L’AQUILA – The second appointment of the 28th edition of the Organ Review promoted by the Società Aquilana dei Concerti “B. Barattelli” is scheduled Monday 24 June in the’Oratory of Sant’Antonio dei Cavalieri de Nardis located in Via San Marciano near Piazza Duomo, starting at 9.15pm. Here is kept a precious instrument built in 1650 by Luca Neri da Leonessa, a master craftsman who left precious jewels throughout the area, but few have survived to this day in excellent condition like this one which has started playing again after restoration work , in June 2022.
Guest of this special event is Claudius Astronius, a multifaceted musician, organist, harpsichordist, conductor of orchestras and prestigious groups, such as the “Harmonices Mundi” with original instruments. He was director, among other things, of the Theresia youth orchestra and is artistic director of the Antiqua Festival in Bolzano. Former member of board of directors of the Réseau Europeén de Musique Ancienne, he is a professor of harpsichord and historical keyboards at the Conservatory of Trapani.
Among his musical interests are also jazz and the contamination between different musical worlds: he won the Recanati Prize for songwriting for two consecutive years in 1996 and 1997, he worked with the Banda Osiris and collaborates regularly with the jazz singer Maria Pia de Vito and with Paolo Fresu, Gianluigi Trovesi and Michel Godard.
The program “Mantras” is original, engaging and innovative and involves the alternation of pieces by Bach, Frescobaldi, Valente, Rossi, Storace, authors of the seventeenth century, with works by the American composer Philipp Glass, such as “Music in contrary motion”, “Choosing life”, “Escape!” and the “Mad rush” work written in 1979 specifically to be performed on the organ.
The selected works have the characteristic of harmonic recurrences and the cyclicality of the sound material. After all, i Mantras they are instruments of thought to which sacred and liberating powers are attributed: a possible relationship between intellect and soul that uses recurring formulas, repetitions and modulations that gradually transcend meaning, to acquire pure sound value, also to support meditation.
All this in the architectural beauty and decorative refinement of the Oratorio de Nardis. Free admission.
