MIGHTY FORTRESS

20-25 JUNE 2017

Our Pipeworks Festival this year celebrates a feast of

organ music. It takes its title Mighty Fortress from one of the best known hymns of the sixteenth century: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott. 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and an opportunity to celebrate one of its most enduring gifts to musical culture – the Lutheran chorale.

 

PROGRAMME

TUESDAY 20TH JUNE

CITY HALL: THE LUTHERAN CASTLE 7PM

Resurgam choir and ensemble, directed by Mark Duley

Our opening concert takes its title from the only complete and preserved work written for the first anniversary of the reformation: Michael Altenburg’s 1517 Gaudium Christianum. The rich array of vocal and instrumental ensembles required will also be heard to great effect in Michael Praetorius’ Missa gantz Teutsch and sacred concerti by by Samuel Scheidt, Johann Schein and Melchior Franck.

This aural and visual spectacle, in the glorious acoustic of Dublin City Hall’s rotunda, is the perfect introduction to music of the early Baroque!

Tickets €18 / €14 conc | pipeworksfestival.eventbrite.com | @ the door

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WEDNESDAY 21ST JUNE, 7PM

SAINT PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL: CHORALE HEROICS

Andrew Dewar (organ)

Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Chorale improvisation Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

Franz Liszt, Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen

Oskar Lindberg, Sonata in G minor

Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Symphonic Chorale Jesu meine Freude

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We welcome back British organist Andrew Dewar, our Pipeworks’ 2014 competition winner, to perform on the mighty Willis organ in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. This concert features three chorales set within massive late-Romantic canvases, performed together with Lindberg’s epic 1924 sonata.

It’s the perfect combination of heroic music, majestic building, historic organ and young performer.

Tickets €15 / €12 conc | pipeworksfestival.eventbrite.com | @ the door

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THURSDAY 22ND JUNE, 7PM

WHITEFRIAR STEEET CHURCH: DOCTRINE AND DIDACTICS

Malcolm Proud (organ)

Dublin Bach Singers

JS Bach, Clavierübung III

Michael Praetorius, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

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Ireland’s internationally-acclaimed organist and harpsichordist, Malcolm Proud plays Bach on the classically-inspired Kenneth Jones organ in Whitefriars.

The composer’s monumental collection of preludes on Lutheran hymns takes the form of a musical catechism as well as pedagogic instruction in keyboard techniques. Malcolm presents the large chorale settings from the collection, together with a prelude on the festival’s “theme tune”.

Tickets €15 / €12 conc | pipeworksfestival.eventbrite.com | @ the door

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FRIDAY 23RD JUNE, 8PM

NATIONAL CONCERT HALL: SYMPHONIC CHORALE

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

Gavin Maloney (director)

David Adams and Tristan Russcher (organ)

in partnership with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

JS Bach, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland BWV 659-661

Widor, Sinfonia Sacra

Reger, Chorale Fantasia Ein feste Burg

Mendelssohn, Symphony no 5 (Reformation)

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The festival’s gala concert features Ireland’s flagship orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. As well as celebrating the anniversary of the Reformation, the concert explores the chorale’s influence on symphonic repertoire. Mendelssohn’s eponymous symphony features the chorale Ein feste Burg, whilst Widor’s Sinfonia Sacra – effectively an organ concerto – is based on the chorale Nun komm der Heiden Heiland. 

Tickets: €35, €29.50, €23.50, €15 | conc: €31.50, €26.55, €21.15, €13.50

10% discount for Groups of 10 or more
nch.ie | 01 417 0000

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SATURDAY 24TH JUNE, 11AM

NATIONAL CONCERT HALL: BACH AND BRAHMS

Organ students from Royal Irish Academy of Music, and DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama

Some of Ireland’s most promising young organists explore the chorale prelude repertoire of JS Bach, and works by Johannes Brahms from the ensuing century which were inspired by Bach.

Tickets: €5 | nch.ie | 01 417 0000

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SATURDAY 24TH JUNE, 8PM

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL: INSPIRATIONS AND REVELATIONS

Gerben Mourik (organ)

Mornington Singers

Orla Flanagan (director)

with introductory talk by Fr Patrick Claffey (Trinity College Dublin) at 7:30PM

This concert is set in the sumptuous surroundings of Christ Church Cathedral. It explores some of the most popular chorales by Martin Luther himself, in a variety of musical forms and settings from over four centuries. It centres around organ improvisations by gifted young Dutch organist Gerben Mourik, winner of many international awards including the coveted St Alban’s International Improvisation Competition.

Ireland’s acclaimed chamber choir the Mornington Singers, under the direction of Orla Flanagan, sing music showcasing the extraordinary influence of the chorale. It includes settings by Michael Altenburg, Michael Praetorius, Samuel Scheidt, Johannes Brahms and Melchior Franck. Chorales include Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her, Christ lag in Todesbanden, Es ist das heil uns kommen her and Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.

A feature of this concert will be its participatory nature, with the audience invited to join in singing some of the chorales, thereby taking the role of the congregation in a traditional Lutheran service. It will be led by singers attending an afternoon introductory rehearsal, followed by the pre-concert talk on Martin Luther and his legacy.

Tickets €18 / €14 conc | pipeworksfestival.eventbrite.com | @ the door

 

SUNDAY 25th JUNE, 8PM

ST MICHAEL’S CHURCH DUN LAOGHAIRE: CHORALE REMIX

Kirkos Ensemble

David Adams (organ)

in partnership with Dún Laoghaire Organ Concerts

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Heinrich Kaminski (1886–1946)

Wir glauben alle an einen Gott 

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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

Nun freut euch BWV734 

Christum wir sollen loben schon BWV611

Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV 625

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Gottfried August Homilius (1714–1785)

Christ lag in Todesbanden

O heilger Geist, kehr bei uns ein

Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott

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Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)

Sonata in D minor op.65 no.6 (1845)

— Chorale: Andante sostenuto/Allegro molto

— Fuga: Sostenuto e legato

— Finale: Andante

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Tom Lane (b1984)

Ein feste Burg

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H. Kaminski

Vater unser im Himmelreich

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Hugo Distler (1908–1942)

from Nun komm der heiden Heiland

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For our closing concert Kirkos Ensemble, one of Ireland’s most youthful and cutting-edge ensembles, collaborates with distinguished RIAM professor of organ David Adams. The event features interlude-improvisations from Kirkos players, as well as a new commission made possible with support from the Arts Council (An Chomhairle Ealaíon), in which composer Tom Lane presents the festival “theme tune” startlingly afresh.

This progressive look at the chorale through contemporary eyes forms a fitting conclusion to the festival, and is part of the regular summer recital series taking place every year in this iconic modernist building with its 1974 Rieger organ.

Tickets €12 / €8 conc | pipeworksfestival.eventbrite.com | @ the door