Verdi: Les Saisons, Divertissement Apres Les Vêpres Siciliennes – Paolo Bottini

To perform works originally conceived for operatic theatre orchestras on the organ certainly represents a lowering. Starting from the official voice and piano score (in this case we used the coeval Ricordi edition), one needs to summarise the orchestral score, perforce sacrificing something. However, one should also try and imitate, as much as possible, the colour of the orchestral instruments, or, at the very least, the essential meaning of the framework. This is done thanks to the organ’s sonic resources, since it assuredly is a step ahead of the piano. Indeed, the game is made easier, since nineteenth-century pipe instruments of the Lombard school were conceived precisely for imitating the wind instruments of orchestra and band. This happened thanks to the innovations introduced, in the last two decades of the eighteenth century, by the famous Serassi family, who were organ builders in Bergamo. Such wind instruments included flute, piccolo, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, hunting horn, clarinet and English horn, along with the viola. Moreover, these organs claimed to imitate “not only each and all wind and string instruments, but also the so varied accents of modern music, such as the pianos, fortes, sforzatos, the crescendos, diminuendos etc., so that the organ can claim to be the true representative of the orchestra1”. For this reason, listeners who are unacquainted with the original orchestra version of the Stagioni will possibly fully enjoy the surprising effect of the “Organ-orchestra”. This work was composed by Giuseppe Verdi for the ballet which constitutes a fundamental part of the opera Les vêpres siciliennes, premiered in Paris in 1855. Only those who are deeply acquainted with the “sobriété savante de l’instrumentation”2 (the “knowledgeable sobriety of instrumentation”) adopted by Verdi in his orchestral score will be able to compare the two versions, and possibly to pitilessly condemn that for the organ. It is in fact impossible to faithfully reproduce the polyphonic resources and the instrumental mixtures of a true orchestra. In spite of this, if I can so state, the result of the transposition for the organ is not entirely disagreeable, precisely due to the intrinsically “orchestral” vocation of the “istromentato ” pipe organ. “Istromentato”3 here indicates the organ’s enrichment with stops aiming at imitating the sound of orchestral instruments. Of course, the original orchestral score must be given due consideration, in order to get as close as possible to the primeval effect. For this reason, “it is necessary for the organist to be deeply skilled in musical Composition, and to possess abundantly the required genius, indispensable for distinguishing oneself praiseworthily and, most of all, for letting such a magnificent instrument shine4”. The encouragement to play, today, non-specifically organistic repertoires on the organ is justified by the fact that, in the nineteenth century, the theatrical style was increasingly employed by (more or less professional) organists during the worship services. Yes: opera during Mass. Without much scandal, it constituted the soundtrack of the people’s Sundays, in the “bel paese là dove ‘l sì suona”5, Dante’s “beautiful country where sì sounds”. For this reason, music publisher offered to the organists many practical transcriptions and adaptations, of varying difficulty, which transformed the most (and least) famous operatic excerpts into ill-concealed pious liturgical versions. So, after the triumphs of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, success arrived for Giuseppe Verdi as well, and his tunes entered the sacred temples. An Elevation could be accompanied by the air Di Provenza il mar, il suol, or even by the cabaletta Di quella pira l’orrendo foco. Similarly, Alla vita che t’arride candidly lent itself to accompany the Offertory, while a transfigured Amami, Alfredo became a solemn Te Deum, and so on…