The Musica Senensis Festival continues on Tuesday 7 May at 7pm in Siena in the Basilica dei Servi, with a concert by organist Paolo Bottini.
The program of Paolo Bottini’s concert for Musica Senensis offers a tribute to important composers of the Servite order, the same one that hosts the event, with authors such as Ottavio Ariosti and Pellegrino Santucci, and continues with authors of the great repertoire including Giacomo Puccini and Gabriel Fauré whose centenary of death is celebrated this year, but also with Ferruccio Busoni and Théodore Dubois.
Paolo Bottini was born in Cremona, city of illustrious composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Tarquinio Merula and Amilcare Ponchielli. Graduated in organ, piano and harpsichord, since 1986 he has been responsible for the protection and valorisation of the “Lingiardi” organ (1865) of Croce Santo Spirito near Cremona. Since 2015 he has also performed liturgical service on the “Serassi” organ (1825) of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Campagna in Piacenza, an instrument made famous by Father Davide da Bergamo, the greatest organist of the Risorgimento, who wanted it and played it regularly. Liturgical organist by vocation, during the two-year period 2012-13 he served as substitute organist at the petit Cavaillé-Coll of the Trinity church in Paris, where the great Olivier Messiaen was the titular organist. Also in Paris, he obtained the qualification to practice the profession of liturgical organist issued by the diocese.
A concert performer since 1997, he is particularly careful in the search for original programs as well as in enhancing the orchestral qualities of the organs. Among the invitations received, the prestigious ones to the Magadino Festival (Switzerland) and the Auditions d’Orgue at Notre-Dame in Paris stand out. Since 2008 his recording production includes several CDs, some monographic (Verdi, Puccini, Ponchielli, Petrali, Picchi, Busoni, Valeri, Pescetti and Debussy). He was secretary of the “Italian Association of Church Organists” from 1998 to 2011. He is also the biographer of Federico Caudana (1878-1963), organist and chapel master of the Cathedral of Cremona, of whom he also edited the complete catalog of works . For twenty years he was a member of the Commission for Sacred Music of the Diocese of Fidenza and since 1991 he has been requested as a substitute on the “Mascioni” organ (1984) of the Cathedral of Cremona.
After Paolo Bottini’s concert, the next appointment for the Musica Senensis Festival, organized by the Agostino Agazzari Choir of Siena under the artistic direction of Cesare Mancini, will be held on Saturday 11 May at 7 pm in the Basilica dell’Osservanza, with the Choir of the Basilica of San Bernardino de L’Aquila directed by Francesco Lo Presti.
The concerts are all free admission.
