To the glory of St John Paul II In Music and Vision 11 Novembre

To the glory of St John Paul II

GIUSEPPE PENNISI samples The Vatican's
recent festival of sacred music and art

Every year in October / November, a major festival of sacred music and art is held in the Vatican and in some of the Holy Basilicas of Rome. This year the Festival Internazionale di Musica e Arte Sacra (nine concerts between 28 October and 4 November 2015) was dedicated to St John Paul II, at the tenth anniversary of his death. This important festival is mostly financed through 'crowd funding', which is why it is compacted into a very few days, even though it involves some six hundred artists, all of very high standard. This allows the many sponsors from all over the world to visit Rome and enjoy the whole festival. Tickets are free, but seats must be reserved on the website of the Pro Musica e Arte Sacra Foundation.

The Weiner Philharmoniker was the 'orchestra in residence', offering a concert in the St Paul Basilica (Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 7 and 8) almost in competition with the Beethoven cycle being played by the National Academy of Santa Cecilia Orchestra with Antonio Pappano in the pit (Accolades and Ovations, 8 November 2015). Other important groups, the Japanese IlluminArt Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, the German Montini-Chor and Ensemble Hans Berger, the Swedish St Jacobs Chamber Choir as well as naturally the Coro della Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina and the International Orchestra and Chorus of the Nations.

I attended three of the nine concerts. The main element was, once more, to amalgamate 'classical' and 'modern' or even 'contemporary music' — just as in Pappano's Beethoven cycle. Indeed, there is an Italian saying that 'classical music is always contemporary'.

This feature was clear from the first concert on 28 October. A 'spiritual' introduction was the Messe solennelle en l'honneur de Sainte-Cécile for orchestra, chorus and soloists by Charles Gounod: it is an 1855 work which seems to anticipate Gounod's most famous opera Faust, especially in the tenor arias (Pierluigi Paulucci) such as the Sanctus. After the introduction, the Holy Service was held, celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Comastri and accompanied by Hans Berger's Pater-Rupert-Mayer-Messe ('Mass of Father Rupert Mayer'), interpolated during the Communion by an Orasho choral song in Latin by the Kakure Kirishitan — the Christians hiding in Japan during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Hans Berger is a monumental late twentieth century work with quite a few American echoes, whilst the Orasho is Gregorian music as remembered by the Kakure Kirishitan. The fusion worked quite well. The real coup de théâtre was the Japanese conductor of the long concert: Tomomi Nishimoto — a slender but athletic lady dominating a huge number of performers — the Roma Sinfonietta and three choruses.

A scene from the 28 October 2015 concert in the Basilica Papale di San Pietro in the Vatican, with forces conducted by Tomomi Nishimoto at the fourteenth Festival Internazionale di Musica e Arta Sacra. Photo © 2015 Musacchio & Ianniello . Click on the image for higher resolution

1 November 2015 in St Mary Major Basilica was quite impressive, with, in the first part, a confrontation between the Sistine Chapel Choir and St Jacobs Chamber Choir of Stockholm Cathedral. There was also a good opportunity to listen again to Giovanni Bonato's Credo - winner of the 2014 Francesco Siciliani Prize (Extraordinary Artistic Freedom, 24 September 2014). In the final part, the two choruses sang together in various parts of the Basilica, producing extraordinary stereophonic effects.

A scene from the 1 November 2015 concert in Santa Maria Majiore. Photo © 2015 Musacchio & Ianniello

The last concert again featured amalgamation of periods and styles. In the Sant'Ignazio Basilica, the rising international star Giovanni Allevi had his most recent work, Toccata, song and fugue in B major for organ, played together with organ works by Bach and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

A great success.

Copyright © 11 November 2015 Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy