Podium21 and the Kloosterkerk are jointly organizing a special New Year’s Eve concert on December 30th. The program includes two works recently attributed to Bach. After thirty years of research, the two compositions were identified as genuine “Bach works” in November of this year and premiered in Leipzig. On December 30th, the works will be heard live for the first time in The Hague’s Kloosterkerk, performed by organist Geerten van de Wetering. In an atmospheric candlelit Kloosterkerk, Van de Wetering will let the Kloosterkerk organ sound in all its glory one last time before the instrument is encased in protective plastic for the Kloosterkerk’s renovation starting in January. A wonderful opportunity to discover this musical discovery of the year!
Brilliant and jazzy craftsmanship
“In this concert, I’ll be featuring new and familiar pieces by Bach,” Van de Wetering explains. “The organ pieces may be a small addition to the large number of organ pieces Bach wrote, but he wrote them very young, before he was 20. It’s astonishing that you can already clearly hear his brilliance and craftsmanship in them. It involves two ciaconas: a chaconne is a musical form in which a short bass line repeats repeatedly, serving as the basis for recurring variations in the melody, something often used in jazz, for example. In these early pieces, you can already see how incredibly creative Bach is in varying on such a theme. A few years later, this culminates in the great Passacaglia; Bach clearly developed very rapidly in those early years.”
Program
“During the period in which Bach wrote these two works, he also visited Dieterich Buxtehude in Lübeck, one of the greatest composers and organists of his time,” Van de Wetering explains. “There’s also something by Buxtehude on the concert program. And by Arvo Pärt, who turned 90 this year. We’re taking a brief detour with his Annum per Annum .”
Marcussen organ
The organ in the Kloosterkerk was built in 1966 by the Danish organ builder Marcussen, one of the most internationally renowned builders of that time. Due to renovations in the Kloosterkerk starting in January, the organ will have to be “wrapped” in protective film. For the time being, the organ will not be heard in concerts starting next year. Van de Wetering: “For many people, December is a month of ‘unpacking,’ but the organ will soon be ‘wrapped.’ That’s why I thought it would be nice to give the organ one last full sound just before that in an atmospheric New Year’s Eve concert. And of course, those two newly discovered Bach works have to be on the program. I can’t say with 100% certainty, but I believe this will be the first performance of these two Bach works in the Netherlands, which of course makes the concert extra special!”
Tickets for the concert are available at www.podium21.nl and www.kloosterkerk.nl . After this musical finale to 2025, there will be refreshments for everyone.