Vespri d'organo a San Domenico

**Sunday, April 12, 2026**, **at 8 PM**, at the **Church of San Domenico in Mola di Bari**, the calendar of “**OrgaNova**,” the international organ music festival of Santa Maria del Passo, continues under the artistic direction of **Margherita Sciddurlo**. Performing at this fourth event are some of the best students from the **Organ Classes of the “Nino Rota” Conservatory in Monopoli**: **Giuseppe Fanelli, Davide Orofino, Vincenzo Palumbo, Maria Pugliese, and Cesare Mundo**.

The concert - significantly titled “**Vespers for Organ at San Domenico**” - is conceived as a spiritual and musical journey that traverses the key moments of the liturgical year, relying on the Lenten and Easter chorales from Johann Sebastian Bach’s «Orgelbüchlein». Composed during the years in Weimar between 1713 and 1716, this collection of choral preludes represents one of the absolute peaks of organ literature: a compendium where contrapuntal rigor, liturgical function, and theological depth merge in an exemplary manner.

Far from being a simple anthology of pieces, the «Orgelbüchlein» presents itself as a genuine “book of meditations” in music. Each prelude, based on a chorale from the Lutheran tradition, translates into sound the spiritual content of the reference text: in the Passion chorales, for example, the descending chromaticism and suspended figures evoke the pain and pathos of sacrifice, while in the Easter pages the writing opens up to more luminous and ascending movements, symbols of resurrection and hope.

The presence of the cantus firmus is particularly significant, often entrusted to a distinct and recognizable voice around which a dense polyphonic texture rich in symbolic meanings develops. Bach utilizes the resources of baroque musical rhetoric with extraordinary finesse: rhythmic figures, intervals, articulations, and registers become expressive elements capable of “telling” the liturgical mystery, transforming each page into a small sound architecture of great intensity.

The concert will alternate the performance of the pieces with brief guiding interventions designed to accompany the audience’s understanding of this musical language: from the function of the chorale as a communal melody to its artistic elaboration, up to the decoding of the main musical symbols employed by the composer.

What emerges is an experience that combines listening and knowledge, able to engage both the experienced listener and the newcomer, providing keys to access one of the most profound and captivating masterpieces of the Western tradition. An event that, within the tranquility of the Church of San Domenico, invites the audience to rediscover the value of sound as a space for meditation and contemplation.

Entry is free until seats are filled. OrgaNova is promoted and organized by the cultural association «Arte & Musica», with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the Region of Puglia, in collaboration with the Municipality of Mola di Bari and the Pasquale Battista Foundation, and with the support of the main sponsor Levigas Luce e Gas. For information: 340.376.15.50.
Web: www.facebook.com/organova.live