Lovers of organ music will have the opportunity to hear a recital by one of the most esteemed virtuosos of this instrument: Thomas Ospital. This artist, honoured with the position of titular organist at Paris’ Saint-Eustache, will perform works by the greatest composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel, and Camille Saint-Saëns, and the concert will end with Ospital’s improvisation.

A native of the French Basque Country, Thomas Ospital currently is in charge of one of the largest organs in the French capital. In addition to his duties, he also improvises for silent films and teaches – in 2021, he became a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. This is the distinguished artist’s first visit to the NFM. The concert will open with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D major, composed by a young Bach, as evidenced by the elaborate, multi-part prelude form. Apart from this brilliant and noble composition, Ospital will present (mostly) his own organ arrangements of piano and orchestral works. The rich performance possibilities afforded by the king of instruments will surely surprise us with something new in each featured piece.

The melody of the children’s song Ah, vous dirai-je, maman, on the theme of which Mozart composed variations, is probably familiar to everyone. Ravel’s suite Ma mère l'oye, inspired, among other things, by the 17th-century collection of fairy tales by Charles Perrault, will also draw on the characters of Tom Thumb and Sleeping Beauty. The next two pieces are connected by the theme of death. Saint-Saëns’s famous Danse macabre evokes a medieval allegory in a subtly grotesque setting, while The Tomb of Couperin will create a serene yet sorrowful mood. The titular monument to the music of the Sun King’s times was also an epitaph dedicated to the memory Ravel’s friends who died during the Great War.