Sunday, October 29, 2017

Organ concerts at Portuguese church

When in Rome it is fun to take advantage of the free concerts that happen in the local churches.
John and I visited the extravagantly Baroque Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi to hear two concerts featuring virtuoso organist, Giampaolo Di Rosa.
The interior of the church is rich with marble walls
and ornate chapels.
The space filled up quickly. The church must have established a reputation for quality concerts.
The first concert featured piano pieces by Scarlatti and organ music by Bach and finished with an impassioned improvisation by Di Rosa on the theme of the centenary of the visions at Fatima.
We were quite curious about the second concert because we knew of twentieth century atonal composer Olivier Messiaen but we were not familiar with his work.
Les Corps Glorieux (The Glorious Body) was a fascinating and gorgeous piece of music and allowed Di Rosa to use all his skills at evoking timbre and colour from his magnificent instrument.

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