Fingers flew, fube danced
Kronach- luther lives! The organ concert on sunday in the christuskirche in kronach made a wonderful contribution to the current jubilee year. Deanery cantor marius popp and sabine steinmetz, church musician at stuttgart's paulus church, took their seats together on the organ bench in the gallery. With rough playful konnen they love in best harmony wonderful works of enjott schneider, jean langlais, naji hakim, josef haydn as well as wolfgang amadeus mozart sound out.
The twenty fingers and the four keys seemed to glide effortlessly over the black-and-white keyboard and pedals – to the delight of the many music lovers, who – swaying to the rhythm of the magnificent organ music – were spellbound in the organ loft by the unusual sight.
Highest level of concentration
What looks so simple requires – according to marius popp – a high level of concentration. Sometimes it is quite difficult not to get in each other's way. "But we worked hard", he revealed. His brother-in-law, sabine steinmetz, also joined in. Unfortunately, not many pieces have been composed for the queen of instruments that require the simultaneous use of four hands and four fists.
Variant luther chorale
The main focus of the concert was the encounter with luther in music with the contemporary work "luthermania – with luther through the church year" by enjott schneider (born. 1950), professor at the university of music in munich. The composer, musicologist and university teacher, who was born in weil am rhein, contributed to such well-known films as "herbstmilch" (autumn milk), "stalingrad or "bibi blocksberg the music at. In addition, he is also responsible for a series of orchestral, organ and choral works.
Leitmotif "a solid castle
Central to the furious round of well-known, intertwined chorale melodies was the leitmotif "ein feste burg". As a powerful theme head ritornello-like prasent, it experiences shortly before the end a tender lyrical fleshing out. Particularly impressive was also the varied "vom himmel hoch, da komm ich her" (from heaven above, here I come) as well as a chorale arrangement of "verleih uns frieden gnadiglich" (grant us peace graciously) as a quiet middle part.
BR broadcasts
The virtuoso "luther mosaic for organ with two players celebrated the 30. September 2012 in the christuskirche – with carlo benatti from mantua and marius popp – his first performance. Also on that day the first recording for the bavarian radio took place. The second recording by the deanery cantor with sabine steinmetz was on 19. Mar 2017. The recording will be released on friday, 20. October 2017 broadcast on BR 4 klassik at 10 p.M.
The magnificence of organ sound that can be produced by four hands and four pipes was also demonstrated by the second main work: "the apostles" – after woodcuts by lucas cranach, the elder.
As "luthermania" said by enjott schneider was also "the apostles" by its sound creator naji hakim (b. 1955) had been dedicated to the dean cantor. The premiere of this composition commissioned by the evangelische kirchengemeinde kronach was on the 25. November 2011 in the same place on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the christus church. At that time, the award-winning parisian composer, organist and pianist of lebanese origin did the honors and recorded the meditation on cranach's woodcuts with the dedication carrier for BR.
On sunday, the work, conceived for two organists at one organ, was performed again, which again succeeded most happily – a tone-painting of fascinating beauty, to which the audience listened, sometimes unbelievably astonished, in view of the fireworks of sound that were unleashed. The corresponding impressive woodcuts could be viewed on a screen.
Applause did not want to end
The program was wonderfully complemented with movements from josef haydn's (1732 – 1809) partita in f major, wolfgang amadeus mozart's (1756 – 1791) fantasia in f minor and the "double fantaisie by jean langlais (1907 – 1991). With this, the circle is closed, since naji hakim is the last master student of jean langlais.
In the end, the audience – including dean dorothea richter, pastor martin gundermann and district administrator klaus loffler as patron of the international organ cycle – could not get enough of the pompous sound in the resounding church walls. As a thank you for the never-ending applause, the two virtuoso concert organists escorted their audience to the land of opportunity as an encore.