Category Archives: Borgo a Mozzano

A Communion of a Trio at Borgo a Mozzano

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Unlike much of the earlier history of the piano trio, where the piano predominates the texture, where the violin is often limited to echoing the piano’s theme, and where the cello hardly has any independent melodic line but is subordinated to a role rather like that of the baroque trio sonata’s basso continuo, the string trio has, by its nature, to give fully individual parts to all three instruments, violin, viola and ‘cello, to enable the sonic texture to be adequately filled in.

Boccherini (born in our nearest city, Lucca, in 1743) is as  significant as Haydn in contributing to the development of chamber music and particularly the string quartet. He wrote around a hundred string quartets and an even greater number of quintets. He also wrote a number of string trios. Being a supreme cellist (his statue in front of Lucca’s Boccherini conservatoire shows him playing one) the composer included more independent lines for the cello than any of his contemporaries.

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The young but masterly ‘Ludwig’ string trio, made up of Enrico Bernini, Tommaso Valenti and Francesca Gaddi have been playing together for some years and their absolute communion of souls and brilliant expressive technique showed throughout the concert I’d publicised in my previous post and which took place at Borgo a Mozzano on the 23rd June.

There was one difference: the location was moved from the town hall’s delightful garden to the main entrance hall, not because of the weather (it’s been very sunshiny with the occasional monsoon-like afternoon shower) but because the acoustics are obviously so much better suited for chamber music which, as its name implies, should be played in an interior space.

This was the programme:

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Boccherini’s trio op 14 no. 4 is in three movements, the second of which is marked ‘andantino’. The weird thing about this tempo indication is that some musical dictionaries say it’s faster than ‘andante’ while others say it’s slower. On the Euterpe recording the movement is played more slowly with pizzicato stretches in the viola and cello parts. However, the Ludwigs played it equally effectively in the faster interpretation of ‘andantino’ but with no pizzicati. I enjoyed this interpretation as it effectively turned the first movement, ‘Allegro Giusto’ (a beautifully constructed piece in rondo form) into a sort of slow introduction to a faster second movement.

Anyway, judge for yourself in this recording I made of the complete work that evening and also hear how together the ensemble is.

Schubert’s lovely trio D471 suffer from one defect. The composer completed only the first movement. Anyway, he did at least make a start on the second movement but only a few bars survive. The reason why Schubert left so many works uncompleted (most famously his symphony no 8) is still a mystery to me. At least he did complete the third of his three string trios!

Beethoven’s Trio Op 9 no. 3, in four movements, is a comparatively early work (written in the last year of the 18th century) but has already the fire and unconventionality of his mature works. Here is the scherzo from the work with its surprising syncopations.

I loved the Kodaly, so relaxing after the strife of the Beethoven.

The audience would not let the Ludwigs depart without two encores. The first was a brilliant arrangement of Piazzolla’s ‘Tango Libre’

The second was, most fittingly, the first movement of a serenade: Mozart’s ‘little night music’.

I should add that this concert forms part of the 16th international academy of music which is centred in the old capuchin monastery of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana further up the Serchio valley.

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The festival, which is brim-full of international artistes, finishes on the 8th of July, and the full programme can be found at:

http://www.internationalacademyofmusic.com/italy-main.html

 

 

Borgo a Mozzano’s Magnificent Organ Sings Again

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Lucchesia’s rich artistic heritage must include its remarkable legacy of historic organs. While the UK suffered a terrible devastation of this king of instruments as a result of the reformation and the civil war, our area, in common with other parts of Italy, preserves instruments dating back to at least the seventeenth century.

In fact, the reputedly oldest organ in Europe is the one that used to be in Florence cathedral until 1966. This instrument can now be seen (dismantled) in the refurbished Museo dell’Opera Del Duomo nearby. It conserves parts built by Matteo da Prato in 1448.

One of the oldest organs in the diocese of Lucca is that at Pieve Santo Stefano. Built by Onofrio Zeffirini it dates back to 1551.

Recently I visited an adjoining region of Italy, Emilia-Romagna which is to the north of Tuscany. Bologna’s magnificent basilica of San Petronio houses the oldest still-functioning organ in the world. It’s the one to the right of the transept and was built between 1471 and 1475 by Lorenzo Giacomo di Prato.

 

(The UK’s oldest organ, incidentally, is that in St Botolph, Aldgate, and London – the church where Daniel Defoe got married. Built by Renatus Harris, it dates back to 1704).

 

Like the UK there was a revival of organ building in Italy in the nineteenth century. One of the greatest of organ builders were the combined firm of Nicomede Agati e Filippo Tronci from Pistoia, surely the capital of Tuscan organ-building and home to the Tronci foundation – now concentrating largely on bell-casting and percussion instruments. (See their web site at http://www.fondazioneluigitronci.org/).

It’s important to note that until the 1970’s there was little interest in restoring Lucca’s great organ heritage. Changed liturgical practise and the fact that an electronic keyboard was much cheaper than any money spent on the ancient instruments meant that many of them were in danger of falling into utter decrepitude and, if they were restored, they were restored unskilfully. This situation has happily changed now, starting from the 1990’s.

I was at a concert last Saturday 16th June at San Jacopo, Borgo a Mozzano’s parish church, to celebrate the restoration of the Cosimo Ravani organ of 1632. It’s one of the least spoilt by later hands with over 90% of the original pipes. Glauco Ghilardi restored the organ’s technical part while the case and pipes were refurbished in their original colours by Patrizia Caraffi.

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Borgo’s parish priest, Don Francesco Maccari, blessed the instrument and the organ’s inaugural concert was given by internationally renowned Eliseo Sandretti in a magisterial program of pieces ranging from Guami to Alessandro Scarlatti, all perfectly suited to the instrument’s essentially high renaissance and baroque timbre.

This was the programme:

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And here is what this superlative instrument sounded like in Gioseffo Guami’s ‘La Guamina’.

And here’s another delightful piece:

It was a truly unmissable evening, especially for someone like me brought up in the United Kingdom where sadly so many instruments of that era were destroyed by the Taliban-like mentality of the reformation of the sixteenth century and by the following century’s civil war.

My whole-hearted congratulations go to all those who have helped to restore the authentic sound to a second jewel of an organ jewel in Borgo a Mozzano. (The first one is that in the convent of Saint Francis, described in my post at https://longoio3.com/2017/10/18/organ-morgan-at-borgos-convent/ ).

 

 

PS If you are interested in seeing and perhaps lucky enough to hear others of Ravani’s fabulous organs, some built together with (or by) his brothers Cosimo and Bartolomeo here is a little list of them for you to discover.

CHURCH PLACE Date
San Bartolomeo Cutigliano 1626
Chiesa del Carmine Pisa 1613
Cathedral of St Martin Lucca
San Marcello San Marcello Pistoiese
Music room, Palazzo Mansi Lucca
San Micheletto Lucca
San Domenico Pistoia 1617

 

Do also view the NOI TV report at:

http://www.noitv.it/2018/06/lantico-organo-di-s-jacopo-torna-a-far-sentire-la-sua-poderosa-voce-215880/

 

 

 

 

Borgo Blooms Again for its Azalea Festival

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Borgo a Mozzano’s azalea festival has achieved great fame and I have described it in various previous posts including those at:

https://longoio.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/legging-it-in-leghorn/

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2016/04/17/another-fabulous-borgo-azalea-festival/

It’s a biennial festival (i.e. it happens every two years) but that did not stop Borgo celebrating flowers last year in its May flower festival which I’ve also described at

https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/my-flower-is-at-borgo-a-mozzano/

Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day with some of the warmest temperatures we’ve had this year and the Azalea festival was definitely the place to be. The imagination of Borgo’s inhabitants in transforming their ancient high street into a panoply of colour, music, exhibitions and much else with often the most limited resources is remarkable. Everyone joins in from the local schools to the shop-keepers and the commune to make it a great day out.

The entrance to the (free) azalea festival was marked by this burnt out fifties Fiat 1400 with the heading ‘my guardian angel’ on it. I thought of our near miss from being dispatched to the next world in our cinquina last year and felt that we too had a guardian angel watching over us.

There was a fine bonsai exhibition:

 

Artist and art teacher Simonetta Cassai presented an illustrated book project she’d carried out with nursery and primary school pupils. Because of the dismal weather we’d been having Simonetta explained how colours used can truly help children through often dark times. Red and yellow, in particular, can bring joy and happiness – and blue can calm one down..

 

Regarding colours in painting and flowers I found this a particularly witty street display:

 

Students from the Barga catering and hospitality college (Alberghiera) demonstrated some delicious cocktails using chestnuts, wild herbs and flowers.

 

There were fine art and photo exhibitions:

 

Animals  of various shapes and sizes appeared:

 

There was the inventive use of QR codes to point to Annalisa’s class project plus, of course, her special handicraft stall:

 

Music was provided by an excellent folk band called I briganti (brigands) from Partigliano:

There was a nostalgic evocation of an old school room from 1948 (does that date ring bells with some?) complete with original exercise books and a cane.

 

There were great assortments of azaleas and other flowers from the surrounding nurseries:

 

… and so much more to make for a most enjoyably sunny day out.

 

If you weren’t there yesterday I hope you can make it today although clouds seem to menace us with more rain (but without which the azaleas wouldn’t flourish!)

 

 

 

Music: An International Language?

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This week Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving terrorist of the Paris 2015 attacks when fifty people died, goes on trial in the Belgian courts. At the same time I read that UK schools are allowing Muslim families to withdraw their children from music lessons because learning an instrument is forbidden according to some Islamic beliefs. Hundreds of pupils are thought to have been removed from state school music classes despite the subject forming part of the statutory National Curriculum.

What’s the connection? Too many Muslim terrorist incidents have taken place at music festivals. In 2017 twenty two people were killed at Ariana Grande’s concert in the Manchester arena because of a suicide bomber and in 2016, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in an attack at Pulse, a venue in Orlando, Florida.

The group claiming responsibility for the Manchester bombing described the venue as a “shameless concert arena.”

The fact is that there are certain schools of Islamic thought that believe in forbidding musical expression and seeking justification in Holy Scriptures.  They think that whoever listens to music will be punished since music is apparently an incitement to lasciviousness and adultery.

Actually, the same attitude regarding music has not been unknown in western culture. Plato in his ‘Republic’ writes that music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul so that when one listens to it that imitates a certain passion, imbues the listener with the same passion and shapes his whole character to an ignoble form.

It might be argued that this is indeed the case. Certainly, the conservative parental arguments against children going to pop concerts were that the music’s frenetic rhythms and the apparent abandonment of the whole show could lead offspring to both immoral (sex) and illegal (drugs) acts.

At least here there is a distinction between types of music: that encouraging noble and that encouraging ignoble passions. Of the classical Greek music modes the Phrygian incites dangerous fiery passions while the Lydian leads to gentleness and friendship. This is akin to Indian ragas and their emotional associations or rasas. For example, Hindola raga is associated with love and other ragas are linked to different emotions or even times of day. Moving to western classical music anyone who listens to that god of composers, Mozart, will associate his use of the scale of D minor with daemonic passion (e.g. Don Giovanni), C major with transcendent liberation (Symphony no 41), Eb major with cheerfulness and confidence, A minor (e.g. piano rondo K511) with devastating melancholy and G minor with noble suffering.

However, another passage in Plato’s Republic states that any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state, and ought to be prohibited. For when music modes change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them. This is exactly the picture created by the breakdown of tonality in western music at the start of the twentieth century which led to scathing comments from conservative composers (Saint Saens and his ilk) and even riots at first performances of works which espoused the new dissonant idiom (Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring).

The relationship between music, politics and society is a fascinatingly complex one. The English reformation saw the destruction of most religious music simply because it was associated with heretical papist liturgy. The Commonwealth puritan period saw the virtual disappearance of music for entertainment with the closing of the theatres and the banning of instrumental accompaniments in church music. In Roman Catholic countries there was a reaction against the overtly operatic character of church Masses, outlawing such works as Puccini’s Messa a Quattro, and replacing them with Perosi and the Caecilian musical reforms.

To return to music in a Muslim context; there is a distinction between what music is suitable and what isn’t. Some varieties of this art are permissible (halal) while others are forbidden (haram). It is, therefore, permissible to listen to the first while it is forbidden to listen to the latter. But who is to decide what is permissible and what isn’t? Evidently, music that is permissible is music that does not entail entertainment in gatherings held for that purpose i.e. concerts and forbidden music is music that is suitable for entertainment and amusement gatherings even if it does not arouse sexual temptations.

I am reminded of Stalin’s condemnation of what became known as ‘formalism’ when the dictator first heard Shostakovich’s fourth symphony and left before the end in utter disgust at the blatant sexuality of certain passages. (Actually if one wants to listen to perhaps the most sexually loaded music of all time one has only to hear Wagner’s Venusberg music from ‘Tannhauser’. Venusberg = the mount of Venus and the multiple sexual orgasms imitated in this amazing music must have set the tight-corseted Paris ladies in delirium when they first heard it 1869 – and still does today). During Stalin’s reign, formalism was associated with western decadence and the mere entertainment value of music, whereas what was expected for the new communist state was the foundation of a neo-realistic school.

The ambiguous and sometimes downright condemnatory view of music in contemporary Muslim culture spills out, as I have already suggested, in the UK’s school curriculum with increasing examples of Muslim pupils being withdrawn from music lessons. Although parents have a legal right to withdraw children from religious and sex education classes (a legal right challenged by the ex Education Secretary, Justine Greening) no automatic right exists to pull them out of music lessons since the subject is a compulsory part of the national curriculum.

It is incredibly sad, when music is increasingly seen as a catalyst for closer cultural ties, a promoter of peace, a healer of the scars of enmity and war, a hope in a better future for mankind, an art form where the world’s greatest composers have expressed mankind’s noblest thoughts, whether it be Mozart’s Magic Flute or Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis Benedictus or Indonesian gamelan or Sufi chants or Eastern Orthodox hymns or, indeed,  any other wonderful example of world music, that children should be removed from classes by their parents and not allowed to develop their musical talents with the natural freedom they are entitled to. It’s quite tragic and quite unacceptable.

Going back to the start of what I’ve written, and considering, furthermore, the broadcasting of classical music in London’s underground stations effecting the sudden fall there in violent crime and vandalism, I wonder if those bloody terrorists might have had their actions tempered if they had received some musical education or, at least, appreciation of music, whether it be Reger or Rap, Schubert of Sufi chants, Mozart or myxolydian modes.

Who can guess? If children are removed from musical education we shall never know.

My readers at this stage might ask what has this all to do with Bagni di Lucca and our part of the world. Simply this: Italy has a huge social integrative task ahead of itself when dealing with the almost incontrollable influx of migrants to its shores and their placement within the context of a broader Italian social universe. Music is an invaluable aid to social integration.

However, in Italy music education has suffered particularly heavily. As composer Salvatore Sciarrino has stated: “inattention towards music, compared to other contemporary arts, is particularly acute. But this depends above all on how we view society and education. In other countries, teaching includes and encourages the making of music and performing arts, so the younger generations do not have this difficulty. How does the audience get used to things that they have never heard before if the experience of going to a concert becomes a purely occasional event? This is why we no longer have any significant public attendance”. That’s why too our own Borgo a Mozzano Music school (see its web site at http://www.scuolacivicasalotti.it/ ) is such a valuable part of the cultural landscape in these parts.

I feel so strongly about this that I would like to suggest a new crime of ‘wilfully forbidding children to enjoy, make and appreciate music’. After all, music is an international language, indeed the only language that all the world has the capacity to understand. A world where making or listening to music is, in some parts, considered a crime is not a world I would ever care to live in and is certainly a world which can never properly aim towards mutual understanding and social tolerance.

 

 

US Jeeps Cross the Devil’s Bridge

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Recently, photographs dating from the last years of WW2 have appeared on local Facebook pages.

I was particularly struck by this one showing the famed Ponte Del Diavolo / Ponte Della Maddalena at Borgo a Mozzano being crossed by Allied Jeeps in 1944.

Here is the fabulous bridge as I saw it the other week. How the weather changes from one day to the next!

 

 

 

With all the other bridges blown up by the retreating Nazi-fascist troops the mediaeval bridge at Borgo a Mozzano was the only way to cross the Serchio north of Lucca. I suspect Jerry didn’t blow it up because he thought no vehicles would be able to use it. He was obviously wrong…

Thank goodness Jerry thought that. It would have been another tragedy to have lost this lovely bridge to the ravages of war. For instance, there used to be an attractive mediaeval bridge at nearby Calavorno:

After the war a new bridge was built further upstream which anyone going from Bagni di Lucca to Gallicano will recognize:

I’m wondering whether the Devil’s bridge was tested for carrying capacity before the Jeeps crossed it. I would have loved to hear the conversation among the US troops at the time.

Of course, it’s impossible to cross this amazing bridge by car now as there’s a bollard stuck in the middle of its entrance. If it were possible to get past this I’m sure arrests would follow, quite apart from having one’s photo plastered on the regional newspapers.

It’s a sobering thought, however, that a bridge built in the twelfth century by that formidable woman, Matilde di Canossa, to facilitate the crossing of pilgrims to the Holy See via the Via Francigena was used in the twentieth century, not to save people’s souls but to save Italy from having to suffer further years of fascist-Nazi hell and help to found a new peaceful vision of Europe.

Here are some further photos taken during that ever more tragic last year of WW2 when Allied troops were fighting the final battles against the Axis powers along the Gothic line crossing our part of the world.

 

 

 

Let us remember the over sixty years of peace we have enjoyed as a result of Robert Schuman’s vision (not to be confused with the romantic composer who has 2 ‘n’s at the end of his name).

The terrible thing about what is happening in the UK right now is not just the false promises proffered by a rapidly weakening government but the division it’s causing in families, constituencies, political parties and, ultimately, the country itself. The wounds inflicted by this atrocious dogmatic nonsense are, in my opinion, similar to those caused by the policy of appeasement in the 1930’s and the changed imperial outlook after the last conflict.

The Passing of a Great Volunteer

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Cipriano Nesti was a great example of the qualities that make Italy tick: a true sense of social responsibility without ever counting the cost, a remarkable patience and tolerance towards others and justly Christian virtues. I have known Cipriano for close on twelve years and news of his death two days ago came all the more as a shock.

(Cipriano in uniform as a volunteer of the Misericordia of Borgo a Mozzano)

I first met Cipriano when I joined a local choir, originally known as the ‘Schola Cantorum Controniensis’ but later renamed as the more manageable ‘Cantores Lucenses’. The choir specialized in Gregorian chant although its repertoire included more modern pieces on occasions. The object of the choir was to provide music for local church services and, indeed, on major feasts it did just this but it also extended its singing to other churches in the area and farther afield to Lucca and Viareggio.

(The Cantores Lucenses choir in 2006. Cipriano is the fourth from the right in the last photo, behind Lucca Cathedral’s organist, Giulia Biagetti)

The choir reached such a standard that, in 2007, it obtained the Thomas Dempster prize awarded by the UNESCO association of Pisa. (Incidentally the same prize was won last year by Virgilio Contrucci the chamberlain of the Vicaria di Val di Lima, our local mediaeval enactment group, who also won the national crossbow competition and fire their famous cannon to celebrate significant events occurring in Bagni di Lucca).

Cipriano was well-versed in music and originally considered a career in that field. Indeed, he directed his own choir at Fornoli with great competence. I also remember various occasions when Cipriano tactfully had to correct our own choirmaster over some misreading of the score or some ill-judged tempo markings.

Cipriano’s humanity spread over into his main work which was that of driving instructor at Nadia’s school in Fornoli. Here, too, I received valuable hints from him regarding the conversion of my UK license and driving experience into something more suitable for Italian road-quirks.

From 2010 Cipriano added another string to his bow when he became a volunteer of the Misericordia at Borgo a Mozzano. The Misericordia is the Italian ambulance and emergency service, almost completely run by volunteers and supported by voluntary donations.

Cipriano as choirmaster, as driving instructor and as member of the Misericordia demonstrated to all those who worked with him the virtues of forbearance and serenity. I never ever remember him losing his patience once and he faced other people’s mistakes and insistences with fortitude and the best of humour.

I cannot believe he is gone into a different world from ours. It is such a shock. But he will be ever with us when we sing, when we tackle Italian driving habits and when we need hospital assistance. Addio caro Cipriano!

Cirpiano’s funeral is today, 18th January, at 3 pm at Fornoli church.

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A Christmas Crib in the Trenches

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Not all ‘presepi’ – Italian Christmas cribs – are pretty, traditional types depicting shepherds and their flocks, picturesque village houses and old crafts. In 2001, for example, I saw the following presepe in Bagni di Lucca:

This most poignant representation was set in Ground Zero and was installed in what is now the Banca di Roma building in the market square.

It must be remembered that just over three months had passed since the greatest peacetime atrocity against civilians had been perpetrated by Muslim extremists. Again, for Christmas 2011, that crib was recreated in the church of the Crucifix in Lucca – a very beautiful church once on the list of buildings at risk, but now thankfully being restored. It was called “Ground Zero ten years ago-ten years after” and was again created by the scene designer, Alessandro Sesti, who dedicated it to the tragedy of the Twin Towers in New York City, an event which truly changed the world.

An incredibly poignant presepe is the one we visited a few days ago in the former chapel of Saint Elizabeth, in the ex-Franciscan monastery of Borgo a Mozzano. It’s titled ‘Un Natale in Trincea’ – a Christmas in the trenches – and relates to one of the greatest tragedies and ineptitudes in the annals of military disasters: the Italian campaign in Russia of 1941-3 in which, out of a quarter of a million troops sent to the front, almost half never returned.

The presepe is strong meat to take emotionally, especially when one looks at the photographs of the abortive campaign which are displayed in a narrow trench-like corridor one has to pass through before reaching the actual crib itself.

First are the triumphalist pictures and propaganda of the ill-prepared Italian brigades setting out, largely on a Mussolini-inspired (Hitler didn’t ask for any Italian troops) one-way ticket, to the Russian front. Just gaze at the farewells between the young men and their sweethearts….

 

Then, after battles in which the Italians actually received praise for their bravery from the enemy Russians  – the Italian cavalry charge of Isbuscenskij still stirs the memory here..a sort of mediterranean equivalent of the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade – the terrible sufferings of the soldiers’ retreat with cardboard-thin boots and uniforms totally unsuited for temperatures which reached below forty centigrade. The photo of the brigade band below is almost absurdly unviewable.

 

The presepe was prepared by the Misericordia of Borgo – the voluntary ambulance and first aid body without which Italy’s medical services would be ineffective – and is dedicated to Borgo a Mozzano’s eighty victims of the Russian campaign . The idea was to create a dream of an Italian Christmas crib as imagined seventy five years ago by the starving, frostbitten soldiers on the Don River front when thinking of home.

 

The majority of the soldiers were Alpini, the famed Italian mountain troops, and the crib has the patronage of the National Presidency of the Alpine Association and the Municipality of Borgo a Mozzano. If one asks what alpine troops were doing in the vast Russian steppes the idea was for a quick blitzkrieg victory and then head for the Caucasian mountains and secure the oil fields for the Axis powers. As we know, this never happened and the lightning war degenerated into trench warfare stalemate until the overwhelming Russian victory at Stalingrad.

The display includes what the soldiers had to endure in the endless expanse of white snow and ice on the Russian plains, along the great river Don, during the Christmas of 1942. There are photos of the campaign during the advance and propaganda posters of the time, as well as the dramatic photos of the retreat.

A bit of background: since 1941, Italy, already present on several battle fronts of the Second World War, had been, alongside German, Romanian and Hungarian troops, inadvisedly involved in the attack on the USSR and, in 1941, had sent there a first contingent of 62,000 soldiers, part of the Italian expeditionary force in Russia (CSIR). In July and August 1942 other soldiers were sent to that front and the Italian contingent reached 230,000, formed in ten divisions. These included three Alpine divisions (the Cuneense, the Julia and the Tridentina). The whole was called ARMIR (Italian Army in Russia), also termed the eighth Army.

On Christmas day of 1942 the Russians began a strong and decisive counter-offensive against the invading armies. It was a Christmas which, for Italian soldiers, was the dramatic prelude to the beginning of an immense tragedy. On January 17 (feast of St. Anthony the Abbot) the order of withdrawal of Italian troops and those of the Axis allies was given. And so began the retreat across the endless steppes of the Don. It was a tragedy that concerned, above all, the Alpine Divisions. It is estimated that there were 85,000 Italian soldiers who did not return to their homeland throughout the Russian campaign. About 25,000 died in battle or in summary executions resulting from surrender, 70,000 were captured and, of these, only 10,000 were repatriated in the years following the end of the war.  Even as late as 1958 there were still 60,000 men unaccounted for. They probably disappeared in the snowstorms and in the suffering of the prison camps.

Among these were also the eighty men from Borgo a Mozzano, to whom the crib is dedicated. In this crib there’s a flower for all those soldiers who never received anything on their unmarked burial places. ‘Dispersi in Russia’ is a phrase that appears with monotonous regularity on Italian war memorials including the one at our nearby village of San Cassiano.

The heartrending crib is made even more poignant by its sound track of alpine songs. It would be an obvious statement to say that I was close to tears when I emerged from the ‘Presepe Della Trincea’. The pity of war indeed!

Organ Morgan at Borgo’s Convent

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Lucchesia’s rich heritage must include its remarkable legacy of organs. While the UK suffered a terrible devastation of this king of instruments as a result of the reformation and the civil war, our area, in common with other parts of Italy, preserves instruments dating back to at least the seventeenth century.

In fact, the reputedly oldest organ in Europe is the one that used to be in Florence cathedral until 1966. This instrument can now be seen (dismantled) in the refurbished Museo dell’Opera Del duomo nearby. It conserves parts built by Matteo da Prato in 1448. This is the same time that the choir stalls by Donatello and Robbia, now also in the museum, were erected.

One of the oldest organs in the diocese of Lucca is that at Pieve Santo Stefano. Built by Onofrio Zeffirini it dates back to 1551.

(The UK’s oldest organ, incidentally, is that in St Botolph, Aldgate, and London – the church where Daniel Defoe got married. Built by Renatus Harris, it dates back to the start of the eighteenth century).

Like the UK there was a revival of organ building in Italy in the nineteenth century. One of the greatest of organ builders were the combined firm of Nicomede Agati e Filippo Tronci from Pistoia, surely the capital of Tuscan organ-building and home to the Tronci foundation – now concentrating largely on bell-casting and percussion instruments. (See their web site at http://www.fondazioneluigitronci.org/).

The organ at the convent of San Francesco at Borgo a Mozzano (now a retirement home run by the local Misericordia) is a fine Agati-Tronci instrument dating back to 1893. It has been expanded, especially in the foot-pedal department, and is capable of handling Bachian repertoire (which so many old Italian organs are unable to do). The organ needed considerable maintenance and friend Enrico Barsanti carried out this work. It’s important to distinguish in Italian ‘organaro’ (organ builder and restorer) and ‘organista’ (organist). Enrico is both (see his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/search/posts/?q=enrico%20barsanti ).

The concert given at the convent two days ago was thus not only proof of Barsanti’s excellent ‘organaro’ skills (he had to remove, re-adjust and replace over eight hundred pipes) but also of his ‘organista’ ones. The concert included a flautist, trumpeter, soprano and bass.

This was the programme.

I’d never heard the Bach piece before. It’s a very early work dating back to around 1705 when Bach was in Lubeck where he met his great predecessor Buxtehude. A grand virtuosistic piece with two fugues of very different character divided by fantasia-like sections it certainly makes an organist sweat. Barsanti, however, carried it off adequately and showed the large sound range the restored instrument is capable of.

The other pieces were of a more ‘popular’ nature. The Albinoni is, of course, not by Albinoni at all but by 20th century musicologist Remo Giazotto. The Handel is actually a transcription of ‘Ombra Mai fu’ from his opera ‘Xerxes’ fitted with words of a religious nature.

Although all soloists were good I thought the trumpeter Andrea Battistoni excelled.

The programme concluded with Lefébure-Wely’s ‘Bolero’. A fun piece, it was designed for the new symphonically inclined Cavaillé-Coll French organs. The fact that it could be played very decently on the refurbished organ of the convent shows that Barsanti did an outstanding job on the instrument.

It’s important to note that until the 1970’s there was little interest in restoring Lucca’s great organ heritage. Changed liturgical practise and the fact that an electronic keyboard was much cheaper than any money spent on the ancient instruments meant that many of them were in danger of falling into utter decrepitude and, if they were restored, they were restored unskilfully. This situation has happily changed now. For example, Borgo a Mozzano’s parish church organ, which dates back to the seventeenth century, is due to be fully restored next year, again by Enrico Barsanti.

Samuele Maffucci (L) and Enrico Barsanti (R)

After the concert came the ‘rinfresco’ which was generously presented with characteristic Italian ‘gusto’.

San Francesco’s Agati-Tronci will surely be a very valuable asset to Borgo a Mozzano’s flourishing musical scene especially when it enhances an already charming location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCERTS AT BORGO A MOZZANO

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CLARINET AND GUITAR INAUGURATE BORGO A MOZZANO’S “INCONTRI MUSICALI” (MUSICAL MEETINGS)

On November 12th the “Incontri musicali – i luoghi del bello e della cultura” starts its eighth season. Great classical music with concerts ranging from the 19th century to contemporary music will be the main feature. The concerts will take place in various locations in the municipality such as Valdottavo’s Teatro Colombo, Diecimo’s Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta, the Municipal Library and Borgo’s Convent of St. Francis, thus giving the public the opportunity of rediscovering places of great artistic and architectural relevance in the area.

The season is organized by the “Salotti” Civic School of Music with the patronage of the Municipality of Borgo a Mozzano under the artistic direction of Giacomo Brunini. The Colombo Theatre, the Barga and Castelnuovo Garfagnana Music Schools, Borgo a Mozzano’s Misericordia and Lucca’s Cluster Association are also collaborating in the concerts.

CLARINET AND GUITAR CONCERT

On Sunday, November 12 (at 5.30 pm), in the splendid setting of the Pieve di Santa Maria Assunta in Diecimo, there’s a concert with an unusual duo formed by clarinettist Tony Capula and guitarist Giacomo Brunini, artistic director of the season. The concert, titled “The guitar and clarinet duo through the centuries”, will perform important works, alternating duo with solo compositions from Kuffner to Astor Piazzolla.

To receive more information you can contact the following: borgoamozzanomusica@gmail.com – Cell-phone 3498496612 or visit the website at www.scuolacivicasalotti.it

THE ETYMOS ENSEMBLE AT BORGO A MOZZANO

On Sunday, November 19th (at 5.30 pm), at the Municipal Library of Borgo a Mozzano, there’s a concert with the Etymos Ensemble, a group specialising in contemporary music with Francesco Gatti flute, Tony Capula clarinet, Nicola Bimbi oboe, Diego Desole vibraphone, Alberto Gatti live electronics, who will perform pieces by important Italian and foreign composers such as L. Esposito, G. Deraco, A. Gatti, A. Grieg, J. Ogburn, R. Presley and the winner of the “Etymos Ensemble Call for Scores 2017″ international competition. This concert is thanks to the collaboration with the Cluster Association of Lucca.

To receive more information you can contact the following address: borgoamozzanomusica@gmail.com – Cell 3498496612 or visit the website www.scuolacivicasalotti.it

CELLO AND GUITAR AT BORGO A MOZZANO

On Sunday, November 26 (at 5.30 pm), at the Library of the Convent of St. Francis of Borgo in Mozzano, there’s a concert by the duo formed by cellist Giuseppe Cecchin and guitarist Dario Atzori. The repertoire presented by this unusual formation will range from composers of the classical period to the twentieth century.

To receive more information you can contact the following address: borgoamozzanomusica@gmail.com – Cell 3498496612 or visit the website www.scuolacivicasalotti.it

ILIO AND CATERINA BARONTINI AT THE COLOMBO THEATRE OF VALDOTTAVO

The concluding concert on 3 December (6 pm) is a piano duo and takes place in the splendid setting of Valdottavo’s “Colombo” Comunale Theatre. The duo, formed by Ilio and Caterina Barontini, will perform important works written by E. Grieg, G. Gershwin and I. Barontini.

Before the concert, M ° Ilio Barontini, a well-known soloist and for many years a lecturer at the Conservatory of Livorno, will hold a seminar for young pianists at music schools.

To receive more information you can contact the following address: borgoamozzanomusica@gmail.com – Cell 3498496612 or visit the website www.scuolacivicasalotti.it