International Organ Festival begins today in Lviv: programme of events
Tomorrow, 3 October, the XIV Lviv International Organ Festival opens in the Organ Hall. Visitors will enjoy 14 concerts, performances by world stars from France, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, as well as leading Ukrainian organists, interesting programmes and unexpected collaborations.
This year’s International Organ Festival in Lviv will be the 14th in a row. It will open on 3 October and last exactly one month: On 3 November, the anniversary of the opening of the Organ Hall, the festival’s closing concert will take place.
The festival will be opened by the legendary French organist Bernard Struber. On 3 and 4 October, he will perform the programme “From Bach to Jazz”, featuring a wide variety of music, from baroque works by Bach and Rameau to jazz rhythms by Gershwin.
Bernard Struber is a renowned organist and jazz musician whose organ improvisations amaze audiences around the world. With this visit, the organist not only demonstrates his support for Ukraine and Ukrainians, but also continues the traditions of the Lviv Organ Festival. After all, Bernard Struber first played the Lviv organ at the International Organ Festival in 2016.
On 10 October, the festival will feature a concert “Bach and Stanford. Organ Music” performed by Kyiv-based organist and soloist of the National House of Music Iryna Kharechko.
On 11 October, Olena Matseliukh, soloist of the Lviv Organ Hall, will perform her programme “European Organ Music” at the festival. You will be amazed by the depth of Gustav Merkel’s music, the elegance of Bonnet’s variations, the spring warmth and joy of Lesya Dychko’s work, and the grandeur of Franz Liszt.
On 13 October, the famous Polish organist Jarosław Wróblewski will perform “Virtuoso Organ Music”. A concert organist and professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Jarosław Wróblewski is already familiar to the Lviv audience. As a soloist, conductor and chamber musician, he performs in Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Ukraine, and takes part in numerous premieres of works by contemporary composers.
At the recital, you will hear works of the British, German, French and Polish organ schools.
On 19 and 20 October, we will listen to “Masterpieces of World Music” performed by Polish organist Michal Szostak. At Michał Szostak’s concert, you can hear works from the Baroque to the present day. And you can hear Chopin on the organ only at a concert by Michal Szostak. In addition, Michal Szostak is a virtuoso improviser on the organ. This time, the organist will perform two improvisations dedicated to Ukraine.
On 23 and 24 October, the organ and flute concert “Light song for Ukraine” will be presented to Lviv by the legendary Lithuanian organist Jurate Landsbergite, together with her son, flutist Vytautas Oškinis, and flutist Johannes Hustedt from Germany.
Together they will perform works by Ukrainian and Lithuanian composers, some of which, such as Mykolas Natalavičius’s Chorale of the Fading Light, are dedicated to Ukraine. You will hear the masterpieces of Johann Sebastian Bach in a brilliant performance by Jurate Landsbergite, as well as organ and flute improvisations.
On 29 October, there will be a special concert of organ music by Ukrainian composers, recordings of which you will hardly find anywhere else. Works by Zoltan Almasy, Lesya Dychko, Volodymyr Huba, Oleksandr Shchetynsky, and Heorhiy Kurkov will be performed by Svitlana Pozdnyysheva at the City of Mary concert.
The uniqueness of this concert is that it will be recorded for the funds of Ukrainian Radio. After all, most of these works have either never been recorded or have only one recording. The Lviv Organ Hall actively supports the development and renewal of the national organ repertoire.
On 30 October, Nadiia Velychko will perform “Monumental Organ Music” by Theodore Dubois.
On 1 November, Nadiia Velychko will perform a cycle of Symphonic Fugues by Ukrainian composer Igor Aseyev.
On 2 November, we invite you to the German Organ and Choir Evening in Lviv. Michael Fetter is the organist of the Cathedral in Bauzen (Saxony, Germany), a renowned expert in Baroque music and a master of organ improvisation. He is also the choirmaster and director of the Cathedral Choir of St Peter’s Cathedral in Bauzen. In these two capacities, Michael Fetter will appear before the Lviv audience in November.
The organ and choral concert by German musicians will present the audience with exquisite music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and John Rutter, a contemporary English composer, conductor, and author of choral music.
This event is supported by the Ökumenischer Domladen Bautzen e.V. (St Volodymyr’s Regional Charitable Foundation).
And, as already mentioned, on 3 November, the “Solemn Concert on the Occasion of the Closing of the Organ Hall” will take place. Leading organ soloists of the Lviv Organ Hall will perform a special programme of masterpieces of organ music, as well as historical works performed on this stage over the years.
The Luhansk Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ivan Ostapovych, and the organists will take part in the concert: Svitlana Pozdnysheva, Nadiia Velychko, Olena Matseliukh, Vitalii Dvorovyi, and Mark Novakovych. This evening will be the final concert in the series of concerts of the XIV Lviv International Organ Festival.