Baroque Bellissimo! ASU dedicates rare, Traeri organ
Photo Credit: Martin Pasi
Photo courtesy of Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
TEMPE, Ariz. – Admirers of early music will be delighted by the distinctive timbres of a rare, Italian Baroque organ at the MainStage Organ concert: Order vs. Beauty: A Juxtaposition of German and Italian Styles, March 11 at 2:30 p.m. in the ASU Herberger College School of Music.
The concert marks the official dedication of the Italian Baroque organ, built by Domenico Traeri in 1742. The organ is on indefinite loan to ASU and has had only one of its 300 pipes replaced. Concert-goers can experience what it may have been like to hear organists play centuries ago.
“The sounds of the Traeri organ literally transport you back to the Italian Baroque,” says Kimberly Marshall, interim director of the School of Music and Goldman Professor of Organ.
Marshall recently was in Italy for seven months on sabbatical. The March 11 concert integrates research she’s completed on Italian Baroque organ music, and also incorporates music from the grand German Fritts organ. The program includes some of the earliest keyboard music published in Italy and Germany, toccatas by the great virtuoso Frescobaldi, and the Dorian Toccata of J. S. Bach.
Following the March 11 Traeri dedication concert, organ aficionados can enjoy German Baroque music during the last concert of the 2006-07 MainStage Organ series. A German Organ Tour is March 25 at 2:30 p.m.
The history of German organ music is explored with selections by Buxtehude, Bach, Mendelssohn and Merkel. The Fritts organ is ideally suited to the German Baroque repertoire, which features Bach’s virtuosic Toccata in F Major; the later sonatas by Mendelssohn (Sonata VI) and Merkel demonstrate how organ compositions developed in 19th century Germany.
Tickets for MainStage Organ concerts are $7-$18. Concerts are held in Organ Hall in the School of Music building on the ASU Tempe campus, 40. E. Gammage Parkway. To purchase, visit http://mainstage.asu.edu, or call 480-965-6447.
The School of Music in the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University is ranked 19th in the country and eighth among public institutions by “U.S. News & World Report.” More than 100 music faculty artists and scholars work with approximately 800 music majors each year in research, performance and scholarly activities. It presents approximately 700 concerts and recitals each year. To learn more about the School of Music, visit http://music.asu.edu.