The sixth edition of OrgelMesse, the festival that brings together music, spirituality and art, kicks off this weekend. Fifty Masses with the accompaniment of the organ scheduled until October in 22 parish churches in the Vicenza area. About twenty organists involved in the project. The review is curated by the Vicenza Quartet Society in collaboration with the Vicenza International Historical Organ Festival, the Diocese of Vicenza and the Pedrollo Conservatory.
On Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 June the VI edition of the OrgelMesse kicks off, a series of 50 liturgical celebrations in which the organ will play a central role with the performance of solo pieces in four moments of the Mass: Entrance, Offertory, Communion and Farewell.
The initiative, born from an idea of Enrico Zanovello, is promoted by the Vicenza Quartet Society in collaboration with the Pedrollo Conservatory, the Diocese of Vicenza and the International Festival of Vicentino Historical Organs – A heritage to listen to.
About twenty young organists – some of them were born in the early 2000s – who trained in the Conservatories of Veneto, will alternate with the keyboards, pedalboards and registers of the precious pipe instruments of which the Vicenza area is particularly rich. Twenty-one parish churches will host at least two OrgelMesse until 23 October: from Agugliaro and Albettone, in the lower Vicenza area, to Velo d’Astico, Tonezza, Trissino, Thiene and Bassano del Grappa, with an encroachment on the parish church of Locara di San Bonifacio. , in the Verona area, dedicated to San Giovanni Battista.
As for the proposed pieces, this year more than in past editions the public will have the opportunity to discover small jewels from the seventeenth to the twentieth century composed by authors often little known by those who are not really an insider, without however leaving aside great masters like Bach , Frescobaldi, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi and Brahms. The 150 from the birth of Lorenzo Perosi and the 200 from César Franck will also be remembered through thematic programs. There will also be space for some organ improvisations, a practice that is making a comeback in Italy thanks to great performers and new teaching methods.
In addition to the rediscovery of the solo organ as an instrument at the service of the liturgy, for the faithful, music lovers or simply curious, the 50 OrgelMesse also want to be a cultural stimulus to get to know the wonderful organs preserved in the local churches and to discover the amenities offered. from the small towns of the Vicenza province.
It begins on Saturday 18 June with a double appointment. At 6 pm at the Church of SS. Martino and Giorgio di Velo d’Astico Giulio Bonetto presents pieces by Bach together with his improvisation, while at 6.30 pm at the parish church of Locara di San Bonifacio Tommaso Marcato engages with three Francophone authors of the late nineteenth century (Lemmens, Franck and Dubois) with an ending in the name of contemporary Londoner John Rutter.
Sunday 19 June at 10 there is an OrgelMesse at the Church of San Giuliano in Vicenza with the organist Stefano Scarpa (music by Italian composers of the eighteenth century) and at 11 at the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Longare Rosalba Cipriani proposes four interesting pieces by Stölzel , Moretti, Clerambault and an Anonymous from Pistoia from the 18th century.
The complete list of OrgelMesse is available on the Quartetto Society website at the address www.quartettovicenza.org