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University of Michigan Italian Festival of Music March 31-April 1, 2001

February 1, 2003
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Those attending the Italian Festival of Music at The University of Michigan enjoyed a good portion of Mediterranean musical sunshine during the second weekend of spring. The event featured presentations by Martha Folts and Keith Sadko, a masterclass with Italian organist Umberto Pineschi,and recitals by Sadko and Pineschi. The festival took place in the Blanche Anderson Moore Hall of the School of Music with its 27-stop Marilyn Mason Organ built by Fisk. For the harpsichord performances, Dr. Folts brought her two-manual instrument built by Keith Hill.

 

Martha Folts, a recent University of Michigan graduate, opened the festival with a Saturday noon lecture about "Frescobaldi's Preface" of 1615. With explanations, examples,and demonstrations, she provided a three-point distillation of Frescobaldi's ideas:  1)Flexibility of beat and tempo; 2) Sonority:  keeping the sound of the harpsichord alive; and 3) Clarity of sections. Dr. Folts capped her lecture with a suave and convincing Frescobaldi Toccata performance.

 

Maestro Pineschi's masterclass began with two harpsichord students of U of M Professor Edward Parmentier.  Tami Morse played a Canzona by Frescobaldi; Leonard Kim rendered a Toccata by the same composer. Dr. Pineschi pointed out that the canzona originated as a sung polyphonic form which the Italian composers then transferred to instruments. Hence, the canzona should remain mostly in rhythm.  The toccatas of course are quite another story. Here, the composer called for much freedom and expression.  Pineschi advised reaching for the "big pillars" of the toccata with significant freedom in between. He suggested close study of the works of Froberger, a Frescobaldi student, who wrote out far more ornamentation than his teacher did. Pineschi also remarked that the works of North German composer Buxtehude sound quite "exultant" when played with a Frescobaldi approach.

Organ students James Wagner and David Saunders, both from Marilyn Mason's studio, then performed works by Michelangelo Rossi and Frescobaldi respectively. Pineschi commented that the intense chromaticism of Rossi reflected the Baroque predilection for shocking effects. Returning to Frescobaldi, he reiterated the importance of studying the composer's own writings about the performance. Thus, a rest often needs to be stretched to create tension, consecutive trills and passaggi should receive varied treatment, and judicious application of the Lombard rhythm can enhance passages with eighth notes against sixteenths.

The Saturday activities culminated in Mr. Sadko's recital on the Fisk organ which he dedicated to his late teacher, Eugen Friedl Gmeiner, himself a onetime pupil of Marilyn Mason. Sadko, a former faculty member of the Mabellini School of Music in Pistoia, Italy, entitled the performance: "Bach the Italian." Works by Bach such as the Concerto in a minor, the Canzona, the Sonata IV, and the Passacaglia were juxtaposed with related compositions of Frescobaldi and Andrea Gabrieli.  While Mr. Sadko disclaimed any proof that the Kantor of Leipzig knew the specific Italian pieces on the program, the similarities were certainly striking.

On Sunday afternoon, Dr. Pineschi  presented an unusual and challenging program.  He began with Frescobaldi's majestic Toccata sesta sopra i pedali (Book II) followed by his Toccata undecima (Book I).  Cantors David Saunder and Christopher Meerdink, both U of M doctoral students, joined the maestro in alternatim to the versets from the same composer's Messa della Domenica. Pineschi's registrations ex-ploited the various flue stops of the Silbermann-influenced Fisk. The one-fifth comma modified mean tone tuning of the organ also added much color to the music, making the dissonance more striking and the consonance more stable.

For the final work on the program, the performer and his cantors tackled the anonymous Messa in quinto tuono from the mid-eighteenth century.  Here, as in the preceding selections, Maestro Pineschi's decisive playing ranged from forceful and brilliant in the Toccate to peaceful and serene in the Elevazioni. The recital, and the festival ended in grand style with Pineschi drawing even the 16¢ reed in the pedal for the final movement. 

--James Wagner

Graduate Student Instructor and doctoral student in organ,

The University of Michigan

We were so pleased to have Umberto Pineschi with us during our Italian Festival. Maestro Pineschi is a natural teacher. His comments were directed not only to the performer, but to the entire class. His observations and suggestions were general enough so that they could apply to the situation, but yet meant a lot to the class as a whole. He did not just teach the one student—he taught the whole class.This is what a master class should be—as opposed to a private lesson.

 

 --Marilyn Mason

Faculty, The University of Michigan

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