The Musical Offering of J.S. Bach

Moscow
On March 14 Sts Peter and Paul Lutheran Church, supported by the German Embassy, hosted a concert of the famous German organist Martin Welzel as part of the fifth “Musical Offering of J.S. Bach Festival.” The program of the concert included works by the German composers J.S. Bach, J. G. Rheinberger, M.Regera and also French masters of organ music Louis Verna and Jean Langlais.
Martin Welzel is one of the world’s foremost contemporary organists. He was born in 1972 and received his education at the Higher School of Music in Saarbrücken , then in Washington University in Seattle. He has had the opportunity to give solo concerts in Notre Dame de Paris, in St. Paul Cathedral, in Westminster Abbey in London, at the cathedral of Stanford University (USA) and many other prestigious places throughout the world. Professor Welzel also teaches at the University of Ludwig-Maximilian in Munich.
The concert was opened with words by Archbishop Dietrich Brauer and by the permanent vice-Ambassador of Germany, Beate Grzeski, who directed attention to the fact that Johann Sebastian Bach was a Lutheran and supported the Reformation and added: “in Russia there is a special appreciation of this composer. His works were performed here even at the time when they were forgotten in Western Europe.”
The Archbishop emphasized that the concert is taking place in the year of the 333 birthday of the great composer: “The language of Bach is the language of faith, the language of eternity. Therefore it is accessible and understandable for any person whose soul is directed toward Divine mystery and who longs for its presence. I express my heartfelt thanks to the German Embassy and to the wonderful organist Martin Welzel for the musical gift of this evening and also for all of you who take part in this good deed, since the funds gathered at this concert will be donated to the Carl Blume home for the elderly in the Kaliningrad oblast.”
The Carl Blume House is one of the most important diaconal projects of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia. It receives no state help and run solely on the support of donations from the church.
Many fans of organ music came to the concert; not only was the sanctuary full, the balcony was as well. Representatives of the German embassy and other invited guests were in attendance.
Julia Vinogradova