Complete Organ Works, vol. IX

The ninth volume of Marco Enrico Bossi’s complete works contains some of the most significant compositions from the period of his artistic maturity, recorded here for the first time. An impressive work is the organ version of the Prologue of Malombra, the opera based on Antonio Fogazzaro’s text, which started a surge of inspiration in Bossi in 1908, but unfortunately was never completed. Another precious musical discovery also refers to Malombra: the finale of the third act of the opera, expressly composed by Bossi for organ. This work is rich in pathos: it is a dramatic, magnificent passacaglia that reveals the grandness of the composer’s view of Fogazzaro’s famous novel. The programme is completed by an anthology formed of Op. 118, which was published in Leipzig and Milan in 1900. It is a great testimony to Bossi’s skill in the exploration of the organ’s resources of expression, ranging from the utterly Italian cantabile quality of the Melodia to the compact, solid counterpoint structure of the central section of the Finale, which evokes Bach’s maturest works.