Rheinberger: Choral & Organ Music Manuel Tomadin, Il Polifonico, Fabiana Noro

• Josef Rheinberger (1839 - 1901): Mass in F Major, Op. 190:
• 1Rheinberger: Mass in F Major, Op. 190: I. Kyrie05:13
• 2Rheinberger: Mass in F Major, Op. 190: II. Gloria03:22
• 3Rheinberger: Mass in F Major, Op. 190: III. Credo06:25
• 4Rheinberger: Mass in F Major, Op. 190: IV. Sanctus01:44
• 5Rheinberger: Mass in F Major, Op. 190: V. Benedictus02:11
• 6Rheinberger: Mass in F Major, Op. 190: VI. Agnus Dei03:53
• Abendfriede, Op. 156 No. 10:
• 7Rheinberger: Abendfriede, Op. 156 No. 1003:53
• Mass in B-Flat Major, Op. 172:
• 8Rheinberger: Mass in B-Flat Major, Op. 172: III. Ave Maria02:42
• Organ Sonata No. 19 in G Minor, Op. 193:
• 9Rheinberger: Organ Sonata No. 19 in G Minor, Op. 193: I. Preludio11:05
• 10Rheinberger: Organ Sonata No. 19 in G Minor, Op. 193: II. Provencalisch07:28
• 11Rheinberger: Organ Sonata No. 19 in G Minor, Op. 193: III. Introduzione03:38
• 12Rheinberger: Organ Sonata No. 19 in G Minor, Op. 193: IV. Finale06:43
• Total Runtime58:17

Info for Rheinberger: Choral & Organ Music

In his own lifetime (1839–1901), Joseph Rheinberger was more sought after as a professor of organ and composition than he was recognized as a great composer. His roll call of students at the conservatoire in Munich was long and impressive, including Humperdinck, Wolf-Ferrari and Furtwängler. However, Rheinberger produced a significant catalogue of sacred music in particular, concentrated on choir and organ.

Sometimes unfavourably compared to Brahms, he is more usefully regarded as a south-German Fauré – for the gentle contours of his melodies and the softly rounded quality of his choral writing. The principal work on this new album is the Mass for four-part men’s chorus which he composed in 1898, and which has become a staple of the male chorus repertoire around the world. By no means as staid or sober as its scoring might suggest, the Mass is a work of resonant beauty and sweetness, a concise and elegant demonstration of Rheinberger’s melodic gifts and his embodiment of Catholic values in the secular musical culture of late 19th-century Germany.

This newly recorded album makes an ideal introduction to the world of Rheinberger through its diversity. The Mass is complemented by a radiant partsong, Abendfriede, and a setting of the Ave Maria all the more affecting for its devotional simplicity, close in spirit to the early motets of Bruckner. Finally, Manuel Tomadin plays the grandest and best-known of the 20 organ sonatas composed by Rheinberger throughout his career.

Cast in three movements, No. 19 opens with an imposing Allegro, while the intimate central Provenzalische finds Rheinberger at his most beguiling as he taps into the folkloristic culture of

German Catholicism. Prefaced by a broad introduction, the chromatic counterpoint of the finale approaches Reger for hard-won transcendence, played here on the organ of the Church of Maria Ausiliatrice in the Slovenian town of Vipava.

Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) was a German romantic composer of mainly works for the organ, his own instrument. He was one of the leading figures in the “Cecilian Movement” which, in a world of increasing secularization, propagated the return to religious values of the past, expressing itself in a renewed interest in Gothic architecture and polyphony.

Rheinberger’s works are a happy blend of the Romantic spirit of his time and a healthy dose of polyphony and counterpoint, in this he was a worthy successor of Felix Mendelssohn.

This new recording presents a selection of choral music and organ works, the two genres in which Rheinberger excelled and for which his fame is undisputed. Included are the Mass for Male Choir and Organ Op. 190, Ave Verum, the popular Abendfriede for organ and the mighty Organ Sonata No. 19 in G minor. Music of great warmth and sensitivity, quintessentially romantic.

Played by organist Manuel Tomadin on the 1897 Goršič organ at the Church of Maria Ausiliatrice, Vipava, Slovenia, the specifications of which are included in the booklet. The male choir “Il polifonico” is conducted by Fabiana Noro.

Manuel Tomadin, organ
Il Polifonico Italian male choir
Fabiana Noro, conductor

Manuel Tomadin
He spends constantly his musical attitude to Renaissance and Baroque music through the study of ancient essays and historical instruments. He studied with Claudio Astronio, Andrea Marcon, Michael Radulescu, Luca Scandali, Ferruccio Bartoletti,Peter Planyavsky, Olivier Latry, Paolo Crivellaro, Jon Laukvik, Ludger Lohmann, Gustav Auzinger, Hans Fagius, Peter Van Dijk, Francesco di Lernia, Eric Lebrun, Teo Theoliema. From 2001 to 2003 he studied at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland) with Jean Claude Zehnder and Andrea Marcon.

He has an intense concert activity, in Italy and in Europe. He recorded for the editorial series “Gli Organi Storici del Friuli Venezia Giulia” and for Toondrama record label. He collaborates with the recorder player Manuel Staropoli and with the ancient music ensemble “Terg Antiqua”; he teaches in Italian academies, in Mannheim, Lubijana and Belgrade.

He won four prizes in national organistic contests and four international awards (First prize in Fussen – Breitenwang – Mittenwald and Second prize in Innsbruck for two times). He is also winner of the Grand Prix d’ECHO in the Alkmaar Schnitger Competition.

He is artistic director of the Organ International Festival in Udine and of the Antonio Vivaldi Festival of Trieste.

Fabiana Noro
First-class graduate in piano at the Conservatory “J. Tomadini” in Udine under the guidance of Professor Umberto Tracanelli. She attended together the course of music composition held by maestro Daniele Zanettovich and the course of choral music and choir direction held by maestro Annibale Cetrangolo. She then perfected herself in choir direction with the maestros Giorgio Kirschner, Peter Eidenbenz and Olinto Contardo.

She was Assistant Chorus Master of the choir at the Ente Lirico “Pierluigi da Palestrina” (an institution of opera in the theatre of Cagliari) for the following lyric-symphonic productions: Carmen, La Bohéme, I Pescatori di Perle, La Forza del Destino, Symphony No. 2 by Mahler, Requiem by Verdi, Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven. She collaborated as a substitute maestro on the opera “il Re Pastore” by G. Gialuppi, the world premiere of which took place at the “Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine” with Mosque Academy of Ancient Music.

She was also the prompter for several operas staged during the Udine opera season (La Bohème, Don Pasquale, La cambiale di matrimonio, etc.).

She has conducted many choirs, including the Diapason chamber choir, a professional choir made up of sixteen opera singers from the region with which she won first prize – DIPLOMA OF EXCELLENCE -at the international competition for choral singing “C.A. Seghizzi” chaired by Roman Vlad. With the same group, which presents various classic and contemporary programmes during important musical seasons both in Italy and abroad, she has held concerts with the Zagreb Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra dedicated to soundtracks.

She has been conducting the “Coro Polifonico di Ruda” since January 2003. It is a male choir made up of forty members that has held concerts all over the world (in the main European countries but also in the United States, Argentina, Canada, Mongolia, Philippines, etc.).

Booklet for Rheinberger: Choral & Organ Music