Orgelpunkt

Rudolf von Beckerath built his very first organ for the St. Elisabeth Church in Hamburg. The "Opus 1" of the later world-famous organ builder has recently been restored to it's former glory. Despite the extensive expansion of the instrument, it can still be played unchanged in it's original state due to a technical refinement. Jens Ludwig presents the work with a personal selection and decided highlights of the baroque. Beckerath's original specification of 1951 could not be fully realized at that time for reasons of cost. 11 stops on two manuals had to suffice. Seven more stops were added a few years later, and this is the extent to which the instrument existed until it's restoration in 2019. The clever double console houses Beckerath's original console on one side and it's modern counterpart with four manuals opposite, which control both the "old" organ and it's extension. This is an ideal symbiosis between conservation of the monument and innovative function. Whether Eurovision Fanfare, Toccata in D minor, Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, Handel's "Largo" or Bach-Gounod's "Ave Maria": you can almost sing along with this program. It is all the more beautiful to listen to the wonderful register colors, such as the trumpets in the main and swell sections in the pieces by Jeremiah Clarke, or the crumhorn in "Jesus bleibet meine Freude". The instrument is also excellently suited for chamber music or continuo playing. Here we hear Telemann's rarely performed viola concerto or CPE Bach's Hamburg Sonata in G major for flute and continuo. Most of the pieces have a direct connection to Hamburg. In the case of Telemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, this is obvious from their biographies. Bach and Handel also have their Hanseatic points of contact. And the pieces from France and England are easily justified by Hamburg's well-known internationalism.