Albert Schweitzer: |100 Years in Lambarene

Organist and jungle doctor, theologian and building manager, charity fundraiser and academic: Albert Schweitzer is one of the most fascinating personalities of the 20th century – far beyond any interests in intellectual history. On the 100th anniversary of the foundation of his ‘jungle hospital’ at Lambarene, Rondeau Production dedicates a very special Bach recording to this man of the arts, of thought, of faith, and – most importantly – of action. Ullrich Böhme, organist at St Thomas Leipzig, performs at Albert Schweitzer’s central musical homestead, St Thomas’s church at Strasbourg. The programme recalls the occasion which the Bach scholar and internationally renowned Bach performer Albert Schweitzer nurtured and installed as a tradition at St Thomas Strasbourg: the concert commemorating the anniversary of Bach’s death on 28 July, performed at the biggest, largely extant Silbermann organ at Strasbourg. Ullrich Böhme, whose own initial contemplation of Johann Sebastian Bach was fostered by Albert Schweitzer’s Bach monograph, has created a particularly striking programme for his homage to Schweitzer. It follows the proportions of Schweitzer’s performances on the anniversary of Bach’s death, and it contains only works which Schweitzer played on this occasion. All of these concerts were dominated by Bach’s legendary death chorale “Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit”.