THE ORCHESTRAL ORGAN

As part of its organ concert cycle and in collaboration with the Real Academia Canaria de Bellas Artes de San Miguel Arcángel (Racba), the Auditorio de Tenerife offers a matinee with Thomas Ospital, titular organist at Saint-Eustache church Paris.

The orchestral organ

There has always been a kind of rivalry between organ and orchestra in terms of sheer volume, variety of timbres and musical density controlled by a single person. This is one reason why the art of transcription has always been part of the culture of the organ, from Renaissance vocal polyphony interpreted on the organ to the concerts of Italian composers transcribed and celebrated by Johann Sebastian Bach to the most emblematic works of the orchestral repertoire. I have decided to use that philosophy as the basis of a programme that encompasses figures from Bach, the true champion of the organ, to the Basque composer Maurice Ravel. We shall hear the Sinfonia from Bach's Cantata 29 in a transcription of Marcel Dupré. It is worth noting that the orchestral version of this work was adapted from the prelude of Partita for Violin No. 3. From the works of Liszt, we shall first hear one of his Consolations originally written for piano, and afterwards, the tremendous musical contemplation Weinen Klagen Sorgen Zagen, which directly drew on the first chorus of Bach's identically titled cantata. The Dansa Macabrefeatures the most exquisite coloratura of the great organ of Tenerife. Lastly, we shall return to Ravel and his fairy-tale world in a transcription of the orchestral suite Le Tombeau de Couperin.

Thomas Ospital