BACH - TRANSCRIPTIONS AND FRAGMENTS

As part of its organ concert cycle, the Auditorio de Tenerife offers a matinee provided by the organist Arno Hartmann.

Bach - Transcriptions and fragments

The organ has fascinated people for well over 2000 years. In 2017, organ music and organ building were recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage, and in 2021 the organ was even named Instrument of the Year.

The concert is entitled "B A C H - Transcriptions and Fragments" and exclusively comprises works by Johann Sebastian Bach: in addition to original compositions, organ transcriptions by various prominent composers can be heard, as well as completions of fragmentary organ works by Bach.

Transcription - in particular organ transcription - has always been a widespread musical practice that follows the desire to adapt pieces originally written for a different instrumentation for an instrument such as the organ. The 18th century was a very fertile time for transcriptions, which reached its peak in Bach's circle. The transcriptions that Bach himself made are of great artistic value. He also arranged his own works for organ - one of his most famous compositions can be heard in this programme: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 645), which is part of the "Schübler-Choräle", a collection of 6 transcriptions of the composer's own cantata movements.  It is preceded by a transcription by Franz Liszt (also a cantata movement) as a festive opening to the programme. Bach's pupil and contemporary Johann Friedrich Agricola attracts particular attention with his remarkable transcription of the 6-part Ricercar from the "Musical Offering".

Bach's original works, Praeludium and Fugue in C (BWV 547) and the Advent chorale arrangement "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" (BWV 659), are among Bach's most popular organ works and date from his Leipzig period. Bach's Pastorella is clearly influenced by the Italian style and makes use of the musical attributes of shepherds such as bagpipes and shawm. When you hear the first part of the Pastorella, a Christmas atmosphere is immediately evoked. The music is thus part of a long tradition of stylised "pastoral music" - a four-movement work with a little bit of Italy, a little bit of France and a good pinch of Christmas.

Peace, kindness and gentleness speak from one of Johann Sebastian Bach's most successful pieces: "Sheep may safely graze". This popular song is only part of a secular cantata that is not at all lamb-friendly; - the French organist and composer André Isoir has left us a sensitive organ transcription of this work.

The Pedal-Exercitium and the Fantasia in C have only survived in fragmentary form - with Ton Koopman and Lorenzo Ghielmi, two of the most famous organists and Bach specialists of our time have taken on these pieces and completed them in Bach's spirit.

Sigfrid Karg-Elert's romantic transcription of the Shepherds' Music from Bach's Christmas Oratorio once again puts us in a pre-Christmas mood, especially as the tonal characteristics of the fantastic Blancafort organ in the Auditorio de Tenerife also come into their own in this piece.

Franz Liszt received important inspiration for his study of Bach's organ works during his time in Weimar (1843 - 1861).  From 1830 onwards, Johann Gottlob Töpfer (1791-1780), town organist and organ expert in Weimar, was an important source of inspiration for Liszt.

Töpfer, who is also the dedicatee of the opening piece of this programme - the Einleitung und Fuge  aus der Kantate “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” BWV 21.11 - worked on several registrations of Bach's organ works at Liszt's suggestion, which corresponded to the sound ideal of the 19th century, including the Passacaglia in c minor BWV 582. Contrary to the customary practice at the time of playing the piece in a registration based on the Organo Pleno (full work), Töpfer ‘orchestrated’ the Passacaglia, which now leads from the softest pp and mostly fundamental registrations into the Organo Pleno of the fugue.

Arno Hartmann