Organ Concert: Inspiration Venice / Isabelle Demers

During the Baroque era, Venice was one of Europe’s most important centres of music. Composers such as Andrea Gabrieli, Tomaso Albinoni and Antonio Vivaldi contributed to the lagoon city’s great musical treasury. Over the subsequent centuries, Venice lost none of its magic, and it remained a magnet and source of inspiration for artists of all kinds. Richard Wagner would take his dying breath here in 1883, Thomas Mann was inspired to write his famous novella »Death in Venice« and Igor Stravinsky was buried at San Michele Cemetery in 1971.

Isabelle Demers focusses on the eventful history of the lagoon city of Venice and performs a diverse range of arrangements, beginning with Bach’s transcription of a Vivaldi Concerto. Excerpts from Wagner’s opera »Tristan and Isolde« are expressive and emotional, while the »Danse russe« from Stravinsky’s ballet »Petruschka« is virtuosic and brilliant. Finally, to complete the programme for this closing concert of the »Venice« Festival, different epochs are blended together in Jean Guillou’s »Concerto after Vivaldi«.