1. Praeludium in B minor - BWV 544

JS Bach (1685 - 1750)

One of Bach's top works for organ; virtuoso, dramatic, capricious… Two voices start from above. When the pedal is added, the music is immediately taken to a high point, after which a new second theme develops and a third further on. An extremely complex matter in which Bach once again shows himself to be the true master, far ahead of his time. A wonderful opening of these Summer Concerts!

The following three works are accompanied and played on the Rütter organ. This instrument from 1882 is a national monument and one of the few organs of the organ builder from Kevelaar.

First of all, you will hear a work by Hendrik Andriessen: a song to a text by the medieval monk and mystic Thomas à Kempis. Andriessen wrote the work in 1919 in two versions: one for orchestra and one for organ. The soloist sings about next-door love with great dramatic lines. Please note: halfway through the music comes to a standstill and then continues in a very stilled way, a wonderful moment!

Then you will hear a work by the Polish composer Surzinsky, unknown in the Netherlands but very popular in Poland. The composition is fairly simple in design: an ABA form, in which the middle part has a beautiful still character.

Fauré's Pie Jesu hardly needs any explanation. Originally 'Pie Jesu' is the last part of the sequences 'Dies Irae' in which the day of the last judgment is sung. Fauré didn't like that, but he found the last part of the sequences worth composing again; and it has become world famous

2. Magna res est amor

H. Andriessen (1892 - 1981) on text by Thomas à Kempis

Translation:

Love is a matter of great value, precious above all good:

it is the only thing that makes all heavy things light;

that bears all that is unequal equally.

Nothing sweeter than love

nothing stronger, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more delightful,

nothing richer and better in heaven and on earth.

For love is born of God,

and she alone can rest above all creation in God.

Love is a matter of great value ...

3. Chant triste - op. 36

M. Surzynsky (1866 - 1924)

4. Pie Jesu from Requiem - op. 48

G. Fauré (1845 - 1924)

Translation:

Good Jesus, give them eternal rest.

Now that the performers are going down again, I can tell you something about the continuation of this concert, the numbers 5 and 6.

First of all, Robert Schumann's 'Skizze'. 'Skizze' is German for 'Sketch', in other words a form of music that you can use in all directions. Schumann wrote 4 such 'Skizzen' and he wrote them for pedal grand piano, which was a grand piano with a pedal underneath, like an organ.

This had two advantages: an organist could practice at home and did not have to go to church (no organ trimmer needed) and the pianist now had extra options to add extra tones with his feet. Schumann saw something, unfortunately not the rest of the world, because the instrument had disappeared from the music world by the middle of the 19th century. This work, too, has three parts in the ABA form.

The composer Giulio Caccini will tell you little, but Caccini is still the link between the Renaissance and the Baroque. He, and others, invented opera, as it were, and he 'discovered' that it was also beautiful if you just played one melody with a bass and chord accompaniment. In his time everything sounded mixed up, so to speak, you will soon hear that in Bach's fugue, but Caccini, and later on we all were completely fans of the so-called 'monody', you can already hear it: one melody only. And Amarilli, published in 1602, is such a monody in which the singer's melody gets all the attention. The accompaniment plays French on a so-called 'chest organ', which is a pipe organ in which all pipes are hidden in a chest and that you can therefore move. And what is the song about? Of course about love ...

5. Skizze no. 3 in f minor from op. 58

R. Schumann (1810 - 1856)