The Sixth Annual Savoy History Lecture Click on the image to see the larger version
NEW YORK, NY – September 22, 2008 – The Sixth Annual Savoy History Lecture, "Music for a Savoia Cardinal," will take place at Middle Collegiate Church, 50 East 7th Street (Second Avenue), at 6:30 P.M. on October 7, 2008. The Lecture is preceded by a wine reception at 6:00 PM in Tiffany Skylight Hall. Comm. Marco Grassi is the Chair.
The American Foundation of Savoy Orders is presenting the evening, which is devoted to one of the great figures of Baroque Rome, Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy (1593-1657).
A younger son of the Duke of Savoy (forebear of the Italian Royal Family), Maurizio was named Cardinal in 1607 at the age of fifteen, and moved to Rome in 1620. During the papal conclave of 1623, he was a key player in the election of Urban VIII (Barberini), whose reign was the most brilliant of Seventeenth Century papacies. The century also saw the building of palaces and churches; the completion and consecration of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome; and masterpieces of painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and music by such artists as Bernini, Borromini, and Pietro da Cortona.
Cardinal Maurizio became such an ardent patron of music, literature, and the visual arts that his hounding creditors forced him to flee Rome from 1627 to 1635. In 1637, he presented a magnificent fireworks display to proclaim Ferdinand III heir to the Holy Roman Empire. In 1642, he resigned his cardinalate to marry his niece, Louisa di Savoia, thereby securing the Savoy succession.
The 6:30 PM Concert will feature music by Roman composers associated with the cardinal. The brilliant young organist, Cameron Carpenter, will perform keyboard music by the greatest of the Seventeenth-Century keyboard composers and performers, Girolamo Frescobaldi, as well as organ music from a collection that was dedicated to Cardinal Maurizio. The Anima Baroque Ensemble will provide vocal and instrumental music with soprano Beth Hatton, violinist Vita Wallace, Motomi Igarashi on viola da gamba and lirone, and harpsichordist Keri Middelson. The ensemble will perform “Spera, mi disse Amore” by Orazio Michi, “Amico, hai vinto” by Sigismondo d’India, “Per le glorie chiara prole” and “Damigella tutta bella” by Stefano Landi, and “Dunque dovvò del puro servir mio” (a romanesca aria) and “Canzona in C” (instrumental) by Girolamo Frescobaldi.
The cardinal's career and patronage will be the subject of a talk by Frederick Hammond, who is the Brandeis professor of Romance Studies at Bard College, harpsichordist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, presenter of the 1999 show of Roman decorative art at the Bard Graduate Center, and author of Girolamo Frescobaldi and Music and Spectacle in Baroque Rome. Richard Torrence will speak about the new Marshall & Ogletree organ and some features that imitate Italian organs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (drums and other percussion, plus free reed stops, often considered “theatrical” registers on 20th Century organs). | 
