Poing's church musician Simon Bauer (20) played an impressive concert together with two other young organists.
On the Mühleisen organ in St. Michael's Church.
Poing – When three young men, church music students between the ages of 20 and 27, meet to elicit the maximum possible tones from an organ, the expectation of an acoustic experience could be great.
In fact, Simon Bauer, Moritz Bergmann and Patrick Pöppel transformed the room of the old Poinger parish church of St. Michael into a concert hall late on Saturday evening: After an hour of musical enjoyment, around 80 listeners rewarded the exceptional organists with standing applause.
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Moritz Bergmann, Patrick Pöppel and Poing's church musician Simon Bauer (from left).
© Johannes Dziemballa
Poing's church musician and organist Simon Bauer from Erding was able to play the piano at the age of five, and the organ was added later.
As soon as he had his A-levels in his pocket, he went to Munich and has been studying Catholic church music for two years.
Incidentally, the 20-year-old has already founded choirs and a schola in Poing in which Gregorian chants are performed.
Poing: Classical and jazz improvisations
His two fellow students are no less talented: Moritz Bergmann, 21, was born in Hamburg and grew up in Holzkirchen. He played the piano and organ as a child, received prizes for his ability, sings and also studies in Munich.
Patrick Pöppel, at 27 the eldest of the highly gifted trio, comes from the area around Ingolstadt and first learned electrical engineering.
In the meantime, however, he also plays an organ like a master and accompanies young people on mountain tours as a mountain guide in his free time.
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Community work on the organ.
© Johannes Dziemballa
They don't make a big fuss about their talents, after a brief welcome from Simon Bauer the performance begins, first with a solemn Prelude in C major by Dietrich Buxtehude.
What follows is a so-called “heroic piece” by the French composer César Frank, which sounds rather odd, polyphonic, almost dissonant – unfamiliar to the listener's ears when they think of an organ.
But they are soothed, because the well-known song "Wake up, calls us the voice" by Johann Sebastian Bach, the grand master of German church music, sounds more appropriate to a sacred space.
Poing: Three young organists delight the audience
The "Magnificat" by Heinrich Scheidemann, the scion of a family of organists from the 17th century, sounds with very fast runs on the manual, which only a master like Moritz Bergmann can master.
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.)
Simon Bauer manages a completely different kind of praise: He has set himself the task of transposing the well-known “Blue Moon” melody, a jazz evergreen, to an organ.
It's incredible how classic and modern this improvisation sounds at the same time, even if the basic melody by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart from the 1930s is immediately recognizable.
And yet this performance has something extraordinary, because it is atypical for churches, a treat for the ears to get in the mood for the second Advent.
Poing: Unusual concert with wonderful sounds
After that, Patrick Pöppel is allowed to use the keys and pedals again, masterfully converting the "Eternal Counsels" by Olivier Messiaen, an organist from France, into notes.
If you close your eyes, you could now imagine yourself on the shore of a calmly flowing body of water, soothing sounds in a time of great excitement.
Simon Bauer contests the finale with a fantasy by Irishman Charles Villiers Stanford.
What at first seems to ripple along in lovely, playful tones finally develops into a powerful intonation and thus shows the broad range that an organ offers when operated by experts.
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