20 OCT | Friday 9.30 pm
Church of São João Evangelista - Funchal
One organ, two organists
João Vaz, organ
Filipe Veríssimo, organ
One organ, two organists
Due to health reasons, the organist invited to the Inaugural Concert of the VIII Festival of Organ of Madeira had to cancel his trip.
Please consult the new program of the concert, which will take place on Friday 20 October at 9.30 pm in the Church of São João Evangelista (Colégio)
The new organ of the Colégio church, built by Dinarte Machado in 2008, was conceived with the purpose of providing this church – and the whole Region of Madeira – with an instrument suitable for the performance of a wide range of repertoire. This instrument became the epicentre of the Madeira Organ Festival since its first edition. Over the course of the last years, organists from all over the world played works from Cabezón, Coelho, Couperin, Bach, Mendelssohn, Ligeti and many others compositores from the sixteenth century to the present day.
Despite its ample versatility, the organ was designed and voiced basically with two different aestethic ideals in mind: the Iberian (and Portuguese) tradition and the North German school. The striking horizontal trumpets and the tipically Portuguese short-resonator reeds sound side by side with the bright Germanic mixtures and the bold pedal reeds. The aim of this hybrid concept was to create an instrument where both the central European repertoire and the works of the Iberian masters would sound convincing.
The programme of this evening explores this double personality. Music from Portugal and Spain, ranging from the late 1500s to the early 1800s, will make use of the wide sound palette of the organ, from the delicate 4-foot bourdon to the full power of the chamades. The central part of the programme is dedicated to two key figures in the history of the organ: Dieterich Buxtehude and Johann Sebastian Bach. The concert ends with a sonata by the Aragonese composer Ramón Ferreñac, written for two organists on one organ – a rather uncommon situation that allows extraodinary freedom to the players and dramaticaly increases the power of the instrument.
Anónimo Annonym (Espanha, séc. XVII)
¬ Cuatro piezas de clarines *
António Carreira (c.1530-c.1594)
¬ Canção *
Diogo da Conceição (séc. XVII)
¬ Meio registo de 2º tom *
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
¬ Chorale prelude «Vater unser im Himmelreich», BuxWV 219 *
¬ Chaconne in E minor, BuxWV 160 *
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
¬ Prelúdio e fuga em sol menor, BWV 535**
¬ Chorale prelude «Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme», BWV 645 **
Marcos Portugal (Portugal, 1762-1830)
¬ Organ sonata **
Ramón Ferreñac (Portugal, 1762-1830)
¬ Sonata de clarines en Sol mayor para órgano a cuatro manos
* João Vaz, organ
** Filipe Veríssimo, organ
Participants
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Born in Lisbon, João Vaz graduated in organ from the Higher School of Music in Lisbon, studying with Antoine Sibertin-Blanc, and from the Higher Conservatoire of Aragon, in Zaragoza, where he studies with José Luis González Uriol, on a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation. He has a doctorate in music and musicology from the University of Évora, where his thesis, on Portuguese organ music from the end of the ancien regime was supervised by Rui Vieira Nery. He has been extremely active internationally, both as a performer and as a teacher on organ courses, and as a jury member in competitions. He has made more than ten solo recordings, significant among them those made on historical Portuguese organs. As performer and musicologist he has paid particular attention to Portuguese sacred music, founding in 2006 the ensemble Capella Patriarchal, which he directs. His work in transcribing and editing, which he has been published in Portugal and Spain, covers works preserved in various Portuguese libraries and archives. He currently teaches organ at the Higher School of Music in Lisbon. He is artistic director of the Madeira Organ Festival and of the concert series featuring the six organs of the Basilica of the National Palace of Mafra (for the restoration of which he was a permanent consultant) and of the historical organ of the Church of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon, of which he became titular organist in 1997. |
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Filipe Veríssimo (Oporto, 1975) graduated in sacred music at the School of Arts of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, where he studied organ and improvisation with M. Bernreuther, J. Blasby and F. Lehrndorfer, choral conducting with Eugénio Amorim, Jorge Matta and Jorg Straube, and orchestral conducting with Cesário Costa. He attended various courses and master classes in organ with L. Antoniotti, O. Latry, E. Lebrun, P. Planiavsky, D. Roth and F. Stoiber, and choral conducting with H. Velten. In 2002, he was appointed Titular Organist and Chapel Master of the Church of Lapa (Oporto). Since then he has engaged, in close collaboration with Canon Dr Ferreira dos Santos, in intense activity as a conductor of both choir and orchestra, preparing and conducting some of the most important works in the choral-symphonic repertoire. As organist, he has given several concert tours, most of them as part of national and international organ festivals, in Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and Poland. He is a member of an international team or organists which has been undertaking, since 2009, a European concert tour of the work La Révolte des Orgues for grand organ, eight positive organs, percussion and conductor, by the renowned French organist and composers Jean Guillou. He has been awarded the 1st Prize of the First National Organ Competition. He has given the first performances of a number of works by Fr Ferreira dos Santos. |
Notes about the organ
Church of São João Evangelista (Colégio), Funchal
This instrument, with 1586 sounding pipes, is situated in a religious space with certain particularities. As a church typical of those belonging to Jesuit colleges, with a broad nave and quite a gentle acoustic, the organ had to be specially conceived, especially with regard to the measurements of the pipes. Thus all the pipework of the instrument has been specifically tailored to produce a full sound, and each stop produces a timbre with an individual personality, forming part of a harmonic ensemble based more on the sound of fundamentals and less on harmonics. It was also felt to be essential to give the instrument a certain ‘latin’ sonority that would favour performance of ancient music of the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese schools of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Another aspect to be taken into consideration was the need to complement the current range of organs available locally: the new organ responds in an ideal fashion to the performance of works of periods and of technical and artistic requirements that none of the 24 historic instruments of Madeira cater adequately for. It also enhances the range of organs that constitute the island’s heritage by being present in this particular religious space, as well as by existing side by side with other historical instruments. In the decision to build it for this church, not only were the issues of acoustic, aesthetic and liturgical space taken into account, but also the presence there of an important historic instrument which is currently on the list of instruments undergoing restoration.
I Manual - Órgão Principal (C-g’’’)
Flautado aberto de 12 palmos (8’)
Flautado tapado de 12 palmos (8’)
Oitava real (4’)
Tapado de 6 palmos (4’)
Quinzena (2’)
Dezanovena e 22ª
Mistura III
Corneta IV
Trompa de batalha* (bass)
Clarim* (treble)
Fagote* (bass)
Clarineta* (treble)
II Manual - Órgão Positivo (C-g’’’)
Flautado aberto de 12 palmos (8’)
Tapado de 12 palmos (8’)
Flautado aberto de 6 palmos (4’)
Dozena (2 2/3’)
Quinzena (2’)
Dezassetena (1 3/5’)
Dezanovena (1 1/3)
Címbala III
Trompa real (8’)
Pedal (C-f’)
Tapado de 24 palmos (16’)
Bordão de 12 palmos (8’)
Flautado de 6 palmos (4’)
Contrafagote de 24 palmos (16’)
Trompa de 12 palmos (8’)
Couplers
II/I
I/Pedal
II/Pedal
* horizontal reeds