The fourth and last organ matinee in the basilica in Altenstadt was played by Anton Guggemos, the long-time organist of the Wieskirche. In keeping with his temperament, he chose baroque music from Italy.
Altenstadt - The first item on the program was the mighty prelude to Psalm 18 by Benedetto Marcello. Guggemos knows many Italian organs and knows how to register in order to approximate their sound. He succeeded admirably in Pescetti's sonata in C minor.
In the Adagio one believed to hear a fine carillon. The most gifted Bach student, Johann Ludwig Krebs, was longing for the sunny south when he wrote his “Fantasia a giusto italiano” and a little bit of Christmas shepherd's sound flowed into it. The organist knew how to combine this with the Italian taste.
The origin of the following organ concert by Johann Gottfried Walther is not entirely clear: Does the original “Concerto grosso”, now arranged for organ, come from Joseph Meck, the prince-bishop's conductor from Eichstätt or from Vivaldi from Venice? In any case, it is a splendid piece of work that Guggemos played with verve and enthusiasm that one could not escape from. The final movement is joy turned into music - despite B minor.
The intimate Adagio by Benedetto Marcello with the virtuoso decorations by Johann Sebastian Bach led to the final piece by Giovanni Morandi (1777-1856), the most famous Italian organ composer of the 19th century. After a splendid instrumental movement, several variations on a fun theme follow, which the organist colored in with all the colors of the Link organ. He received great applause for this and thanked him in the Beethoven year with a piece by the young Bonn master, in which it is already indicated what was to follow: It is one of the numerous flute clock pieces for a mechanical musical mechanism.
Peter Paul Kulot