Organist Christian Schmitt handles the cheeky organ part in Poulenc’s concerto with the same skill as in Barber’s Toccata Festiva – masterfully. In Poulenc’s self-assured and cheeky Organ Concerto, he allows the magnificent sounds to play freely, in an equally serious and derisory manner, in the very style of the French composer himself. Poulenc’s contemporary colleague, the American composer Samuel Barber, is known for his romantic sensitivity, but in his Toccata Festiva for Organ and Orchestra he also displays a cheerful and high-spirited side to his music, which rushes forward in pure exhilaration.

This evening’s program also includes Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1, in which it is possible to discern the familiar characteristics, with chords and reverberations, which remind us of the composer’s earlier career as an organist. His first symphony was in actual fact his third (the previous two were called No. 0 and No. 00!), and it is truly a genuine Bruckner, lighter in step than his later heavier compositions, and a reminder that the composer was once a young man. Even in his earliest symphonies it is possible to discern the familiar characteristics that would gain clearer contours with the passing years.

This sound feast is led with the confident hand of Christoph Eschenbach, former first guest conductor at Göteborgs Symfoniker.

The concert is presented in collaboration with Göteborg International Organ Festival and Göteborgs Konserthus.

 

Tickets

https://tickets.gso.se/sv/buyingflow/tickets/6510/32699/

 

Links:

https://gso.se