Classical music concert

An evening with Albert Schweitzer

Concert-reading in tribute to Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Texts on his thoughts and ethics, to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth in 2025, set to the music of JS Bach, alternating between violin and organ.

With Xavier Béja, narrator in French and German. Elsa Grether, violin and Damien Simon, Silbermann organ.

‘I cannot help but respect all living things, I cannot help but feel compassion for all living things: this is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics’. These were the words of Albert Schweitzer, who was a pastor, theologian, philosopher and doctor. But it is for his contribution to the re-reading of Bach's works at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as his essays and studies on the art of building organs and the art of playing the organ in Germany and France, that the native of Kaysersberg is remembered by music lovers. A pupil of Charles-Marie Widor in 1893 and 1898, with whom he collaborated on the edition of the works of the Leipzig Kantor, in 1905 he wrote ‘J.S. Bach, le musicien-poète’, which he translated into German himself and completed in the work known simply as ‘J.S. Bach’ in 1908. In his writings, A. Schweitzer highlighted the universality of Bach's genius, hitherto regarded as the master of purely formal beauty. He gave numerous concerts at the church of Saint Guillaume in Strasbourg, accompanied by his friend Ernest Munch and the Chœur de Saint Guillaume, and then at Saint Thomas, where in 1909 he organised the anniversary concert of the death of J.S. Bach, a tradition that continues to this day.
The Silbermann organ in the abbey church is a 3-manual instrument with mechanical action, a model that A. Schweitzer loved. Schweitzer. Damien Simon, titular organist of St Paul's Church and of the great organs of Strasbourg Cathedral, and the violinist Elsa Grether will be following in their elder's footsteps with a programme entirely dedicated to Bach. Between partitas for violin, chorales and preludes for organ, actor Xavier Béja will present the thoughts of the Nobel Peace Prize winner in the two languages he loved.