Late-night concert: Organ music by J.S. Bach

Friday March 15, 21:30
(Doors open at 21:00)
Oslo Cathedral

Adult: 350 NOK
Senior/student: 250 NOK
Child: 100 NOK

Duration: 1 hour

Kåre Nordstoga, organ

Cantor Kåre Nordstoga holds a late-night concert with a complete Bach programme. Nordstoga describes the programme like this: At the time Oslo Cathedral was built, around the year 1700, a young Bach attended school in Lüneburg. There, he learnt to play the organ, something that led to an exceptional series of organ compositions where he further developed almost all of the period’s styles from different parts of Europe. The evening’s programme is a journey through this organ universe; everything from the soft variations in Italian style, Aria variata, played on the cathedral’s choir organ; the dramatic Buxtehude inspired Prelude in C major from the composer’s youth; the Leipzig chorale Allein Gott where the old reformation hymn is stretched into a slow, almost infinite meditative stream; a lovely trio sonata inspired by the Italian sonata style, where each of the hands plays trio with the pedals; and finally Prelude and Fugue in B minor, a monumental masterpiece where the Thomaskantor speaks his own language completely. That Bach also became an important figure for 19th century composers, we are shown in Max Reger’s version of Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor from ‘Das Wohltemperierte Klavier’.

PROGRAMME:
On choir organ:
Aria variata alla manera italiana, BWV 989

On main organ:
Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 531

Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr, BWV 662

Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor, BWV 849
(arranged for organ by Max Reger)

Trio sonata in E minor, BWV 528
Adagio - vivace
Andante
Un poco allegro

Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544

Kåre Nordstoga has been cathedral cantor in Oslo Cathedral since 1984. He has been one of the country’s leading concert organists for several decades, with an extensive concert activity, both in Norway and abroad. Nordstoga has been nominated for Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian Grammy Awards) twice. He received the Lindeman Prize in 2006 and the Oslo City art award in 2015. In 2016, he was appointed Knight 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.

Photo: Ole Marius Jørgensen