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It is traditionally on the feast of St Ferdinand,
the chapel's patron saint, that the season's
musical agenda is brought to a close. This year,
the concert-mass in honour of St Ferdinand was
given by the harpist of the Royal Symphonic
Orchestra of Seville, Daniela Iolkicheva, and
the Foundation's organist, Father Ayarra. The
original duo performed a series of works from
different European schools, which was greatly
appreciated by the audience and broadcast, as
are all the masters concerts, on the Spanish
National Radio classical music station.
The 11th anniversary of the inauguration of
the Hospital de los Venerables as the Focus-Abengoa
Foundation's headquarters building was commemorated
on 5 November with a concert given by Emmanuel
Hocde, winner of the Grand Prix d'Interprétation
at the Chartres International Organ Competition.
He performed works by Grigny, Frescobaldi, Bach,
Brahms and Alain, captivating the audience with
his superb technical and musical skills.
Also in November, we had the chance to hear
a young organist from Mexico, José Francisco
Álvarez, who came from Germany to offer
us an interesting and varied organ programme
as part of the series entitled Chorale, hymn
and verse: musical forms in the liturgy, the
common theme of the recitals by new talents
for the 2002-2003 season. The young organist
did justice to the highly interesting programme,
giving a tight, confident performance.
The year 2002 was brought to a close with a
recital by another young performer, Juan de
la Rubia Romero, a promising organist from Valencia,
who performed well-crafted and complicated works
on the theme of these recitals by Buxtehude,
Brahms and Listz, which put the exceptional
skills and training of the young musician to
the test.
We have been successful in fulfilling
the objectives of our musical agenda, which
have been extended beyond bringing an organ
music repertoire of different schools and ages
to Sevillian music lovers, to include efforts
to familiarise school children with the organ
through educational recitals held monthly in
the chapel. This highly rewarding and worthwhile
work will undoubtedly bear fruit in the future.
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