louis Vierne and Maurice Duruflé round off the performance.

Organ matinee Richard Gowers and the Berlin Philharmonic Brass Ensemble

Our organ series starts with one of the most interesting organists of our time: Richard Gowers, still only 29 old, discovered his passion for music as a choirboy at King’s College, Cambridge. Trained in Cambridge, London and Stuttgart, he has travelled internationally as a soloist and has also been Director of Music at St Georgeʼs, Hanover Square in London since 2023. Together with the brass section of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he will perform an opulent, late-romantic programme, including the passionate love scene from Richard Strauss’ opera Feuersnot and Franz Liszt’s heroic final tribute to his friend Chopin, Funérailles.

Orgel-Matinee am Pfingstmontag

The greatest of symphonies / Widor’s organ symphony

Daniel Roth is currently one of the most exquisite organists of our time and a wonderful improviser. His talent and achievement inspire awe in both critics and melomaniacs the world over. Superficially calm and phlegmatic, at the keyboard he is transformed into a volcano of energy. He can bring any composition to life and render it moving for the contemporary listener as well. The coming organ recital is not just a musical event, but a true celebration of virtuosity for organ music aficionados. The programme of the recital includes works by Johann Sebastian Bach, but also those by lesser-known composers, such as Alexandre-Pierre-François Boëly and Jehan Alain. While Roth’s exceptional musical sensitivity can find its expression in interpretations of both romantic and contemporary works, the culmination of the concert will be his performance of Charles-Marie Widor’s Organ Symphony No. 10 in D major, “Romane”, considered one of the most important pieces in the composer’s entire oeuvre, and simultaneously one of the greatest achievements among all French organ compositions ever to have been created. [Alexandra Kozowicz]Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 120 minutes