Matteo Imbruno greeting the audience at the end of the concert
Screenshot from the concert video
Concert in the Church of El Vendrell
(FIMPC2025 - IV)
Monday, July 14, 2025
Fourth concert
The title of the concert:
Bach and the Europe of his time
A thought-provoking title for a post that attempts to explain what that era was like for music and try to place it in its historical context.
This post will be published as the final installment of the chronicles of the 2025 concerts of the Pau Casals International Music Festival of El Vendrell.
This future post will also include references to the composers featured in the concert program.
The performer
Matteo Imbruno (1964), was born in Pietramontecorvino, Italy. He studied organ with Liuwe Tammainga (1953–2021) in Bologna, with Bernard Winsemius (1945) in Rotterdam, and with Martin Haselböck (1954) in Lübeck.
He is resident organist at the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam, and also at the Oude Kerk in the same city, where he holds the same position as Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621), who was considered the most outstanding composer, organist, and pedagogue in the Netherlands of his time, to the point of being called "the Orpheus of Amsterdam" in recognition of the importance of his work in the development of music in his country during the early Baroque period.
Matteo Imbruno has made recordings on historic organs in the Netherlands and Italy. His collaboration with Gustav Leonhardt (1928–2012) in performing recitals with two organs is also well known.
Imbruno gives masterclasses all over the world and is the artistic director of the "Jan Pieterszoon Sweelink International Organ Competition" and of the Fondazione Accademia di Musica Italiana per Organo in Pistoia, Italy.
A few days after his concert in El Vendrell, he gave a masterclass at the Montserrat Monastery,within the VI Organ Course taught by Juan de la Rubia.
Concert Program
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Pablo Bruna (1611 - 1679)
Tiento de primer tono de mano derecha y al medio a dos tiples
Alexandro Marcello (1684 - 1750)
Concerto for Oboe in D minor (transcription of J.S. Bach)
Georg Böhm (1661 - 1733)
Our Father who art in heaven
Nicolaus Bruhns (1665 - 1697)
Prelude in E minor
Marin Marais (1656 - 1728)
Chaconne pour les Tritons
The Organ of the Parish Church of El Vendrell
and the Casals Family
There is a direct connection between Pau Casals and the organ of El Vendrell.
On the one hand, his father was called to El Vendrell to address the organ's technical needs. He stayed to live in the town and was appointed organist and choirmaster.
On the other hand, Pau Casals was involved in the organ's renovation, preventing its Baroque origins from being altered to a more Romantic style, which was the restorer's proposal; he also contributed financially to the restoration.
Furthermore, Pau Casals also played music on this organ as a child.
Video of the complete concert
Concert held on July 14, 2025
Shared on YouTube by l'Orgue del Vendrell
The concert organizers
The concert was organized by the Pau Casals Foundation and the l'Orgue del Vendrell association. The latter offers a monthly organ concert to promote the organ's magnificent cultural heritage. Other public and private institutions also participated as collaborators or sponsors, including the Vendrell City Council, the Pau Casals Auditorium, and the Pau Casals International Music Festival of Vendrell.
María Dolores García Martínez
esguarddedona
