Bach's Birthday Concert

March 21, 2009 - 8 PM

Organist Alan Morrison will present J.S. Bach’s Klavieruebung Part III with members of The Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia for our annual Bach Birthday Bash. 

In addition to extensive solo and orchestral performances throughout the United States including Alaska, Mr. Morrison has performed in Brazil, Canada, Germany and Italy. He has the distinct honor of having been chosen by his peers to perform for four national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (Atlanta ‘92, NYC ‘96, Philadelphia ‘02, Chicago ‘06) and has won top prizes in numerous competitions, among them the Silver Medal at the Calgary International Organ Festival and First Prize in both the Mader and Poister National Organ Competitions.

Bach published four volumes of his own keyboard music in a series entitled Klavierübung (“Keyboard Practice”). The Dritter Theil (“Third Volume”), his first published organ music, features a brilliant cycle of 27 masterworks united by a great musical and theological design. Bach published it in 1739, the bicentennial of Martin Luther's sermon at Leipzig's Thomaskirche and of the city’s official acceptance of Luther’s Augsburg Confessions. Klavierübung III consists of a monumental Praeludium, 21 chorale preludes, four Duets and the closing Fugue which is popularly known as the “St Anne.”

Members of CASP will sing the various Chorales on which the Preludes are based to further highlight Bach’s great liturgical and theological masterpiece. This concert will be presented in the Gothic Revival Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in downtown Philadelphia. The 1937 Aeolian-Skinner organ is a nationally renowned landmark instrument of over 100 ranks and well suited for the interpretation of the music of Bach.