A new Podcast
GLOCKE Orgel digital
A virtual concert series featuring the organ in Bremen’s concert hall
When concerts and cultural activities were put on hold in 2020, we had the idea to present the unique and historic Sauer organ in the Glocke, Bremens concert hall, in a podcast called GLOCKE Orgel digital. This “virtual concert series” made the historic Sauer organ, built in 1928 in the Bremer Glocke, accessible to the public.
Bremen’s concert hall, the “Glocke” has a majestic Instrument: the Sauer organ! With its four manuals and pedals, 76 registers, and more than 6,000 pipes, this 1928 organ is one of the largest instruments in the Hanseatic city, along with the Sauer organ in the cathedral.
The Podcast GLOCKE Orgel digital
GLOCKE Orgel digital was created by Lea Suter and features performances by various organists of works that represent the versatile repertoire that can be played on the Sauer organ.
After a short introduction by the organist, the piece is played in its entirety.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH – Toccata, Adagio & Fuge BWV 564
CÉSAR FRANCK – Choral in a-moll
Wilhelm Sauer built the organ in the Glocke concert hall as a versalite instrument in the late German Romantic style. Influenced by the French organ builder Cavaile-Coll, with whom he studied as a young organ builder, he adapted elements of French organ construction to the characteristic German Romantic organ sound. This includes the reed stops in the Schwellwerk, which are voiced in the French way.
ROBERT SCHUMANN – Fuge über BACH op.60/3 & Studie für Pedalflügel op. 56/4
Versäume keine Gelegenheit dich auf der Orgel zu üben, es gibt kein Instrument, das am Unreinen und Unsauberen im Tonsatz wie im Spiel also gleich Rache nähme, als die Orgel.“
“Never miss an opportunity to practice the organ, for there is no instrument that avenges untidiness and slovenliness, be it of the notes or in the manner of playing, as the organ does.”
Robert Schumann, in his Musikalischen Haus- und Lebensregeln (“Musical Rules for Life and the Home”)
LOUIS VIERNE – Garoguilles et Chimères aus 24 Pièce de fantaisie op.55
Louis Vierne was one of the last great French composers of late Romantic organ music, ending an epoch of abundant art and a flourishing culture of organ music in France that started with the organ builder Cavaillé-Coll and the composer César Franck. Charles Marie Widor, the teacher of Louis Vierne, wrote the following about the beginning of this epoch:
“But where did the great flowering of our art in France come from […]? Let us admit that it was not at all from a composer, but from an ingenious instrument maker, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.”
„Aber woher kommt das großartige Aufblühen unserer Kunst in Frankreich […]? Geben wir es zu, es kommt gar nicht von einem Komponisten, sondern von einem genialen Erbauer, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.“
