CALDAS DA SAÚDA- July 27, 1985 I closed out my concert tour with a performance in the church at the Instituto Nun’Alvres, Caldas da Saúda (Santo Tirso), a Jesuit secondary school in a spa town. There actually had been another planned concert in between Porto and this one to be held in Braga. The visual effect of the double organs at Braga… Read more →
Tag: USIS
#6 of 7 – BERTOLOZZI 1985 STATE DEPT CONCERT TOUR OF PORTUGAL
PORTO – July 26, 1985 Porto (or Oporto in English) has an important organ in its cathedral. I was looking forward to this concert. However upon arrival at the consulate, I was told by Teresa the cultural attaché (also known as “Beluca”), that I’d be playing at a modern church with a modern organ. Not one of those old things.… Read more →
#5 of 7 – BERTOLOZZI 1985 STATE DEPT CONCERT TOUR OF PORTUGAL
ÉVORA – July 23, 1985 (Part II) There is a another organ in the Cathedral up over the Gospel side of the altar (on the left as you look at the altar). The architecture of the altar area is in a baroque style quite different from the nave and certainly the outside, which dates back to the 11th-12th century. The Gospel Organ was built… Read more →
#4 of 7 – BERTOLOZZI 1985 STATE DEPT CONCERT TOUR OF PORTUGAL
ÉVORA – July 23, 1985 (Part I) At the university town of Évora, I encountered an instrument largely untouched since its installation, c. 1562 by Heitor Lobo. Pasquale Caetano Oldovini added the fashionable horizontal trumpet in 1772 and Flentrop did a restoration in 1967. This is one of the oldest extant playable organs in the world. The Sé (or cathedral) of… Read more →
#3 of 7 – BERTOLOZZI 1985 STATE DEPT CONCERT TOUR OF PORTUGAL
ÓBIDOS – July 20, 1985 Remember how I said southern Portuguese doesn’t sound like it reads? Óbidos is pronounced “HO-beech.” The “H” is a gutteral “CH sound as in “Bach.” Only the people who live in the area pronounce it this way; the attaché at the Embassy didn’t. When our English-speaking driver Carlos (KAR-loosh!) picked us up at the train station and… Read more →
#2 of 7 – BERTOLOZZI 1985 STATE DEPT CONCERT TOUR OF PORTUGAL
LISBON My wife Sheila accompanied me on this tour as page turner/assistant for the concerts as she had in 1982’s European tour. We landed and went to our hotel. Though the whole itinerary was arranged from train tickets, buses, connections, lodging, ground transport, etc., we had to make a connection with the Embassy first. Asking for directions was a little daunting.… Read more →
#1 of 7 – BERTOLOZZI 1985 STATE DEPT CONCERT TOUR OF PORTUGAL,
A 30th ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE OF JOSEPH BERTOLOZZI’S ORGAN CONCERT TOUR OF PORTUGAL FOR THE US STATE DEPARTMENT – 1985-2015 When you play the organ, you usually don’t own your own instrument. You have to go somewhere to play and even to practice. So it’s natural to go out and try better and better instruments. It can lead one to the great cathedrals and concert halls… Read more →