International Organ Festival “Città Di Bergamo” September 27 - October 25

XXVII Edition 2019 International Organ Festival “Città di Bergamo” September 27 - October 25 Free entrance supported by l a v i The Festival history t The International Organ Festival “Città di Bergamo” was born s at the beginning of the Nineties as a gamble among friends. e Convinced of the need to bring to the town an international top circuit of concerts, especially considering the quality and PROVINCIA DI BERGAMO Comune di Bergamo F variety of its organs, in 1992 the association Vecchia Bergamo organized a ‘test’ concert. Jean Guillou, one of the most famous 9 contemporary players in the world and titular of the great organ 1 at St.Eustache in Paris, was invited with a special mission: to n introduce the improvisation on themes given by the audience in 0 his program. a 2 As a matter of fact this art, which is considered as a fundamental g pillar by all northern European organ Schools, had practically - r disappeared from the Italian churches in the last fifty years. The clear goal was to show and consequently to measure the reactions of the public, on how much the interpreter’s capability ” O in communicating his own unique feeling is of basic importance to create a larger popular interest around organ music, which o l up to that time was considered a specialists’ niche. The success was so great and enthusiastic that the year after a m the International Organ Festival started officially on the big Serassi organ at S.Alessandro della Croce in Pignolo: a perfect n a instrument, just restored, for portraying a wide range of music and, at the same time, for representing worthily the important o g organ builders’ tradition of our land. i r t The guidelines and contents of the Festival were, and still are, the following: to focalize on the real actor of the event - the e interpreter - with his skill in guiding the audience through a emotions and spirituality; to systematically spread the B improvisation, an art where the personality and ability of the n player are joined in an unrepeatable moment, revealing the i r real soul of the musician; to invite top international artists, particularly those who are engaged in teaching plans or e recording projects of well known interest; to introduce a young d t organist, winner of an important International Competition held the year before; to explore, with no inhibitions or limits, all the organ literatures, including contemporary music, and n à promoting forgotten or unknown composers. I t t A key point of the immediate Festival success has been its strong I didactic approach: we prepare for each concert detailed ‘guides i I for listening’, not the usual list of birth dates, names, places and so on, but a real explanation of the structures of the played C V pieces, their styles, and the historical links among them. and under patronage of “ Few years later, in 1997, the municipality of Bergamo asked X Vecchia Bergamo to expand the International Organ Festival to the whole town, donating the title “City of Bergamo”. X l l a a v v i i Four churches among the most representative ones were The XXVII edition t t selected for the qualities of the organs there preserved: Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Cathedral, S.Alessandro della This year, beyond the usual excellence of the invited artists s s Croce church, S.Maria Immacolata delle Grazie church. - enhanced by the extraordinary presence of a baroque music e e star like Ton Koopman - there are two events, both inauspicious, The reason of these choices is easy to understand: the which will imprint in our hearts an indelible memory of this F F characteristics of the instruments are very different but twenty-seventh edition. complementary. They are the highest artistic expression in the The first is the disappearance, on January 2 6, of our beloved 9 town of four different Italian firms: two of them, ancient, 9 Jean Guillou. Those who follow us from the first steps know very with mechanical action and pipes from the XVIII century, are 1 1 n n well how much the figure of this genius of our times has inspired manufactured by the families Serassi and Bossi, historical rivals our choices. We were - and always will be - very close to him. It is 0 in Bergamo; the other two, modern, with electrical action, by 0 a a not just about affection for man, gratitude for his friendship and Vegezzi Bossi and Balbiani, represent the only sample in the generosity, admiration for his unparalleled art, amazement at 2 town of the Romantic Organ (S.Maria Maggiore) and of the 2 g g his incredible artistic longevity, but a sincere intimate gratitude Caecilian Organ (Grazie). for pointing us with his example, with his ideas, with his tenacity - - r r Since 2004, the oldest organ of the city - a little portable one, against the tide, a road of truth and beauty, which we have manufactured by an anonymous in the second part of the XVII made ours, and tried to honor with great dedication. ” ” O O century, at the Madonna del Giglio church, just restored - has The second, terrible, the burning of ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ on been added, allowing the Festival to offer sometimes more than April 15. The shocking images of the wretched devastation that o o l l four centuries of organ music. struck one of the symbols of Christianity have horrified the whole world. For us - always friends of one of the oldest and most Recently other important instruments are available for the a a prolific musical institutions in the organ field, with whom m Festival: the renewed Mascioni organ, built in 1906 at Alfredo m we have established repeated collaborations - an anguish, if Piatti Hall, where particular ensembles or unusual artistic proposals possible, even more profound, in the uncertainty, then thwarted, n n a can be happily managed; the dazzling totally new big Corna a that even the great organ Cavaillé-Coll could be destroyed. organ, installed nine years ago in Cathedral, based on a very o o For an inexplicable design of destiny, when these dramatic g interesting and original modern project; the renaissance organ g events happened, our program was ready, foreseeing Vincent i i built by Giovanni Pradella for the Santa Cecilia Musical r r Dubois, the very new Notre-Dame organist, for the inauguration t t Academy; the three keyboard organ built in 1884 by Giacomo in Bergamo Dom on September 2 7 to perform, among other e Locatelli in S.Bartolomeo church. e things, the big Liszt Fantasy ‘Ad nos’, one of the most loved by a a This richness and variety of organs attract many foreign players Jean Guillou, who played it in his last appearance at the Festival B and teachers too, choosing Bergamo as a favourite place for B in 2010, for the inauguration of the same Corna organ. n n holding visits and master classes with their pupils. In summer So, after Guillou’s sudden dead, the whole program, rotating 20 14 the ‘Gesellschaft der Orgelfreunde’ (Association of the i i r r around that piece, was modified and dedicated to his memory. Organ Friends), the biggest one in Europe with more than 6000 Then, the fire, the fear, the darkness, the desolation of everyone, e members, has visited Bergamo for its annual meeting. In one e d d especially that of our young guest in having to give up for who t week we offered to the 196 participants the audit of 33 organs t in the city and in the province, 28 dedicated concerts, 4 concerts knows how many years to carry out such a prestigious task, achieved with passion and sacrifices. open to all citizens, 1 masterclass on ancient music, 1 symposium n n à on Bergamo organs history, 1 gala dedicated to a collection of à That’s why we are sure that Dubois’s concert will be an I I t rare harmoniums. t extraordinary evening, full of pathos, beauty and... hope. We t t invite all people of gentle heart to huddle around him, on a night I Currently the Organ Festival is one of the most loved and I of prayer, in music, for Jean, for all of us, for the destinies of i i I I well attended musical attractions in Bergamo. Its reputation is humanity. renowned in all Europe, and many foreign tourists often decide But emotions will not end with the inauguration... C C V to spend a week-end in October for visiting our town due to the V organ concerts. This English version of the official brochure has The second appointment, on October 4 in the Basilica of Santa “ been conceived especially for them, and for all the non-Italian “ Maria Maggiore, is with a great interpreter and teacher, Stefan X mother-tongue who wish to be introduced into the magic world X Engels. He is the first and only one in the world who has faced of Bergamo organs sound. the recording of the entire production of Sigfried Karg-Elert, X X l a v i the successor of Max Reger at the Conservatory of Leipzig, and Program t like him remained impervious to the violent dodecaphonic transformations of the second Viennese school. The immense s record operation has allowed to introduce works never e performed in modern times, gaining wide praise from the international criticism. The intentionally non-monographic F program revolves around a lovely parallelism between Karg-Elert Cathedral and the king of counterpoint, J.S.Bach, even in the field of 9 transcription, ending with the hyperbolic synthesis of the Città Alta Passacaglia and Fugue on his name.

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