Madeira Organ Festival 2012

Music and Heritage

The organ heritage of Madeira has, in recent years, received special attention, in the sense that it was possible to give a strong impetus to the process of recovery and restoration of several of these historic instruments, making them suitable to be played in their respective churches. The master organ builder Dinarte Machado was responsible for this long work of conservation of this heritage memory, and was also the builder of a new organ for the Colégio Church, a process that was developed in close cooperation with the Diocese of Funchal, in a cultural policy strategy that has always sought to create conditions not only for increased visibility for a unique area of our heritage, but also to enrich the cultural offerings available in this Autonomous Region.

Thus, the combination of the historical organs, with the specificity of their musicological profile, and the great organ of the Colégio church, with its wide range of repertoire possibilities, created the adequate technical basis for the programming of a Festival which, for the first time in the Region, would allow the best of ancient and modern music to be heard in the specific context of this heritage (both movable and immovable), where the enjoyment of these assets of our cultural heritage would become more true and coherent. This visibility and dissemination strategy is naturally part of the continuity of a series of actions already undertaken with the recovery of the historical organs, such as recording and publishing CDs with repertoires specific to each of the instruments, and the recent publishing of the inventory of Madeira's historical organs.

The III Organ Festival of Madeira, which will take place from October 19th to 29th, will therefore allow us to reach the highest level of the goal that was implicit in this recovery and dissemination strategy: to integrate the historical organs, and even more so, the new organ of the Colégio church, in a project that, by valuing their unique importance in terms of music, would bring a significant enrichment to our regular programming, in terms of supply, attraction, and consolidation of cultural audiences. Under the artistic direction of João Vaz, who prepared a diversified and quality program, according to the profile and potentialities of the different instruments, this Festival will make it possible to listen, in different churches in Madeira, to works by the most renowned composers in the areas of ancient music and sacred music, in differentiated interpretative registers, in which the "king of instruments" is accompanied by singing, choir and strings, providing the audience with moments that will certainly be of the highest musical and artistic elevation.

The Organ Festival is integrated in the project "Madeira Cultural Festivals", co-funded by EU funds, and is a brand promoted by the Regional Secretariat of Culture, Tourism and Transport, through the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs, which seeks to expand and qualify the cultural offerings in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, providing residents, but also promoting in the broader market of cultural tourism, what is the best of our identity, in terms of heritage, art and culture.

João Henrique Silva
(Regional Director of Cultural Affairs)

The Madeira Organ Festival has assumed itself, since its first edition in 2010, as a unique organ event in the Portuguese panorama.

Firstly, because it is the natural result of a consistent effort to recover and enhance the organ heritage. This effort, developed by the Autonomous Region of Madeira for over a decade, is witnessed not only by the various restored instruments and the construction of the new organ of the Colégio Church, but also by the promotional activities promoted over time: four record editions, dozens of concerts and the recent launch of the inventory Organ of the Churches of Madeira, the first work of its kind published in Portugal.

Secondly by the variety of programming, which results largely from the characteristics of the instruments themselves. Madeira presents a remarkable diversity in its organistic heritage, which includes, besides a new instrument dedicated to the performance of classical repertoire, historical organs from the 18th and 19th centuries of the Portuguese, Italian, and English schools. This diversity - which can also be seen in the size of the instruments - is a challenge for a program that aims to include, as far as possible, all the organs in the region.

In this third edition of the Madeira Organ Festival, three recitals on the Colégio Church organ will offer a panorama of the European organ repertoire from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, while the historical instruments from the Matriz Church of Machico and Santa Clara Convent will have the opportunity to shine with programs of ancient Hispanic and Italian music. The remaining program includes concerts where the organ appears alongside various soloists or formations (solo voice, violin, children's choir, or renaissance wind instruments), as well as a four-hand organ recital.

We believe that, throughout these eleven events and through the hands of eight Portuguese and foreign organists, the public of the Madeira Organ Festival will once again be able to enjoy the richness and diversity of the organ repertoire, while appreciating the versatility of the region's organs.

João Vaz