ConcertPulse
Organ Concert: Julian Becker and Aleksanteri Wallius
Konzerthalle Bamberg, Joseph-Keilberth-Saal (Bamberg)
Off to the next round: this is the starting signal for our extremely popular organ series – and our »Queen of Instruments« shines in all its glory with its almost 6,000 pipes after a recent general refurbishment. The first concert of the season will feature two young prizewinners of prestigious competitions: firstly, we have a programme rich in connections by organist Julian Becker. He performs together with our concertmaster Ilian Garnetz: with the violin sonata in C minor composed around 1720, the two show how Bach’s complex world of sound and musical ideas can be performed. The following homage to the unrivalled baroque master is a milestone in the work of Hungarian composer Zsigmond Szathmáry, born in 1939. Already his fellow countryman and predecessor Franz Liszt created a popular organ work on the name B-A-C-H in 1856: baroque music in a romantic setting. The possibilities of our organ are also fully mobilised in the second part of the concert: by the Finnish artist Aleksanteri Wallius, who won the Wiesbaden Bach Competition in 2023. He opens with a colourful and virtuoso piece by his compatriot Veli Kujala: »Azul« was written in 2004 and fascinates with its rhapsodic character. He then plays a transcription of an era-defining piano work: Liszt’s grandiose Sonata in B minor from 1853 impresses with a plethora of moods and thematic metamorphoses – which is why Wagner raved: »The sonata is beautiful beyond all description; grand, charming, deep and noble. I am deeply moved by it.«