This evening, students of  Wrocław’s Karol Lipiński Academy of Music organ class will present the audience with a diverse repertoire including works by the greatest masters, created for monumental instruments. The programme will feature pieces such as Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fantasy and Fugue in G minor, one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s last compositions, as well as Pierre Cochereau’s bolero, the latter being closer to our times. The concert will showcase the broad sound possibilities of the organ, explored by composers over the centuries.

Bach’s Fantasy and Fugue in G minor was first performed in 1720, when the composer was applying for the position of organist at St James Church in Hamburg. The initial sounds of the fantasy are a rich, freewheeling improvisation which, as the work progresses, becomes more structured. In the virtuoso fugue, Bach included the Dutch melody Ik ben gegroet van... as a tribute to Johann Adam Reincken, a virtuoso representing the northern German organ school. Mozart’s Fantasy in F minor has an elevated, at times heroic tone, and duly so, as it was dedicated to the memory of Field Marshal Gideon Laudon, a popular and respected Austrian commander. The work, published just a few months before Mozart’s death, is an example of his mature, fully crystallised style.

Next, we will hear the Chorale in E major by César Franck, a valued composer and organist of the Romantic era, who is also considered to be the creator of the so-called organ symphonism of the 19th century. This trend was characterised by an orchestral approach to the sound of the organ and the fullest possible use of its technical and tonal possibilities. One of the works in this style is Organ Symphony No. 6  op. 42 no. 2 by Charles-Marie Widor. During the concert, we will hear its first movement, Allegro, which delights with its figurative virtuosity. There will also be a Polish accent. Mieczysław Surzyński went down in history as the most important representative of the Romantic movement in Polish organ music. He was not only a composer and instrumentalist, but also an acclaimed teacher, improviser and organiser of musical life in pre-war Poland. Anna Groeger will perform his melodic and energetic Capriccio in F sharp minor op. 36 no. 3. The concert will end with Boléro sur un thème de Charles Racquet, an intriguing setting of the Spanish dance for organ and percussion by Pierre Cochereau.