Iveta Apkalna, organ

• Concerts

Iveta Apkalna pursues two milestones in organ music: Johann Sebastian Bach’s enormous Chaconne and César Franck’s ground-breaking »Grande pièce symphonique«, whose title alludes to the symphonic sound possibilities of the organ and fully exploits them. The titular organist of the Elbphilharmonie complements her solo programme with three further pieces, which also showcase »her« instrument in full splendour.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chaconne was originally composed for violin. The contrapuntal entanglements which Bach created within it have, however, inspired several composers to arrange this work for organ. Also, the »Danse Macabre« by Camille Saint-Saëns, originally composed for voice and piano, only became famous in its orchestral version and sounds just as very wonderfully eerie on the organ. César Franck dedicated his »Prélude, fugue et variation« to his friend and organ colleague Saint-Saëns; the three movements seem very different and yet hang together thematically.

As one of the forefathers of organ symphony, Franck is at the inception of a development which had far-reaching consequences for organ building and organ music: to this day (and so also at the Elbphilharmonie), the thousand organ pipes of one instrument should ideally cover the full range of symphonic sound. Iveta Akpalna, who, as the titular organist, knows the Elbphilharmonie organ like hardly anyone else, can exploit the entire colourful richness of the instrument to perfectly set the scene for each piece of her programme.

PERFORMERS

Iveta Apkalna organ

PROGRAM

Camille Saint-Saëns
Danse macabre, Op. 40

Johann Sebastian Bach
Chaconne aus: Partita Nr. 2 d-Moll BWV 1004

Petr Eben
Requiem and Walpurgisnacht / from: Faust

- Interval -

César Franck
Prélude, fugue et variation in B minor, Op. 18

César Franck
Grande pièce symphonique in F-sharp minor, FWV 29