Concentus Angelorum and Concentus Lucensis concert. Church of San Pedro (Lugo). Photo: Diocese of Lugo.
The Lugo Organ Festival of Corpus Christi, is one of the most important initiatives dedicated to organ repertoire in Spain. Born nine years ago, since its first edition, the festival has attracted the most well-known and renowned European soloists to Lugo.
The goals of the festival have been clear from the beginning. Firstly, it serves as a meeting point between foreign soloists and the most important musical realities in Lugo. Each year, the festival lineup has included at least one concert featuring collaboration between one of the oldest and most active vocal ensembles in Lugo, Solo Voces, the Orfeón Lucense, the vocal quartet Son de Corda, and a foreign organist of clear fame. The satisfaction and mutual enrichment resulting from these encounters have been the outcome of these collaborations. They have even led to the creation of a new permanent ensemble, the Concentus Lucensis, whose members are the directors and principal soloists of Solo Voces, the Orfeón Lucense, and the Gruppo vocale S. Bernardo, an ensemble that primarily operates between Saronno (Italy) and Lugano (Switzerland).
One of the festival’s aspirations is to promote the value of the Musical Archive of the Cathedral. As a fundamental center of the Roman Empire and, consequently, of the Christian era, Lugo has hoarded over the centuries, in the archive of its Cathedral, works of notable importance, including those by great masters of the 20th century. Each edition of the festival always includes the performance of at least one piece from the Archive, offering the audience a precious and still relatively unknown heritage.
Another successful tradition of the Festival is the concert characterized by the contemporary use of the two organs housed in the Lugo Cathedral. In reality, having two closely located organs in the choir loft was quite common in Spanish cathedrals. However, nowadays it is more challenging to find two instruments in good condition and with matching pitch. The repertoire for two organs constitutes a fascinating musical heritage worthy of rediscovery. This literature consists mainly of transcriptions, particularly of orchestral works, as well as original pieces of great beauty.
The fourth purpose of the Festival is to enhance the most artistically significant places of worship in the city. The festival not only resonates within the magnificent Cathedral, a World Heritage site, but also traditionally performs in other important churches in Lugo. This year, the festival program includes a concert at the church of Santiago A Nova and one in the splendid church of S. Pedro, which has recently been restored.
Moreover, the Lugo Organ Festival of Corpus Christi is a leading participant in the transnational initiative “La música del peregrino” (The Music of the Pilgrim). This is a network of nine international music festivals: four in Spain, in the Diocese of Lugo, two in Lugano and one in Morbio Inferiore, Switzerland, and two in northern Italy, in Saronno. These nine initiatives, in addition to sharing artistic direction, mainly have in common the idea of the journey, applied to multiple aspects: from the spiritual and artistic dimensions to, obviously, the musical one.
CONCERTS PROGRAMME
Wednesday 27th maio 2024, 20.45 h
Santa María Cathedral
Eugenio Maria Fagiani, organ
Orfeón Lucense with Marcos Mosquera as conductor.
Thurday 30th maio 2024. 20.45 h
Santa María Cathedral
Felipe Lopez, organ
Solo Voces with Fernando G. Jácome as conductor
Monday 3rd june 2024, 20.45 h
Santiago A Nova Church
Noemi Mazoy, soprano
Giulio Mercati, organ
Tuesday 4th june 2024, 20.45 h
Santa María Cathedral
Mateusz Rzewuski, organ
Fabio Ciofini, organ
Filarbrass- Metals Quartet from the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lugo
Thursday 6th june 2024, 20.45 h
Santa María Cathedral
Concertus Lucensis
Alessandro Marangoni, piano
Mattia Marelli, armónium
Gioulio Mercati, conductor
The “International Organ Festival” was born with the desire to solemnize the feast of Corpus Christi, which is celebrated uniquely in Lugo.
In this city and its Diocese, an integral part of the Camino de Santiago, faith has been understood and professed for many centuries through the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, His permanent presence among us. This knowledge of the Lord’s loving sacrifice, fully realized in the Eucharist, is undoubtedly the first heritage left among us by the Apostle.
In sacred music, played on the organ, the beauty of this profound presence will resound, perceived and expressed by artists throughout the centuries. It will help us enter into the breadth and depth of this singular miracle of love, where God and humanity unite on this earth.
For “music, the true universal language of beauty, is capable of uniting people of good will and inviting them to lift their gaze towards the Heights, opening themselves to the absolute Good and Beauty, whose ultimate source is God Himself” (Benedict XVI).
This festival in Lugo is included for the first time in a network of international festivals of sacred music called “The Music of the Pilgrim,” which will be celebrated in Lugano (Switzerland), Milan, and Saronno (Italy). All of them have the common bond of the Camino de Santiago, a unique European path for the proclamation of the apostolic message, and the sensory expression of this faith through organ music and the artistic riches of various Churches and Basilicas.
Alfonso Carrasco Rouco.
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