A whole range of stops will be pulled out once again: This time, an experienced and acclaimed organist will be our guest at the keys and pedals of our concert organ, much loved by the audience. Together with strings from the Bamberg Symphony, he will present several works that are wonderfully fitting for this Advent Sunday. The first part is dedicated to baroque music: after three touching solo pieces by Bach, a long-lost concerto for organ and violin by Vivaldi is performed – a particularly melody-laden example of his boundless artistry. In the second part, Tomaž Sevšek offers a foray into other musical realms – including a work composed in 1951 by his compatriot Primož Ramovš, whose numerous organ pieces have only rarely been performed in Germany to date. Portuguese composer João Pedro Oliveira is a versatile and award-winning composer: »Persistent Particles« from 2021 experiments with the tonal and technical possibilities of the organ in a fascinating manner. Schumann rented a pedal keyboard for his grand piano in 1845, which gave him and his wife Clara »much delight«. One of the results was the intimate study for pedal piano – in which Schumann expressed his spiritual and compositional affinity with Bach. The French composer Alexandre Guilmant expressed his fondness for the German Romantic composer in his atmospheric work »Final alla Schumann« in 1893.

Organ Concert: Tomaž Sevšek

Bamberg Concert Hall

A concert with impressive string quartets – because our orchestra members love to regularly step out of the big orchestra apparatus and work intensively on works close to their hearts as chamber musicians. And the first one is a real piece of work, according to contemporaries even »as incomprehensible as Chinese«, to which the composer rumbled the words »Cattle! Donkeys!«: Beethoven’s magnificent fugue op. 133 – a highly unique late work from 1825 that goes to the limits of what was possible, with monumental architectural structures and, despite some friendly tunes, with enormous inner tensions. One of the pieces to be rediscovered in this programme comes from the beloved homeland of our concertmaster: Ilian Garnetz grew up in a creative environment – and was awarded the title of »Artist of the Moldavian People« as a music mediator and representative of his country. Now, together with his fellow musicians, he would like to introduce the Bamberg audience to the fourth string quartet by his former violin professor and composer Boris Dubosarschi. It was influenced by the work of Shostakovich – with which the concert ends on a stirring note: His string quartet No. 8 was composed in 1960, during which he reflected on the destruction of the city of Dresden during the war in 1945. It expresses his shock at this and was published »in memory of the victims« of that time. However, Shostakovich felt that this subjective work of confession with its own quotations from his pieces could also be dedicated to his own commemoration – and also mentioned that it was »of such a pseudo-tragic nature that I shed many tears while composing it.«

Serge Zimmermann

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 9, 2025

Chamber concert: String quartet · Bamberger Symphoniker

Past events

Dec 8, 2024

Organ Concert: Tomaž Sevšek · Bamberger Symphoniker

Future and recently performed repertoire

Violin in String Quartet No. 8 by Shostakovich

Bamberger Symphoniker

Violin in String Quartet No. 4 by Dubossarschi

Bamberger Symphoniker

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