Organ

On five Sundays per season, the world’s most famous organists invite you to an organ matinee at the Philharmonie Berlin. They are often joined by musicians from the Berliner Philharmoniker.

The first is a musical all-rounder: Wayne Marshall is a conductor, pianist, composer and an outstanding organist who inspires audiences with his flawless technique, enthralling renditions and cleverly devised programmes.

Arvid Gast has been professor of organ at the University of Music Lübeck and titular organist of the venerable St. Jakobi Church since 2004. Together with the brass ensemble of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he will present a festive pre-Christmas programme with timpani and trumpets in December.

The organists of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris have always been among France’s musical celebrities. When Olivier Latry was appointed in 1985 at the age of 23, it was the start of a sensational career. In January 2023, he will perform the German premiere of an organ concerto by Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Berliner Philharmoniker, and a solo recital featuring exhilarating Wagner arrangements and Widor’s Organ Symphony No. 5, one of the most famous works for this instrument.

In 1962, György Ligeti, who is the focus of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Biennale, composed Volumina, a landmark work for the organ. The French organist Jean-Baptiste Dupont combines this piece with other compositions that were equally revolutionary at the time they were written, including Igor Stravinsky’s notoriously virtuosic Three Movements from Petrushka.

Isabelle Demers, organ professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, concludes the series with support from the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Karajan Academy. Together, they will perform Josef Rheinberger’s Romantic Suite for organ, violin and cello. Isabelle Demers also plays solo in works by Max Reger and Johann Sebastian Bach.