The Viennese duo Valentin and Julia Christine Lukan features this Sunday's matinee.

 

The Auditorio de Tenerife in collaboration with San Miguel Arcángel Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts, is offering one of the concerts of its organ cycle this Sunday (2nd June) in the Symphony Hall. The matinee Cielo e terra features the Viennese duo of organist Valentin Lukan and harpist Julia Christine Lukan.

The Auditorio organ, built by Albert Blancafort and his team, is a 21st-century instrument unique not only for its design but also for its sound and musical ranges. The sounds are produced by 3,835 pipes housed in the walls of the emblematic Symphony Hall. The organist controls them from on-stage through the console and the four keyboards that he can play. On this occasion, the harp is added as the main novelty.

The concert opens with Beginning, the first of the four new compositions created for this programme. This piece announces a new beginning and simultaneously serves as an overture, paving the way for the following ones, who all share a relationship with heaven and earth. While Dance of the Gnomes by Liszt appears as an activity of these earthly creatures, Angel by Wagner brings the audience closer to the heavenly messengers. And just as the Magic Fire Music of Wagner foregrounds the power of the elements of the earth, the Contemplation of Renié opens up the deeper meaning of the word "heaven" in the sense of a spiritual home that reveals itself in prayer and silence.

The core of the programme is comprised of three new compositions by two artists who directly address heaven and earth: Ciel, Terra, and Cielo e Terra. Written separately, the pieces Ciel and Terra are composed using the same melodic and harmonic material. As a joint composition, Cielo e Terra finally connects the two worlds and leads them to a jubilant climax.  Also, throughout the programme, a wide range of orchestral works are included that have been transcribed by Valentin Lukan for harp and organ: from the Dawn of Grieg to the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, the audience experiences the diversity of a day between heaven and earth through the music.

This Viennese duo has delighted their audience for years with the still-rare combination of harp and organ. The programmes that Julia Christine and Valentin Lukan perform in churches and concert halls encompass everything from the Baroque to the present day, and they focus on romantic transcriptions of major orchestral works for the two instruments. The duo has set itself the aim of making the heavens and earth ring out with all the range and colour that the harp and organ are capable of.

The training and name of the duo date back to encouragement from their professor and mentor, Danja Lukan, who also participated significantly in the creation of the current album). Julia Christine Lukan regularly performs with the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Valentin Lukan has performed his work as a concert organist in France, Spain, Austria, and Romania in recent years. Their joint concerts notably include duo recitals at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Radiokulturhaus in Vienna and the Konzerthaus in Berlin.

This performance is supported by the collaboration of the Island Council of Gran Canaria - the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria. Tickets can be purchased at a single price of €15 and €5 for the audience under 30 years on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com, at the auditorium's box office or by dialling the phone number 902 317 327 from Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. There are discounts for students, unemployed and large families.