Farewell to the organ: cathedral organist Still plays Bach and Mendelssohn!

Farewell to the organ: cathedral organist Still plays Bach and Mendelssohn!

A very special event awaits music lovers in the Palatinate on October 8, 2025. This is the farewell concert of Trier cathedral organist Josef Still, who will begin his well-deserved retirement after 31 years. The concert will take place in the Protestant Church of Thaleischweiler as part of the International Organ Weeks in Rhineland-Palatinate and ends on October 24, 2025 at 7 p.m Rhine Palatinate reported.

Josef Still, born in Deggendorf in 1959, not only worked as an organist at the Hohen Domkirche St. Peter in Trier, but also demonstrated his artistic abilities in many concerts at home and abroad. At his farewell concert he will play works by two of the greatest composers of organ music: Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn.

Bach and Mendelssohn in focus

Still will perform pieces that Felix Mendelssohn presented in Leipzig's Thomaskirche in 1840. When re-enacting the concert, the talented organist deals with Mendelssohn's registration practice and improvises in places where the master also improvised. You can hear, among other things, the Grave Adagio from Mendelssohn's Sonata II in C minor and the Fugue in E flat major (BWV 552) by Bach. Wikipedia emphasizes that Mendelssohn's organ sonatas op. 65 are considered masterpieces and are part of the core repertoire of organ music.

The following will be heard at the concert:

• Mendelssohn: Grave-Adagio aus der Sonate II in c-Moll
• Bach: Fuge Es-Dur (BWV 552)
• Bach: Choral „Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele“ (BWV 654)
• Bach: Präludium und Fuge a-Moll (BWV 543)
• Mendelssohn: Allegretto F-Dur aus der Sonate IV in B-Dur (Pausenstück)
• Bach: Passacaglia und Fuge c-Moll (BWV 582)
• Bach: Pastorale F-Dur (BWV 590)
• Bach: Toccata und Fuge d-Moll (BWV 565)
• Mendelssohn: Allegro moderato e serioso aus Sonate I
• Mendelssohn: Choral „Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh’ allzeit.“

A new building in a historicizing style

The organ in Thaleischweiler, which is a new building in the historicizing style of the original Stumm organ, offers the perfect setting for this finale. The concert break is filled with an Allegretto from one of Mendelssohn's sonatas, which makes for a pleasant interruption. A special highlight of the concert is the inclusion of Still's improvisations, which provide a deep insight into the musicality of this great organist.

In addition to his impressive skills in the art of playing the organ, Josef Still is also an organ expert for the diocese of Trier and has made a name for himself through numerous CDs and concerts. His farewell will be a memorable event for which admission is free. This concert not only brings his musical career to an end, but also recalls the perspectives and challenges of organ music, which were deeply influenced by Mendelssohn and Bach Trier Cathedral notes.