Gallery
Organ Liszt
Organ Liszt presents Franz Liszt as one of the leading figures of the Romantic organ repertoire. Set within the historic St. Martin’s Cathedral—once the coronation church of the Kingdom of Hungary and one of Bratislava’s most significant heritage landmarks—the programme places Liszt’s music in dialogue with works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Ján Levoslav Bella.
The legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach runs throughout the programme, from Liszt’s monumental Variations on “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen…” to the concluding Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H, while Bella’s Fantasy Sonata in D minor offers a distinctive Slovak contribution to the Romantic organ repertoire.
Programme
- Franz Liszt: Variations on Bach’s Theme “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen”
- Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Organ Sonata No. 6 in D minor
- Ján Levoslav Bella: Fantasy Sonata in D minor
- Franz Liszt: Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H
Performer
Marek Vrábel
Marek Vrábel is one of the leading representatives of Slovak organ performance. After studying in the organ class of Emília Dzemjanová at the Conservatory in Košice, he graduated in 1998 in organ performance under Ján Vladimír Michalko. He further expanded his artistic education through international masterclasses with Jean Guillou, Susan Landale, and Reitze Smits. He completed his doctoral studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under the guidance of Ivan Sokol and Ján Vladimír Michalko.
He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and diplomas from competitions and performance festivals. Among his most prestigious honors are the Sebastian Award presented by Ars ante Portas for his outstanding contribution to preserving the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Fra Angelica Award granted by the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia for his personal contribution to Christian values in the musical arts, and the Frico Kafenda Award of the Slovak Music Fund for his exceptional artistic achievements and long-term promotion of Slovak organ music both in Slovakia and abroad.
As a soloist, he has performed with the State Philharmonic Košice under the baton of Bystrík Režucha, Stanislav Macura, and Marián Vach, with the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina conducted by Róbert Stankovský, and with the Slovak Philharmonic under Ondrej Lenárd, Vladimír Válek, Peter Feranec, Emmanuel Villaume, Petr Altrichter, and Daniel Raiskin.
He has given more than 200 solo recitals in Slovakia and abroad. To date, he has completed 81 international concert tours across 24 European and Asian countries, performing at prestigious organ festivals in cities including Astana, Bern, Brașov, Budapest, Bucharest, Caen, Frankfurt am Main, Helsinki, Karaganda, Katowice, Chișinău, Kraków, Lisbon, Lahti, Ljubljana, Lublin, Munich, Prague, Rome, Sibiu, Stockholm, Tampere, Tashkent, Warsaw, and Vienna.
A highly sought-after chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with leading Slovak and international artists. He has recorded eight CDs, including the complete solo organ works of Štefan Németh-Šamorínsky for the Diskant label.
He is also active as a music writer and lecturer, having given lectures at universities in Moldova, Poland, Portugal, and Uzbekistan. He regularly presents world premieres of works by contemporary Slovak composers, including Ľuboš Bernáth, Norbert Bodnár, Lukáš Borzík, Peter Breiner, Ivan Hrušovský, Víťazoslav Kubička, Milan Novák, and Marek Piaček. Several composers have dedicated works to him. As part of his doctoral concerts, he introduced the Slovak premieres of organ works by Petr Eben at Slovak Radio.
He records for Slovak Television and Radio (STVR), Czech Television, MSP Records, Inedita Austria, Diskant, and other labels. He serves on the Board of the Association of Concert Artists and is a member of the Council for Science, Education and Culture of the Conference of Bishops of Slovakia. He is regularly invited to serve on juries of international organ competitions, and his students have received numerous prestigious international awards.
For fifteen years he taught externally at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. He was also the founder and artistic director of the Bratislava Organ Festival for ten years. Since 1997, he has taught organ performance at the Church Conservatory in Bratislava, where he has served as Director since 2019.