We attended an organ concert this afternoon at a church I’ve photographed before — but only from the outside. The church has three names: Mosteiro de Moreira da Maia, Igreja Paroquial de Moreira da Maia, Igreja do Divino Salvador.
I brought my camera to discreetly shoot what I could inside before the program began at 5:30, performed by Italian organist Cristiana Spadaro. The concert is part of the International Organ Festival of Porto (and Greater Porto) that takes place December 11-20:
Órgão. Festival Internacional do Porto e Grande Porto
Paulo’s attended some of the organ concerts before, but this was my first time. 2015 is the 30th anniversary of the organ at Sé (Porto Cathedral) and the organizers packed many performances into each day around the Porto area. We’ve got one more performance to see, tomorrow night, at Sé.
Paulo shot some video of the organ concert:
The organ at Mosteiro de Moreira da Maia has a special history, built by German organ builder Arp Schnitger in the 18th century and restored around 2000:
http://www.arpschnitger.nl/smoreira.html
Since 25 June 1992, the specialists Mr. Uwe Droszella and Mr. Franz Thalhammer, and the German organbuilder Georg Jann (ORGUIAN, Santo Tirso, Portugal), have studied the organ of the Moreira da Maia Monastery, near Porto. They conclude that it is an authentic 1701 Arp Schnitger organ.
When we sat down, Paulo mentioned to me that the people in front of us were German, but we didn’t make the connection to the organ until the opening remarks when it was mentioned that Georg Jann was the one who was behind the restoration, and then he was asked to stand up.
A note about the organ concert: it must be one of the only instruments where you hardly see the performer. All this beautiful music emanating from behind us, because we’re facing the front of the church and the organ is at the back. Even when the organist finally stood up, we could barely see her from below.
There will be more organ festival-related photos tomorrow night, so without further ado, the rest from Mosteiro de Moreira da Maia:
October 18, 2015
Album: Portugal [Autumn 2015]
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