All of these are things that can be said about the outstanding French organist Thierry Escaich, who earned the fondness of the Hungarian audience long ago. At Müpa Budapest's Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, he will perform an organ concert of French music, alternating between works by César Franck and his own compositions.
It offers some excitingly colourful and varied listening. The evening will be framed by two of Escaich's own compositions, both pairing the organ with an orchestra: La Barque solaire (The Solar Ship) and Quatre Visages du temps (Four Faces of Time). Concerto Budapest, the organist's partner in these pieces with the young Gábor Káli conducting, will also play independently of the organist in the middle of the program, performing César Franck's rarely heard symphonic poem Le Chasseur maudit (The Accursed Huntsman). Born in Belgium but later a lifelong Parisian, Franck is one of the great figures of French Romanticism and one of Escaich's predecessors in terms of his set of activities, as he divided his time between creative work, organ performance, teaching and functioning as a church musician. Two of his works for solo organ will also be included on the programme for the evening. Escaich was born in Nogent-sur-Marne, near Paris, in 1965 and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he has been teaching improvisation and composition since 1992. He performs concerts all over the world. He is not exclusively an "organ composer", as he writes compositions for all kinds of different formations.
Thierry Escaich: La Barque solaire
Franck: Cantabile
Franck: Le Chasseur maudit - symphonic poem
Thierry Escaich: Évocation II
Franck: Chorale No. 1 in E major
Thierry Escaich: Quatre Visages du temps (Organ Concerto No. 3)
Conductor: Gábor Káli
