VADE MECUM OF A ROMANTIC ORGAN

The Festival Internacional de Música Antigua de Tenerife (Fimante) [Tenerife Early Music International Festival] and the Nova Ars Organorum (NAO) series present Vade mecum of a Romantic Organ.

Despite its limited number of stops, the Romantic organ at Iglesia del Pilar -built in 1923 by Basque-born Catalonian organ builder Lope Alberdi- allows a varied repertoire, which includes late Baroque with the transcription Johann Sebastian Bach did of Vivaldi’s concerto grosso, and Prelude and Fugue by the composer; also, truly Romantic examples like those by German Mendelssohn, a great admirer of the Cantor, whom he followed in his musical conceptions of the orga; the Belgians Cesar Franck and Lemmens as well as the versatile French musician Dubois. In them, Romantic expressiveness is represented in different ways as there are contrasts in the compositions, at times even in fragments, of intimate, softened sonorities with other powerful and grandiose that fill the naves of the church. The French and Belgian composers are experts in achieving this effect, having developed a line of work very different from their German contemporary colleagues.