October 29, 2007
The curtain has come down on AsiagoFestival 2007
But new horizons are opening up for music on the ‘Lltoplane.
ASIAGOFESTIVAL
PRESS RELEASE
THE CURTAIN HAS COME DOWN ON THE ASIAGO FESTIVAL 2007 BUT NEW HORIZONS ARE OPENING FOR MUSIC ON THE ‘PLATEAU
It was a long day of music on Sunday, October 28, in Asiago. As many as three different extraordinary appointments have, in fact, characterized the autumn epilogue of AsiagoFestival 2007, which wanted to conclude its program by dedicating its last date to the French composer and organist Jean Guillou and to the inauguration of the restoration of the Ruffatti organ of the Cathedral of San Matteo. A choice of programming “out of season”, for the vital music festival asiaghese that every summer offers free concerts of international caliber to the many frequenters of the Plateau: a choice born from the need to wait for the completion of the restoration and modernization of the organ of the Cathedral around which, in the sixties, the unforgettable Fiorella Benetti Brazzale gathered exceptional performers to give life to the first editions of the Festival.
To conclude its 41st edition, AsiagoFestival proposed again this year the unique “Meeting with the Composer” that gave the Asiaghese audience unforgettable moments with the greatest contemporary composers. And certainly the crowded public meeting with Jean Guillou, which took place “as per tradition” in the hall of the Asiago Town Hall on Sunday morning, marked another high moment in the long history of the event: two hours “flew by” between anecdotes and music, brilliant questions and passionate answers from the over-seventy-year-old musician who nevertheless showed extraordinary vitality both in his eloquence and in his musical performance.
Because it was precisely Guillou who had the honor of inaugurating the “reborn” Ruffatti organ, which the Asiago community strongly wanted not only to restore but also to expand and modernize, and which it was also able to “enjoy” with the highly applauded evening concert by Gouillou, who performed music by Haendel and Liszt, but also his own and in homage to Asiago, a piece by Fiorella Benetti Brazzale and some improvisations on Cimbrian themes.
There was also a large audience participation at the presentation of the instrument that took place in the afternoon, and which allowed people to approach and admire the parts of the organ that usually only musicians can know and appreciate.
“On this occasion, unusually autumnal for us,” explains Roberto Brazzale, president of the Friends of Music of Asiago, “we recorded an audience participation above all numerical expectations, but also an extraordinary presence of “insiders” who came to learn about this new asiaghese jewel that is the rediscovered Ruffatti organ, which with its constructive and acoustic peculiarities and preciousness will return to be central in the programming and future of AsiagoFestival.
So the curtain falls on the 41st Asiago Festival. But thanks to the organ of St. Matthew’s Cathedral, new expectations of great music and great performers are opening on Asiago and its Festival.
www.asiagofestival.it
Press info: Marina Grasso (cell. 335.8223010)