Adriano Falcioni, organ, and Mariangela Vacatello, piano, Apr 14, 2016
Concert by Adriano Falcioni, organ, and Mariangela Vacatello, piano,10 am on April 14, 2016 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in West Hartford, CT.
organ, and Mariangela Vacatello, piano, in the sanctuary of St. John’s Episcopal Church at 679 Farmington Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06119.
organ, and Mariangela Vacatello, piano, in the sanctuary of St. John’s Episcopal Church at 679 Farmington Avenue, West Hartford, CT 06119. The Musical Club of Hartford has been inviting internationally lauded artists to present recitals in Hartford since very early in its history. For this program, the remarkable Italian keyboardists Adriano Falcioni and Mariangela Vacatello will be performing solo organ and piano works by J.S. Bach, Alberto Ginastera, and Max Reger as well as a duo organ and piano transcription of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.
The program will open with a transcription for organ by Ulisse Matthey of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chaconne in D minor for solo violin and will conclude with a transcription for organ and piano by Eugenio Maria Fagiani of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050. J.S. Bach, born in Germany in 1685, came from a family of musicians and was himself an organist and composer. He was a master of the contrapuntal style of Baroque music and wrote many pieces for the organ solo and for the organ with choir.
Sometimes J.S. Bach re-composed the pieces he had written for one instrument to be played on another, so these two transcriptions of two of his most beloved compositions fall squarely in the tradition he established when he was alive. We look forward to hearing Falcioni and Vacatello transform the organ and piano in these transcriptions into first a solo violin and then an entire orchestra with a harpsichord soloist.
Several piano pieces by Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera will also be on the program. His Milonga, Op. 3, Sonata No. 1 for piano, Op. 22 and his Danzas Argentinas, Op. 2.
Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires in 1916. He studied music in the Conservatory in Buenos Aires, and later came to the USA to study with Aaron Copland at the Tanglewood Festival. Upon his return to Argentina, Ginastera founded the League of Composers and taught composition to Astor Piazzola. Ginastera incorporated the folk music of his native land into his own compositions, even when his style of composition became more abstract.
The second half of the program will open with Max Reger’s Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-C-H for organ, Op. 46. Johann Baptiste Joseph Maximilian Reger was born in Bavaria in 1873. He studied in Munich and Weisbaden with Hugo Reimann, taking a position teaching at the Conservatory in Leipzig in 1907.
Max Reger was fascinated with counterpoint in general and with fugal composition in particular. In 1900, Reger composed the Fantasie and Fugue, Op. 46 as a tribute to J.S. Bach. In response to a question posed to him in 1905, Reger said, “To me Sebastian Bach is the be-all and end-all of music; true progress lies and resides with him alone.”
The cryptogram B-A-C-H stands for the notes Bb – A – C –B natural and was a frequent source of musical inspiration for composers who admired the work of the German Baroque musical genius. Bach himself used the four-note figure in his fugal compositions, as did Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and Rimsky-Korsakov. With this piece Reger added his voice to that tradition as well, only fifteen years before his untimely death in 1915.
About the Musicians
Born in Naples, Italy, Mariangela Vacatello made her official debut at the age of fourteen, performing Liszt's First Piano Concerto with the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra in Milan. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist in the most prestigious venues and festivals worldwide, including the Teatro alla Scala, Parco della Musica Sala Santa Cecilia in Rome, Berlin Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall in London, Salle Cortot, Societè Chopin at Bagattelles in Paris, Festival Radio France in Montpellier, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Bargemusic in NY, Lisinsky Hall in Zagreb, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Festival in Bergamo and Brescia, Societa dei Concerti in Milan, MiTo Settembre Musica, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.
Ms. Vacatello is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, recognized for her passion, technical ability and magnificent musicality. She was a finalist in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009 and winner of its Audience Favorite Award. Ms. Vacatello was also First Prize Winner of the Top of the World International Piano Competition in 2009, and Second Prize winner at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in 2005. Ms. Vacatello recorded the Transcendental Etudes by Liszt and the Etudes by Debussy for the international label Brilliant Classics and in 2016 she has published the Complete Piano Works by A. Ginastera. Mariangela Vacatello is also Piano Professor at G. Briccialdi Conservatory in Terni, Italy.
This concert marks her fifth appearance in the Hartford area, having performed for the Hartford Piano Society in 2010, the Musical Club of Harford in 2011, the South Windsor Cultural Arts in 2012 and the Hartford Symphony in 2014.
This past year, Mariangela released a new 2-CD set of Alberto Ginastera’s Complete Piano Music on the Brilliante label and that recently, it was reviewed very favorably in Gramophone magazine, the world’s leading magazine in reviewing classical music recordings. Read the review. Mariangela will be playing a few selections from this CD at the concert and she, will of course, have copies of this CD available for purchase at the concert.
Mariangela will also be performing a solo piano recital in South Windsor at Wood Memorial Library, 783 Main St., on Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 2 p.m. Arrive early for best seating; seating is limited!
Italian organist Adriano Falcioni performs and directs sacred music all over Europe. After studying with W. Van de Pol and receiving a diploma in organ, pianoforte and harpsichord at the Conservatory of Perugia, he completed his organ studies in Freiburg Musikhochschule in Germany, with Klemens Schnorr, He then studied in London with Nicolas Kynaston and in Paris with famed organist, Marie Claire Alain.
Mr. Falcioni has performed at the Duomo of Milan, at Westminster Cathedral in London, at Leeds Cathedral, Sala Tohnalle of Zurich in Switzerland, the Festival of Early Music in Brussels, Belgium, the Göteborg Festival in Sweden at St. Giles Cathedral Festival in Edinburgh and at cathedrals across Europe and the USA.
Mr. Falcioni has served the artistic director of the Festival Organistico Internazionale “Laurentiano.” His collaboration on François Couperin’s Messe Messe pour les Couvents de Religieux et Religieuses with the ensemble Armonosio Incanto, a group specializing in the medieval music of Tuscany and Umbria, was presented at the Festival in 2015. Since 2004, a series of concerts he has given in Germany have encompassed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach. He has recently toured with major orchestras in Russia, concluding with a concert at the Cathedral in Moscow and in 2016 is performing on a series of concerts honoring the music of Max Reger at the Cathedrals of Magonza, Bremen and Regensburg.
A docent in organ at the Conservatory of Sassari, Italy, Mr. Falcioni is a professor at the University of Praetoria, UNISA, in South Africa. He holds the position of Organist of the Cattedrale metropolitana di San Lorenzo in Perugia, Italy.
His recordings include the complete Organ Music of Nicholas Bruhns, the Complete Organ Music of César Frank, and the work of Max Reger.
The Musical Club of Hartford welcomes Mr. Falcioni back to the Hartford area with great anticipation. He last performed for the Musical Club in 2012.
The Musical Club of Hartford concerts are open to the public. Admission to this event is free to members of the Musical Club and $10 for the general public. The church is wheelchair accessible.
Membership in this non-profit all-volunteer organization is open to all those who share a love of music, including composers, performers and listeners. For more information please call 860-561-1588. Look under Events to see the program schedule for the year. It is also possible to download a membership application.