Recital Thomas Ospital

Schedule

Sat, 12 Sep, 2026 at 05:00 pm

UTC+02:00
Location

KKL Luzern | Lucerne, LU

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Thomas Ospital, organ
Dudley Buck: Concert Variations on "The Star-Spangled Banner", Op. 23
Sergei Rachmaninoff: "The Isle of the Dead", Op. 29, transcribed for organ by Louis Robilliard
Charles Ives: "Variations on 'America'"
Marcel Dupré: "Symphonie-Passion", Op. 23
Iain Farrington: "Live Wire"
Thomas Ospital opens his organ recital with the American national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner". But what composer Dudley Buck does with it will take your breath away – there's nothing remotely patriotic or martial about it. And that's not the only sly twist. The fact that Ospital – a Frenchman born in Bayonne in 1990 and, since 2015, titular organist of Saint-Eustache in Paris – should become the "Voice of America" is enough to make you smile. Just as amusing is the observation that America, an earlier, unofficial U.S. national anthem varied by Charles Ives, is actually based on an English tune. But Ospital doesn't stop at clever punchlines. He will also play a brilliant transcription of Sergei Rachmaninoff's symphonic poem "The Isle of the Dead" as well as the "Symphonie-Passion" by the French organ master Marcel Dupré, who was inspired by the largest organ in the world, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ in Philadelphia. The rousing "closer" is Iain Farrington's "Live Wire" – a piece that sounds as if it were being played by a jazz band.
Photo © Céline Nieszawer
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Where is it happening?

KKL Luzern, Europaplatz 1,Luzern, Switzerland, Lucerne

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