Musica Organi
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, Tennessee
Friday, April 11, 2003, 8:00 p.m.
| Praeludium ex C pedaliter | Georg Böhm (1661-1733) | |
| Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele (Partita) | Georg Böhm | |
| Canzon in C | Matthias Weckman (1616-1674) | |
| Praeludium in e | Nicolaus Bruhns (1665-1697) | |
| Gelobet seystu Jesu Christ (four variations) | Matthias Weckman | |
| Secundus versus Auff 2 Clavir | ||
| Tertius versus Auff 2 Clavir | ||
| Quartus Versus à 3 | ||
| Secundus Versus Auff 2 Clavir (Fantasy) | ||
| Intermission | ||
| Passacaglia in c, BWV 582, 1 | Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) | |
| Linguae tamquam ignis (1964/69) | Torsten Nilsson (1920-1999) | |
| (from Septem improvisationes pro organo) | ||
| From L'Ascension | Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) | |
| Transport de joie d'une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne | ||
| Alléluias sereins d'une âme qui désire le ciel | ||
| Fugue in c, BWV 582, 2 | Johann Sebastian Bach |
Hans Davidsson (b. 1958) received his Soloist Diploma in 1985 from the Conservatory of Göteborg, where he was a student of Hans Fagius. A special interest in early music led to three years of study with Jacques van Oortmerssen at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam and to graduate research on North German Baroque organ music for the University of Göteborg. For his doctorate, the first ever awarded in Sweden in the field of music performance, his dissertation was "Matthias Weckman: The Interpretation of His Organ Music," which included both an edition and a recording.
Davidsson became an organ teacher at the Conservatory of Göteborg in 1986 and since 1988 has been Professor of Organ. In 1989 he became responsible for establishing an organ center there for research in performance practice and the building of instruments according to historical principles. A seventeenth-century Baroque organ in North German style was inaugurated in 2000.
From 1995 to 2000 he was the director of the Göteborg Organ Art Center (GOArt), and he remains its General Artistic and Research Director. He is also the Artistic Director of the Göteborg International Organ Academy.
Since 2001, he has been Visiting Professor of Organ at the Eastman School of Music.
Because of his prominent role in making GOArt (and Göteborg) a global leader in organ innovation, Davidsson was awarded the prestigious ÅForsk research prize in 2001, the first time that the award has been given to someone who is not active primarily in the field of technology.
Davidsson has concertized widely in Scandinavia, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. Among his numerous recordings are the complete works of Matthias Weckman and Georg Böhm (the former, on the Motette label, features the famous Arp Schnitger organ of the Ludgerikirche in Norden).
His recently released French Symphonic Masterpieces, on the Loft label, includes works by Alexandre Guilmant, César Franck, Charles-Marie Widor, Jehan Alain, and Maurice Duruflé. It is the first American recording of the new organ built by Verschueren Orgelbouw BV (Heythuysen, The Netherlands) for the University of Göteborg in the style of the great nineteenth-century French organbuilder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.