one interval
Thierry Escaich
La Barque solaire - Hungarian première
Franck
Chorale No. 1 in E major
Franck
Le Chasseur maudit - symphonic poem
Thierry Escaich
Improvisation - hommage à Franck
Franck
Cantabile
Thierry Escaich
Quatre Visages du temps (Organ Concerto No. 3) - Hungarian première
It is a centuries-old tradition in music history for organists to be polymaths. To be not only performers, but to also be thoroughly acquainted with the instrument itself, music theory and the liturgy (since most organists are also church musicians), in addition to being able to improvise masterfully in different styles - while also creating their own written works as composers. All of these are things that can be said about the outstanding French organist. Long known and beloved by the Hungarian audience, the organist Thierry Escaich will be giving a performance of French organ music at Müpa Budapest's Béla Bartók National Concert Hall with a programme alternating between the Romantic works of César Franck and Escaich's own compositions, along with an improvisation in tribute to Franck.
It offers some excitingly colourful and varied listening. The evening will be framed by two of Escaich's own compositions, both pairing the organ with an orchestra: La Barque solaire (The Solar Ship) and Quatre Visages du temps (Four Faces of Time). Concerto Budapest, the organist's partner in these pieces with the young Gábor Káli conducting, will also play independently of the organist in the middle of the program, performing César Franck's rarely heard symphonic poem Le Chasseur maudit (The Accursed Huntsman). Born in Belgium but later a lifelong Parisian, Franck is one of the great figures of French Romanticism and one of Escaich's predecessors in terms of his set of activities, as he divided his time between creative work, organ performance, teaching and functioning as a church musician. Two of his works for solo organ will also be included on the programme for the evening. Escaich was born in Nogent-sur-Marne, near Paris, in 1965 and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he has been teaching improvisation and composition since 1992. He performs concerts all over the world. He is not exclusively an "organ composer", as he writes compositions for all kinds of different formations.
The concert will be preceded from 6.30 pm by a conversation in Hungarian entitled Prologue, where ticket holders will be invited to get to know the performing musician and the works to be performed more closely.
The host of the discussion is Gergely Fazekas.
Presented by: Müpa Budapest
Conductor:
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