Organs

Pipe organs in churches must have been the musical wonder of their age. In a time before PAs ad even before the louder strings and keys, there was the organ. Even now, it’s loud, especially down low, and exciting, if sometimes muffled. But you have to love it. Europe has a great tradition of organs and frequent public concerts in churches. They are easy to happen on. In this case we saw an announcement, 30-min organ recital at St Katherinenkirke, centrally located here in Frankfurt. A little concert is lovely, especially when the music is from Buxtehude, JS Bach and Josef Labor. Perhaps even more impressive was the permanence of this concert series. This was no. 3424 performed by Organist Prof. Martin Lücker who had played most of those 3424 concerts. The series started on 1 Feb 1983 and I’m told Martin has performed virtually all concerts since, other than an occasional fill-in. Impressive. The program we saw carries on past Christmas so its well organised. And it’s well attended at 4.30pm each Monday and Thursday. I estimated about 150-200 were in the stalls this day. And this is not the only music here: there’s a choir and a significant music program at St K’s, the largest Protestant church in Frankfurt. And what a lovely experience. I recognised some Buxtehude. The Bach less so, but he’s a genius regardless. And Labor was someone new. This was a 3 movement sonata (H-moll=Bmin, op.15) and a worthy piece. So, a lovely interlude on a business day but otherwise a musically sparse day.

Martin Lücker performed Buxtehude, Bach and Labor on the Rieger organ at St Katherinenkirke in Frankfurt.