Barbara Dennerlein, A flight over keys and pedals

The organist Barbara Dennerlein excelled in March at the concert in the Annakirche in Aachen. Stylistically diverse and rousing, she explored the tonal possibilities of the organ - and received thunderous applause from the audience.

The Aachener Anzeiger news reported about the concert: "The organ is considered to be the Queen of Instruments. For Barbara Dennerlein it is easy to subduing it. On Friday night, the world-renowned jazz organist delighted the Aachen audience at the sold out opening concert. ... Dennerlein took the Annakirche with about 400 seats and the Aachen audience to her heart during her first visit a few years ago. Now she should also be pleased about a 2016 built, computer-controlled setting device in the Weimbs organ, which made her virtuoso play even more relaxed, although organists always work with the whole body.

The 53-year-old always projects her performance in the church so that the listener becomes also a spectator. All four manuals of the Weimbs Organ - three for the hands, one for the feet - could be seen. That is another fascination at Dennerlein's performances, as one sees her hands and feet almost flying over the keys and pedals.

What matters most is the music she creates this way: in Aachen she presented six of her own jazz works and an encore that lost not a glimpse of fascination and enthusiasm while listening with closed eyes. Blues, Funk, Calypso - stylistically diverse and rousing, she explored the tonal possibilities of the organ. The "Early Bird BIues" had to be part of the program, said the musician and composer. Because the organ in the Annakirche has a whistle with a bird voice, the only register that still must be moved by hand. The "Waltzing Pipes" were in the programme thanks to the setting system, because even with all her dexterity, Barbara Dennerlein would not have been able to pull so many stops at the same time, as the piece demanded. At least with "Corean Smile" the audience knew, how virtuoso and expressive possibilities Dennerlein is able to play on the manuals. Almost casually, as if it were nothing, she pursued three different rhythms simultaneously.

The "Stormy Weather BIues", one of Dennerlein's best-known works, was missing just as little as "New York Impressions", an improvisation to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor and at the same time a musical symbol of the melting pot on the Manhattan River. Both rightfully tore the audience into storms of excitement. In the end, the audience gave standing ovations - thunderous cheers in the nave after a grand concert."