Counterpoint

In this organ concert, Stefan Kordes, Kantor of St. Jacobi, takes the audience on a journey through some of the most stirring scenes in the Bible and in literature – scenes that revolve around enticement and temptation and have found powerful expression in music.

In Olivier Messiaen’s Les deux murailles d’eau (The Two Walls of Water), we witness the Israelites’ passage through the Red Sea, while Czech composer Petr Eben makes the allure of Shulamite from the Song of Songs palpable and audible in his Biblical Dances. Eben also turns to Goethe’s Faust, accompanying him musically into Auerbach’s Cellar and onto the Brocken in the Students’ Songs and the Walpurgis Night. These vivid musical images are framed by two of the most dramatic and beloved works for organ: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor and César Franck’s Pièce héroïque.