The I Organ Course ‘Julián de la Orden’, organised through the Cuenca Religious Music Week, began on 3 September and lasts until 11 September. Students of eight nationalities are attending classes of baroque organ taught by Brett Leighton and Andrés Cea, with a manualiter repertoire from the XVI-XVIII centuries; and a seminar given by David Catalunya, with a keyboard repertoire from the XIV and XV centuries.

As the opening act of the course, on 4 September a concert for two organs was given at the Cathedral of Cuenca by two of the teachers, the organists Andrés Cea and Brett Leighton, with a didactic character and specially addressed to a family audience, with the children being guided between oral explanations and musical examples in order to show them the technical possibilities and potential sound spectrum of these instruments.

Andrés Cea was born in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). He studied in France and Switzerland, where Brett Leighton was a fellow student. He currently lives in Seville and teaches at the city’s conservatory. He has given concerts all over the world and recorded numerous albums, also performing with orchestras and other ensembles. Brett Leighton is Australian. He came to Europe for his organ studies and currently resides in Austria. He teaches in the city of Linz. He has performed numerous concerts on the most famous organs in Europe. Both organists had already played separately in the Cathedral of Cuenca and this was the first time they have given a concert together.

Among the activities during this course, the students have visited the archive of the Cathedral of Cuenca to view the musical documents kept there and also the musical instruments in its possession, and had the opportunity to get to know the organ in the church at Villar de Cañas. And on September 8, it was the students on the course who showed their expertise in a concert at the Cathedral.

On September 9, at 21.00 h. there will be a final recital in the Cathedral with the medieval music ensemble ‘Canto Coronato’ conducted by Professor David Catalunya.

Source: Voces de Cuenca

• Listen to Andrés Cea playing the organ

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We are pleased to present the new collection “Organ music in Catalonia”, a series of albums focusing on organ music written by Catalan composers and others who worked mainly in Catalonia: Fray Antonio Martín y Coll, Gabriel Menalt, Francesc Espelt and Josep Teixidor are some of the composers whose works can be found on the first two CDs in this series.

The first album, Catalan Organ Music XVI-XVII c., focuses on the Baroque repertoire, but linking it to the first examples of keyboard music written by Catalan composers. The CD features a recently published repertoire, including the Mass Versets by Francesc Espelt, and other works whose scores are about to be published on the Tritó label, all played by Andrés Cea. The scores of the works on the second CD, Catalan Organ Music XVIII-XIX c., are published by Tritó Edicions, except the “Glosas” by Teixidor and the pieces by Ponti.

You can find information about both CDs and audio samples here:

Catalan Organ Music XVI-XVII c.

Catalan Organ Music XVIII-XIX c.

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A new eight-volume edition of “Música per a orgue”, the complete organ works by Father Robert de la Riba, has just been published. This edition offers organists and scholars Robert de la Riba’s invaluable contribution to the 20th century repertoire of organ music.

His enormous sensitivity prompted him to explore the optimum registration for each work within the specific tonal context of each instrument, i.e., in benefit of the expression – in the presence or alternation of the themes – without him allowing himself to be influenced by the fashion for tonal neutrality propounded in the reinterpretations of ancient music that appeared in the second half of the 20th century.

The eight-volume set of music for organ by the composer from Tarragona constitutes an essential contribution to the organ repertoire of the 20th century. The revision has been carried out by Josep Maria Gregori using the original manuscripts conserved in the Fondo Robert de la Riba in the Musical Archive of the Capuchin friars in Sarriá in Barcelona (photo of the organ).

Download a sample…

Preludis i fugues

Variacions

Further information and samples at www.trito.es

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The organist Josep Elies (ca. 1687-ca. 1755) was a key figure in the eighteenth-century Spanish music. Although his work was quoted and admired by his contemporaries (even Padre Soler acknowledges having learned from it), heretofore only small portion of his work was known today. With so many of the works by the numerous Spanish Baroque organists having been lost, the publication of Elies’ works is especially significant. The rediscovery and transcription of this collection of 24 works is a valuable addition to the scarce repertoire we have by this and many other composers from the first half of eighteenth century. This edition has been made possible by the efforts of the musicologist Águeda Pedrero-Encabo, expert in eighteenth-century keyboard works.

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