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The monumental Sauer organ of the Evangelical City Church in Sibiu—Romania’s largest and one of Central Europe’s most noble concert instruments—became the living voice of centuries when Viennese organist Dr. Erzsébet Windhager‑Geréd sat down at its console. The program bridged the spirit of French post‑romantic mysticism, Hungarian transcendentalism, and Romanian folk vitality: Maurice Duruflé’s Suite op. 5, Franz Liszt’s “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam”, and Béla Bartók’s Romanian Dances.
Her interpretation combined Viennese clarity with the emotional directness that marks musicians formed within the multiethnic soundscape of Transylvania. The result was at once intimate and monumental—a dialogue between past and present told through pipes and pedals.

Duruflé’s Sound Cathedral
The evening opened with Maurice Duruflé’s Suite op. 5 (1933), a composition that fuses the harmonic refinement of the French organ school with the resonance of Gregorian chant.
Windhager‑Geréd approached the Prélude with measured grandeur, sculpting the long phrases while allowing Sauer’s shimmering flutes and mellifluous strings to breathe naturally. Her registration choices revealed deep familiarity with Duruflé’s tonal architecture: the Requiem‑like balance between mystical light and meditative shade.

In the turbulent Sicilienne, the listener could sense the Parisian elegance of Duruflé refracted through the warmer acoustics of Sibiu. The artist drew pastel colors from the upper manuals—celestes and nazards—allowing their oscillations to merge into a single, caressing motion.
The culminating Toccata, that notorious test of digital stamina and architectural imagination, was a masterclass in control. Rapid passages shimmered without aggressiveness; harmonic peaks emerged organically from the swirl. When the final pedal chords subsided, the silence that followed was almost physical—a collective intake of breath before the next act of transcendence.

Liszt’s Vision of Redemption
If Duruflé’s Suite builds an inner cathedral, Franz Liszt’s monumental Fantasy and Fugue “Ad nos, ad salutarem undam” constructs a cosmic one.
The work originates from a chorale in Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète, yet Liszt transforms it into a metaphysical journey from darkness to revelation.

Bartók’s Folk Spirit Reimagined
After such transcendence, Béla Bartók’s “Romanian Folk Dances” provided both release and homecoming. Far from a mere transcription, Windhager‑Geréd’s own arrangement for organ celebrated the rhythmic elasticity of the originals while exploring the instrument’s coloristic breadth. Each dance glimmered with character: the Brâul’s earthy humor, the Pe Loc’s melancholy drone, the Mărunțel’s ecstatic drive.

The concert also carried symbolic undertones. A Viennese musician of Transylvanian origin returning to play works rooted in the cultural landscapes of France, Hungary, and Romania: this mirrored the region’s complex legacy of shared heritage and mutual influence.

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Producer: Erzsébet Windhager-Geréd

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Duration: 50min
Date of premiere: 26.04.2026
Original title: ARS ORGANI VIRTVOSA
Austria