The repertoire of Marcin Szelest’s organ recital will feature works by leading authors of organ literature, including Johann Sebastian Bach and Charles Tournemire. The concert will be opened and crowned with works by Olivier Messiaen, and between them there will be a number of compositions by German and Italian artists. 

Messiaen created his Livre d’orgue in the early 1950s. Due to its extraordinary artistic value and importance in his work, it is compared to the last work of Johann Sebastian Bach – Die Kunst der Fuge. The individual movements of the Livre d’orgue were created at different times and circumstances, which is manifested in their formal structure. Some of them were written during the composer’s stay in Paris or in the Alps. The concert will feature Les mains de l'abîme and the Chants d'oiseaux, which are the third and fourth movements. Of the French organ literature, the programme also includes compositions by Charles Tournemire and his student Jean Langlais. 

“Christ lay in the chains of death” – these are the opening words of Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata composed for Easter Sunday. Its basis is a chorale written by Martin Luther in 1524 based on the Latin text Victimae paschali laudes from the 11th century. We will also hear the Christ lag in Todesbanden from the Clavier Übung by Johann Ludwig Krebs. Sacred themes will also appear in the Hymnus in festa resurrectionem: Vita sanctorum by the North German composer active at the turn of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, Hieronymus Praetorius. In addition, Marcin Szelest will perform theIntroitus: Resurrexi by an anonymous author, Congratulamini mihi by Andreas Hakenberger, La battaglia from the extensive seventeenth-century collection L’organo suonarino op. 25 by Adriano Banchieri, as well as the Alleluias by the legendary British organ virtuoso Simon Preston.