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By Gardy Labad (posted on FB)

FOR BOHOL ARTS MONTH:   NOTED SWISS ORGANIST TO PERFORM AT THE BACLAYON CHURCH PIPE ORGAN

Following the turn-over almost to the day a year ago of the fully restored Baclayon parish church, the Tagbilaran diocese and Baclayon’s Immaculate Conception Parish are set to resume highlighting the Church’s collection of historic 19th century pipe organs through concerts, recitals, and festivals.

To restart these music performances, the ethereal sound of the historic organ of Baclayon church will be heard in the evening of March 1, Friday, through the adroit fingers of the world-renowned Swiss organ player Guy Bovet who will perform popular organ pieces and the “Sonata” in three movements written by the Spanish composer Francisco Pérez Gaya (1766-1850).  The performance is scheduled at 7:00 o’clock in the evening. 

Guy Bovet

As a composer, scholar, researcher, and music professor, the Swiss national Dr. Guy Bovet’s discography spans more than 50 records and CDs, several of which have been distinguished with international awards.  He has also contributed musical pieces to theatre and film.  His activities in the preservation of historic instruments are appreciated all over the world.  Much of his organ music has been published by various publishing companies in Great Britain and in Spain, a number of which have been translated into various languages.

As a scholar and researcher, he has published over 2,000 various articles in music journals on matters related to the organ.  He is chief editor of the Swiss organ periodical “La Tribune de l’Orgue” and is a specialist of hispanic organ music carrying out research of historic organs in Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines.

Until his retirement in July 2008, Dr. Bovet has been professor of organ at the Musikhochschule in Basel, Switzerland, and organist of the 12th century collegiate church of Neuchâtel, also a town in Switzerland.  For twenty years, he has taught music courses at the University of Salamanca, Spain, and gives master classes on the interpretation of Spanish organ music and other subjects in many academic institutions worldwide.  He functions as a juror in major international organ competitions.  He has been honoured by the Philippine Government for his activities that favour the preservation of Philippine historic organs and the education of young Filipino organists.  At present, Dr. Bovet travels to all parts of the world where organs are played and keeps himself busy with concert schedules of about 60 recitals every year.

Since 1980, Mr. Bovet has been a regular guest at the Bamboo Organ Festival held yearly at the famous Las Piñas bamboo organ in the St. Joseph Parish Church, Diocese of Parañaque, Metro Manila.  He has in the recent past performed in a number of church pipe organs in Bohol and his recordings of music pieces played on them were released in CD form in 2011.

French and Swiss recitalists to perform

Accompanying Guy Bovet at the Baclayon church pipe organ concert are the French organ player Viviane Damiani Loriaut and Swiss organists Jacques François Barbezat and Jean-Philippe Schenk.   Each will perform organ pieces that highlights the capacity of the pipe organ and the dexterity of the recitalist.  Ms. Loriaut will play 7 pieces by the French music theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), while Mr. Barbezat will play baroque programme music battaglia arranged by an anonymous 18th century Spanish composer.  Mr. Schenk will interpret a faux bourdon on the “Magnificat” by a 16th century anonymous Spanish composer and the adagio from “Concerto in D Major” by the Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) and arranged for the keyboard by German musician Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

Bohol, highest concentration of pipe organs in the country

Outside Luzon and Metro Manila, Bohol has the highest number of historic 19th century pipe organs in the Philippines.  The island-province boasts of eleven (11) pipe organs at one single time: Baclayon, Loay, Loboc, Dimiao, Maribojoc, Loon, Garcia-Hernandez, Cortes, Antequera, and Tagbilaran, all in the Tagbilaran diocese, and Duero in the neighboring Talibon diocese.

The construction of the Baclayon church pipe organ in 1824 is attributed to the Spanish Augustinian Recollect friar Diego Cera who, in 1815, was elected prior of Baclayon, though not a resident priest thereof, but represented the parish church in the Recollects’ provincial chapter in Cebu.  The other pipe organs of Loon, Loay, and Loboc were built by the so-called Diego Cera School of Organ Builders that flourished on the island between 1830-1950.  On the other hand, the Garcia-Hernandez and Duero church pipe organs were built by the Roques Hermanos of Zaragoza, Spain, sometimes in the 1890s, while that of Maribojoc was constructed by the Otorel family of Palencia, Spain, also around the 1890s.  Attempts to recover pipe organ parts are underway in Antequera and Cortes, while a project to restore the pipe organ of the Tagbilaran Cathedral, first installed in 1861 and fell into disuse a century later, is in the pipeline.

Organizers

This pipe organ concert-recital on March 1 is made possible through the efforts of the Belgian musician and former Redemptorist Mr. Leo Renier, executive director of the International Bamboo Organ Festival, who also initiated this music performance as its first artistic director in 1976-1994.  As a Redemptorist missionary priest, he was assigned in 1969 to the St. Joseph Parish in Las Piñas, home of the famous bamboo organ, as parochial vicar and school director until 1994.  He also founded the Las Piñas Boys’ Choir, and spearheaded the restoration of the bamboo organ done by Johannes Klais Orgelbau in Bonn, Germany, in 1973-1975.  He continues to teach sacred music at the Divine Word Seminary, Tagaytay City, a school of theology and formation house owned and administered by the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) missionary congregation.  In August 2011, King Albert II of Belgium conferred on Renier the Knighthood in the Order of the Crown for his cultural and social contributions to the Philippines.

This music performance which caps the Philippines’ arts month celebration in Bohol this year, with the support and encouragement of Most Reverend Alberto Uy, Bishop of Tagbilaran, is organized by the Tagbilaran diocese’s Commissions for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and for Sacred Music which are headed by Fr. Milan Ted Torralba and Fr. Irvin Garsuta, respectively.

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