Online Journal

• 25.4.2010

  David vs. Goliath in Ettlingen

  The opener of this year's organ season in Ettlingen was something spectacular indeed (and quite some fun with it). There wasn't just one organist — there were two of them. Otto Maria Krämer and Matthias Mück played both organs in Ettlingen's Herz-Jesu. It was fascinating to watch them interact in some of the pieces, one player at the 19th century organ in the central apsis, the other one from the gallery at the grand organ. In one of the items on the program, they even changed seats during the performance, thus both organists playing both organs in a single piece of music. All during the concert, they explored the facilities of both instruments thoroughly, and brought an interesting soundscape to our ears.

  All of the pieces were improvisations, that is, they were based on well-known material, but worked out in detail only during the performance itself. Impressive was the second item, a 'Symphony for grand organ', played by both players together (with four hands and four feet). The breadth of sound resulting from this is riveting: an organ is an instrument of breathtaking musical capacities already, but can you imagine its possibilities practically doubled? Mindblowing. I particularly liked the third movement (entitled a 'prayer') with its impressionistic, delicate tone.

  In the middle of the concert, there was an improvisation section (again by four hands and feet) over three tasks given by the audience, two of which were chorales, and the third the Götterfunken motive from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The latter was improvised on in a Toccata & Fugue-like format, though a little disappointingly, the fugue was merely gestured at — it didn't go beyond just an exposition (no more episodes), and I could only discern 3 voices; mostly the improvisation strategy relied on various instrumentations of the main theme.

  The concert closed with a fantasy called 'David vs. Goliath', which wasn't as combative as the name might suggest, but rather provided another opportunity for sound magic (and it was during this piece that the organists swapped organs). All in all, this was good fun, and it was nice to see that the audience was more numerous than I remembered from previous years, even despite the pleasant spring weather. To make the occasion perfectly round then, I also met some friends whom I afterwards joined to sample the Maibock at the Vogel. (If you're not an Ettlinger, you're excused if you don't know what that means.)