August 06, 2008
The 42nd edition of AsiagoFestival opens in the sign of Gregorian Chant
“Mihi Vivere Christus Est” at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Saturday, July 26 at 9 p.m.
42nd ASIAGOFESTIVAL July 26 – August 20, 2008
THE 42nd EDITION OF ASIAGOFESTIVAL OPENS IN THE SIGN OF GREGORIAN SINGING
“MIHI VIVERE CHRISTUS EST” AT THE DUOMO DI SAN MATTEO, SATURDAY, JULY 26 AT 9 p.m.
It will be the Gregorian Choristers conducted by Fulvio Rampi to open the 42nd edition of AsiagoFestival, Saturday, July 26 (9 p.m. – free admission) in the Asiago Cathedral of St. Matthew.
It opens, so, in the sign of Gregorian Chant and the Pauline year the 2008 edition of the event conceived and desired by Fiorella Benetti Brazzale (organist, concert pianist and composer and teacher native of Asiago, former teacher at the Conservatory “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice, founder of the Musical Institute City of Thiene, director of the Conservatorio “Arrigo Pedrollo” in Vicenza and titular organist of the Cathedral of Padua), who in the 1960s began inviting to Asiago some of the best internationally renowned performers and young Italian and foreign talents to compose eclectic posters attentive to organ and sacred music as well as chamber and contemporary music.
The program of the inaugural concert focuses its attention on the meditation that Gregorian chant has reserved for the texts of St. Paul, with pieces dedicated to the central themes of the life and preaching of the Apostle of the Gentiles, from his conversion to the conclusion of his so erta experience of faith, where the Paschal event of the Crucified-Resurrected constantly imposes itself as the absolute center of his life and thought. The Gregorian repertoire that makes it possible to travel this singular itinerary will therefore be presented in all its multicolored richness of forms and compositional styles by performers of the highest artistic profile, resounding among the ample and solemn vaults of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, where in October 2007 the 41st edition of AsiagoFestival ended with great success-and with the inauguration of the renovated Ruffatti organ. And from where, then, the commitment of the Association of Friends of Music of Asiago “Fiorella Benetti Brazzale”, resumes to give authentic pearls of Great Music.
Gregorian Singers. Male-voice vocal group dedicated exclusively to the study and di usion of Gregorian chant. Made up entirely of specialists, the ensemble bases its performance proposal on semiological investigation, that is, on the study of ancient manuscript sources dating from the 10th- 11th centuries. The group’s interpretive proposal aims to highlight, through the tools proper to semiology, the expressive power of Gregorian chant, that is, the correct musical re-presentation of the ancient exegetical tradition of the sacred texts. Founder and director of the group is Fulvio Rampi, doctor in Gregorian chant at the school of Luigi Agustoni, professor of Prepolyphony at the Conservatory of Turin and Maestro di cappella of the Cathedral of Cremona.
The Gregorian Singers boast numerous concerts in Italy and abroad.
Info for the public: 0424.464081 (U cio Turismo Comune di Asiago) www.asiagofestival.it
THE PROGRAM OF ASIAGOFESTIVAL
Saturday, July 26 at 21.00 – ASIAGO – Cathedral S.Matteo
“Mihi vivere Christus est”
Paul and the mystery of Christ in Gregorian chant
I “Cantori Gregoriani” director: Fulvio Rampi
Thursday, August 7 at 21.00 – ASIAGO – Church of S.Rocco
String Trio
Violin: Anna Tifu
Viola: Riszard Groblewski
Cello: Claudio Pasceri
music by: Schubert, Meyer, Beethoven
Saturday, August 9, 9 p.m. – ASIAGO – Church of S.Rocco Piano: Pietro De Maria
Music by : Chopin
Sunday, Aug. 10,
10:30 a.m. Council Chamber of City Hall
“MEETING WITH COMPOSER KRZYSZTOF MEYER” 9 p.m. – Church of S.Rocco
Piano:Pietro De Maria
Violin: Maddalena Reszler
Violin: Anna Tifu
Cello: Julius Berger
Music by: Krzysztof Meyer
first performance of duo for 2 violins
Tuesday, Aug. 12, 9 p.m. – ASIAGO – St. Rocco Church piano:Pietro De Maria
violin:Magdalena Reszler
cello:Julius Berger
music by: Schubert
Thursday, August 14 – ASIAGO – Church of S.Rocco
10:30 a.m. Council Chamber of the City Hall
Julius Berger
CD presentation ” Birth of the Cello”
Historical musicological introduction and performance of a selection of pieces from the RESEARCHES of Gianbattista Degli Antonii and Domenico Gabrielli
9 p.m.00 Church of S.Rocco
cello ensemble: “Cello Passionato”
Julius Berger, Hyun-Jung Berger, Anna Grendene, Alberto Brazzale Music by: Pachelbel, Suslin, Fitzenhagen, Kancheli, Bartok, Haydn
Friday, August 15, 9 p.m. – ASIAGO – St. Matthew’s Cathedral choir: Coenobium Vocale
director: Maria Dal Bianco
cello : Julius Berger and Hyun-Jung Berger
music by: Bonato, Perotinus, Miskinis, Lauridsen, first performance of: “O lilium convallium” for 2 cellos and spatialized male choir
Wednesday, Aug. 20, 9 p.m. – ASIAGO – St. Matthew’s Cathedral Organ : Anton Guggemos
soprano : Cecilia Tabellion
mezzo soprano : Gabi Steck
music by: Mouret, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Biechteler, Liszt, Rheinberger, Boellmann, Terziani, Salome, Saint-Saens, Mozart, Senaille, Bach
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: JULIUS BERGER FREE ENTRANCE www.asiagofestival.it
THE ORGANS AND THE HISTORY OF ASIAGOFESTIVAL
AsiagoFestival was born in the sixties thanks to the will and the work of Fiorella Benetti Brazzale, organist, concert pianist and composer and teacher native of Asiago, former teacher at the Conservatory “B.Marcello” in Venice, founder of the Istituto Musicale Città di Thiene, Director of the Conservatory “A.Pedrollo” of Vicenza and titular organist of the Cathedral of Padua, which, with the support of Don Antonio Bortoli’s Parish of St. Matthew, aims to contribute to the defense and di usion of musical culture by inviting to the plateau some of the best Italian and foreign performers and groups.
Thus were born the first concert cycles, which saw the growth year after year from scratch of an audience made up of vacationers and locals, who showed increasing appreciation for the musical offerings, a uendo season after season more and more numerous until very often filling the same Asiago Cathedral.
Benetti and other enthusiasts of the plateau continued their purpose with tenacity and dedication, so much so that the concert cycles in Asiago, always with free admission, became – in the 1970s – one of the national landmarks of sacred organ and choral music, thanks in part to the characteristics of the Ru atti organ and St. Matthew’s Cathedral itself.
Hundreds of performers have thus been guests of Asiago, including soloists of the caliber of Luigi Sessa, Fernando Germani, Wolfango Dalla Vecchia, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Peter Planjavski, Alessandro Esposito, Lukas, Gaston Litaize, Stefan Klinda, Julius Berger, Wolfgang von Karajan, or groups such as the Solisti Veneti or the Chamber Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, to name but a few.
By virtue of her particular sensitivity, Fiorella Benetti Brazzale also devoted much attention to composition and improvisation, as well as to the defense of the heritage of traditional local music of “Cimbrian” origin, also conducting various courses in composition, improvisation and interpretive improvement.
Beginning in the early 1980s Don Fernando Pilli, director of the Padua Cathedral Choir, to anchored Benetti Brazzale in the organization of the Festival; in those years various musical works, especially oratorios, were staged and performed, which met with great public favor.
Thus AsiagoFestival now spread over all the municipalities of the plateau, coming to o rire nearly fifty concerts over the summer months, managing in this context to give space even to young performers and local formations, which alternated with the names already a erminated in the international arena.
It had come into being, in short, an authentic cultural heritage that risked being squandered when Fiorella Benetti Brazzale died prematurely, in 1992. due to a cardiac arrest that struck her in the Cathedral of Asiago right at the end of a concert.
Aware of the enormous work and passion employed in her project by the enlightened musician, after her passing the friends of the Festival did not want to let such a wealth dissipate, also not to ignore the insistent requests of the a eager audience.
Thus was founded, in 1993, the “Cultural Association – Friends of Music of Asiago” , named after the founder and still chaired by her son, Roberto Brazzale. And Julius Berger, a world-renowned cellist and a person of particular cultural stature, o r enthusiastically offered his willingness to serve as artistic director of the Festival, to continue the tradition and spirit of its founder, so that AsiagoFestival was able to continue without interruption.
Berger’s activities made it possible to intensify relations with the Sommerakademie of the Mozarteum in Salzburg and with many artists of international value, both Italian and foreign, and thanks to the renovation of the hall of the former Cinema Grillo Parlante, the Festival was also able to develop the chamber music strand, which was much appreciated by the public.
GUEST COMPOSERS AND FIRST PERFORMANCES OF WORKS DEDICATED TO ASIAGO
Since 1998 Asiagofestival has begun the custom of inviting a composer of international renown, who is commissioned a work to be premiered during the festival. The presence of these great masters has made it possible to hold meetings with the public, who can converse directly with the great masters of composition, learn directly about their human and artistic vicissitudes.
Guests of the event have included Jean Guillou, Sofia Gubaidulina, Toshio Hosokawa, Luis De Pablo, Aldo Clementi, Jindrich Feld, Bertold Hummel, Viktor Suslin, Wilhelm Killmayr, Giovanni Sollima, and Thierry Escaich, who have dedicated their works to the City of Asiago.
THE ORGANIZATION AND SPONSORS
Asiagofestival is organized by the Cultural Association “Friends of Music of Asiago – Fiorella Benetti Brazzale”, in collaboration and with the contribution of the Parish of St. Matthew of the Municipality of Asiago. Fundamental in the economics of the Festival, however, is the contribution o erated by private firms: Gran Moravia, Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Burro delle Alpi – Alpilatte, Rigoni di Asiago, without their decisive economic contribution it would be impossible to set up the season.
Info for the public: 0424.464081 (U cio Turismo Comune di Asiago) Info for the press: 335.8223010 (Marina Grasso)
www.asiagofestival.it