Sat, September 12, 2026
Summer Festival: Recital Thomas Ospital

Thomas Ospital opens his organ recital with the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner." But what composer Dudley Buck does with it is breathtaking—patriotism and military parade are nowhere to be found. And that's not the only ironic twist. The fact that Ospital, a Frenchman born in Bayonne in 1990 and titular organist of Saint-Eustache in Paris since 2015, becomes the "Voice of America" ​​is amusing. Equally so is the observation that "America," an earlier, unofficial national anthem of the USA, a variation by Charles Ives, is based on the melody of "God Save the King." But Ospital doesn't stop at witty remarks. He also plays a dazzling transcription of Sergei Rachmaninoff's tone poem "The Isle of the Dead." And he will perform the Symphony-Passion by the French organ master Marcel Dupré: Dupré was inspired by the world's largest organ, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ in Philadelphia. A rousing finale is Iain Farrington's "Live Wire": It sounds as if it were being played by a jazz band.

Program:
Dudley Buck (1839–1909)
Concert Variations on "The Star-Spangled Banner" Op. 23;

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
The Isle of the Dead Op. 29, transcribed for organ by Louis Robilliard;

Charles Ives (1874–1954)
Variations on "America";

Marcel Dupré (1886–1971)
Symphony-Passion Op. 23

; Iain Farrington (*1977)
Live Wire.

This concert has no intermission.

Tickets available from March 24, 2026 | 10:00 AM (CET)