Thomas Ospital — organ recital

Organ music lovers will have the opportunity to listen to a recital of one of the most appreciated virtuosos of this specialty: Thomas Ospital. This artist — distinguished by the position of titular organist of the instrument located in the church of Saint-Eustache in Paris — will perform works by the greatest artists: Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel and Camille Saint-Saëns, and the whole will be crowned with improvisation.

Originally from the French part of the Basque Country, Thomas Ospital now takes care of some of the largest authorities that the French capital boasts. In addition to his duties, he is also engaged in improvisation for silent films and pedagogy — in 2021 he became a professor at the Paris Conservatory. This is the first visit of an outstanding artist to NFM. The concert will open with Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude and Fugue in D major, created in the master's youth, which can be seen from the elaborate, multi-part form of the prelude. With the exception of this brilliant and noble composition, the musician will not turn to the original organ repertoire, but to (mostly) his own elaborations of piano and orchestral works. The rich performance possibilities offered by the king of instruments will undoubtedly make us hear something new in each of the pieces.

The melody of the children's song Ah, vous dirii-je, maman, to which Mozart composed variations, we all probably know under the name There were three cocks. A reference to the world of children will also be the Ravel suite Ma Mère l'Oye inspired, among other things, by the seventeenth century collection of fairy tales by Charles Perrault. We will meet here, among others, the characters of Tomcio Paluch or the Sleeping Beauty. The next two pieces combine the context of death. Saint-Saëns' famous Danse macabre will remind you of a medieval allegory in a delicately grotesque version, while Couperin's Tombstone will put you in a cheerful mood, but marked by sadness. The eponymous monument to the music of the Sun King was at the same time an epitaph dedicated to the memory of the artist's friends who died during the Great War.