Le Nuove Musiche Voyage à travers les 20ème et 21ème siècles Scandali

An anthology of recent compositions for organ, written during the last seven decades, is showcased here on the new Dell’Orto & Lanzini organ (2011) at the Madonna di Fatima Parish Church in the town of Pinerolo, near Turin in Italy’s Piedmont region. Yet this exiting new material is not without acknowledgement of the past, as some of the selected pieces pay homage to styles, musical languages and composers of yesteryear. Likewise the organ, though newly constructed, is modelled on those crafted by celebrated 17th-century builder Arp Schnitger, whose instruments abounded in the Hanseatic area of northern Europe during the Baroque era. Apart from the renowned, late composers Ligeti and Eben, the music is by living authors from a variety of European backgrounds. György Ligeti’s popular Musica ricercata, from early in the Hungarian composer’s career, is represented here by three of its movements, transcribed for organ by the artist, Luca Scandali, himself. Themes by the great Baroque musician Buxtehude provide material for Czech composer–organist Petr Eben. The two youngest composers on the programme, Pier Damiano Peretti and Daniele Venturi hail from Italy, while the German-speaking pair, Jürgen Essl and Franz Danksagmüller, both studied with Michael Radulescu in Vienna. Dutch composer Bert Matter contributes a theme and variations on a 16th-century French song, and Belgian Bernard Foccroulle’s O quam pulchra es is written in the style of Baroque vocal music. Pari intervallo ushered in the beautiful ‘tintinnabuli’ style for which much-loved Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is well known. Anna Bofill Levi evokes the Costa Brava landscapes of her native Catalonia in two movements from her Six Pieces for Organ. For Watching, by post-minimalist British composer Graham Fitkin, Luca Scandali is joined by saxophonist Gianpaolo Antongirolami.