Transalpine cultural exchange
Concerts of the “Symphoniæ sacræ transalpinæ” project of the Early Music Department
The major project “Symphoniæ sacræ transalpinæ” of the Early Music Department takes place in April and May and includes concerts with historical organs from the 16th century in northern Germany and northern Italy. The title refers to the numerous musical publications of the late 16th and early 17th centuries entitled “Symphoniæ sacræ” (sacred symphonies, i.e. vocal or instrumental pieces for ecclesiastical use) in Italy and Germany.
The aim of the project is to research the transalpine cultural exchange between Italy and Germany in the early Baroque period and to investigate the effects on performance practice, i.e. the performance of Italian music in the context of North German organs and church acoustics as well as German music in the context of Italian organs and performance spaces.
“Symphoniæ sacræ transalpinæ” will take place in two intensive phases from April 25 to 27 in Germany and from May 22 to 27 in Italy, with some additional rehearsals in April and May at the HfK Bremen. There will be four public concerts with at least 15 students and three teachers. The program will include music by Giovanni Gabrieli and Heinrich Schütz as well as their contemporaries from both sides of the Alps, from small chamber music to large multi-choral works. Participants are members of the Baroque Trombone and Zinc Consort (classes of Maximilien Brisson and Josué Meléndez Peláez) as well as students of professors Benno Schachter (voice) and Krzysztof Urbaniak (organ).
The first concert will take place on April 26, 2025, 7:30 pm, in the concert hall of the Department of Music at Dechanatstraße 13-15. The same program will be performed on 27 April 2025, 5 pm, in the St. Nicolai Church in Borstel. An organ from the 16th century can be used there, which was repaired and extended by Arp Schnitger in 1677. On May 24, 2025, the “Symphoniæ sacræ transalpinæ” musicians will perform in the Basilica Palatina di Santa Barbara in Mantua, which has an organ by Graziadio Antegnati from 1565, and finally on May 26, 2025, in the Salla Maffeiana, the concert hall of the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona from the early 17th century. There will also be a private guided tour of the important collection of instruments (including several 16th-century cornetts and trombones) as well as old music prints and manuscripts.