Sonate für Orgel op. 92/1 (1941)

Certainly not an "Advent piece", this work may nevertheless fit into a pre-Christmas period characterized by wars and displacement worldwide: Ernst Krenek (1900-1991) composed his Sonata for Organ op. 92/1 in exile in California in 1941, after he had left his Austrian homeland in 1938 for fear of the growing strength of National Socialism.

The short, highly expressive piece races by like a storm: four short movements (Allegro, ma non troppo, energico / Andante sostenuto / Allegro scherzando /Tempo I (Allegro)) merge seamlessly into one another and simultaneously represent the formal sections of a main sonata movement (exposition, two-part development and recapitulation) - a "double-function form", as Franz Liszt, for example, developed in his magnificent Piano Sonata in B minor. Only with Krenek, everything is much more concise, concentrated and breathless - music that, to my ears, reflects the tragedy and horror of war and expulsion, but also a defiant will to persevere.

And if we remember that the Christ child also had to flee from the murderers shortly after his birth, perhaps this is an Advent piece after all?