Omaggio a Erik Satie

Friday, August 21, at 9:00 p.m., at the Church of San Domenico in Mola di Bari, the 17th edition of «Organova – Santa Maria del Passo International Season», under the artistic direction of Margherita Sciddurlo, continues. For this new event, the festival presents «Homage to Erik Satie», a concert that concludes the first part of the 2026 program and celebrates the French composer just over a century after his death. The featured performers are the duo formed by organist Margherita Sciddurlo and percussionist Luigi Morleo, who also appears here as a composer, in a project in which organ, percussion, and electronics reshape the music and legacy of one of the most singular and prophetic composers of the period between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The «Erik Satie 100» project, conceived and written by Morleo, stems from the desire to restore Satie to his true nature as a solitary and radical creator, capable of challenging the conventions, forms, and languages of his time through writing that was spare, ironic, and often deliberately disorienting. His influence would extend well beyond the boundaries of the early twentieth century: in his economy of means, his use of repetition, and his new conception of the relationship between music, time, and the listening environment, it is possible to trace insights that would be developed many decades later by minimalism, ambient music, and various avant-garde movements.

«Erik Satie 100» begins precisely from this surprising contemporaneity. The organ, with its layered timbres and centuries-old connection to sacred space, meets percussion and the electronic dimension, giving rise to a soundscape in which memory and invention overlap. Each piece reworked by Morleo contains within it an authentic fragment of one of Satie’s compositions: a melodic gesture, a rhythmic figure, or a harmonic cell becomes the starting point for new sonic architectures. Satie is therefore not merely quoted or reproduced, but recomposed, filtered, and regenerated through a language encompassing minimalism, ambient music, electronics, and improvisation.

The entire journey will be framed by two performances of «For Erik Satie», entrusted solely to electronics and placed respectively at the beginning and the end, almost as a frame around the program. Within them, works from different periods and aspects of Satie’s output will emerge: from the «Prélude d’Eginhard» to the «Pièces froides», from the three «Sarabandes» to the celebrated «Gymnopédie No. 1», in which the simplicity of the melodic line and the suspended flow played a decisive role in the composer’s success.

The program will continue with «En habit de cheval – Fugue litanique» and «Gnossienne No. 1», another emblematic work of a style that seems to elude traditional formal and harmonic coordinates. A different side of Satie will instead emerge in «Sports et divertissements – Le Yachting» and the «Peccadilles importunes», miniatures in which brevity, irony, and a taste for paradox become elements of the same musical conception. Particular prominence will also be given to «Messe des pauvres – Dixit Domine», evidence of the mystical and ritual dimension of his creative universe, followed by «Gnossienne No. 4» and the concluding return of «For Erik Satie».

After the summer break, «Organova» will resume on Wednesday, September 16, at 8:00 p.m., at the Church of Santa Maria Veterana in Triggiano, with «Augustinian Florilegium»: featuring Ubaldo Rosso on flute, Margherita Sciddurlo on organ, and actress Elena Zegna.

One of the most significant events of the entire edition will take place on Friday, September 18, in Mola di Bari, with «Organ Day», comprising guided tours, lectures, and concerts. The guest of honor will be Montserrat Torrent, the Spanish centenarian organist of worldwide renown and a true legend of international organ performance. She will perform in concert, offering the festival an encounter of exceptional musical and historical significance.

The season will continue on September 26, at 8:00 p.m. at the Church of San Domenico in Mola di Bari, with a special concert-event by Mattia Vlad Morleo, performing on piano, organ, and electronics. At the same venue, on October 10, Japanese organist Kinoue Aota will appear in the «Great Performers» series.

On November 8, at the Church of Santa Maria Veterana in Triggiano, Massimo Berzolla will perform on the organ in «Music and Poetry on the Eighth Centenary of the Death of Saint Francis of Assisi». On November 15, «The Sound of Breath – Homage to Giuliana and Bruno Calvani» will bring together Paolo Daniele on harmonica and Margherita Sciddurlo on organ at the Church of San Domenico, with the participation of painter Pasqua Ressa. On November 22, at the Church of San Domenico in Mola di Bari, Ferruccio Bartoletti will instead be the featured performer in «Frate Sole», a film concert with live organ accompaniment for the silent film.

The final two events will lead the audience toward Christmas: on December 12, at 8:00 p.m. at the Mother Church of Triggiano, «Aurea Luce» will feature the Novum Gaudium Choir and Vincenzo Palumbo on organ; on December 21, at the same time at the Church of Sant’Antonio in Mola di Bari, the Christmas Concert «Sounds of an Ancient Celebration» will bring the 17th edition to a close, with Maurizio Maffezzoli on organ and Gionni Scriboni on bagpipes, piva, and small pipe.

The season also provides an opportunity to highlight three different instruments and their distinctive sonic identities: the historic 1747 Petrus de’ Simone organ at the Church of Sant’Antonio in Mola di Bari; the 2018 Francesco Zanin organ at the Church of San Domenico in Mola di Bari; and the 1910 Francesco Consoli organ at the Mother Church of Triggiano. These three organs belong to profoundly different eras, and around them «Organova» builds a program that combines the preservation and promotion of the organ heritage with the exploration of new repertoires and new ways of listening to an instrument with a centuries-old history.

Admission is free to all concerts, subject to available seating. OrgaNova is promoted and organized by the cultural association «Arte & Musica», with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Apulia Region, and the Municipality of Mola di Bari, in collaboration with the Pasquale Battista Foundation and with the support of the main sponsor “Levigas Luce e Gas,” as well as other local sponsors. For information: 340.376.15.50.
Web: www.facebook.com/organova.live