Works for solo organ and for organ and instrument

The organist Andrea Toschi – already protagonist of several productions regarding rare music dedicated to the organ and harmonium, both as soloist and in chamber music ensembles (see Tactus tc810001, tc850004, tc870002 and tc890090) – is the common denominator of this collection of contemporary pieces for solo organ or for organ and instrument (trumpet, flute and cello alternate in duo with the organ). Composers in this cd include Sergio D’Aurizio, director of the Istituto Verdi of Ravenna and organist in Bologna, and Giordano Noferini, who was director of the Conservatorio of Bologna: they represent the musicians who were born in the first half of the twentieth century and were firmly connected to the late-nineteenth century tradition, which they reassessed paying attention to the harmonic aspect. The cd proceeds with Giorgio Pressato and Roberto Becheri: Toschi presents several pieces of theirs, in which Gregorian chant, the counterpoint devices, the relationship with the trumpet (as in Pressato’s In excelsis gloria), the relationship between diatonicism and chromaticism (as in In mei memoriam facietis by Becheri, who also uses the cello in Cantantibus chordis) are distinctive features that need to be carefully emphasised and smoothly blended: this is precisely what Toschi does in his interpretation. The most recent composers are Marc Giacone, Claudio Scannavini, Andrea Padova, and Daniele Venturi: in their music we can perceive an opening to stylistic influences other than the traditional ones: for instance African music in Giacone’s melodies, Scannavini’s use of perceptive deceit, the modern techniques adopted by Padova, and Venturi’s use of complexity as an element of composition.