Promenade

As part of its organ concert cycle and in collaboration with the San Miguel Arcángel Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts (RACBA), the Auditorio de Tenerife offers a matinee with the organist Pilar Cabrera.

Promenade

Promenade, a stroll through the beautiful island of Tenerife on a Sunday morning. Tenerife locals and visitors walk towards a very special place where thousands of pipes with very different timbres await, which will sing gradually before all ending together in a triumphant song.

The first to welcome us will be the baroque timbres, which will enable us to enjoy the peace and tenderness with which the music of Johann Sebastian Bach embraces us. The prelude to the chorale “O Innocent Lamb of God” (from the collection that the author prepared in Leipzig) begins by evoking the traditional cornamuse of shepherds. It continues with a ternary rhythm: the traditional rhythm of the pastoral (metaphor of the lamb) before concluding with fanfares that justify the final supplication: “Grant us Thy peace.” The Trio in G Major is a transcription produced by Bach of the Allegro moderato of his Sonata for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord BWV 1027.

The “Ofrenda” (Offering) by the Valladolid composer Jesús Legido will enable us to listen to the romantic timbres of the instrument.  According to the author: “Among the different and frequent tributes to Johann Sebastian Bach, and following the masterly performance of my ‘Tres invocaciones marianas’ for trumpet and organ by our good friend and excellent soloist Pilar Cabrera, I wanted to give her this composition ‘Ofrenda’, a small triptych formed by the movements: prelude-chorale, Berceuse, and Toccata. The first, Prelude-chorale, adopts a solemn and vibrant character in which the manual keyboards dialogue with the pedal of the organ, following a small episode with a more contained and intimate character in the form of a chorale, in order to once again conclude the tempo primo in a solemn and dazzling finale. The central Berceuse is a short piece in contrast with the two movements at each end with a more virtuosic character; it adopts a more contained and lyrical form in the cadence like a lullaby. The third movement in the form of a Toccata in tempo agitato, unfolds in persistent semiquavers before reaching a small meno mosso central episode with a more peaceful and calm character, and then returns to the initial tempo to end brilliantly in powerful chords that conclude the composition.”

Lastly, the Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky will enable us to listen to all kinds of different timbres, in the majestic transcription for organ produced by Keith John (Gloucester, England). Extremely original and unprecedented work, inspired by the sketches, drawings, and watercolours of Viktor A. Hartmann, “a series that oscillates between the mystical and the impressionistic, between realism and the most subtle sound experiments, and which has never produced a school."  (K. Franke).

Pilar Cabrera