ANIMA MUNDI 2025: Seven concerts for the jubilee year among spiritual masterpieces, great performers and new visions.
Organized as always by the Opera della Primaziale Pisana, with the contribution of the Fondazione Pisa and the sponsorship of the Municipality of Pisa, Anima Mundi returns for the twenty-fourth time to fill with great music the Cathedral and the Camposanto of Pisa. Seven concerts, as per tradition, from 9 to 25 September, alternating great masterpieces of sacred inspiration, combining the Catholic and Protestant traditions in the spirit today more than ever current of ecumenism, with special moments of instrumental and vocal repertoire.
The 2025 edition is developed around a thread of particular relevance: the theme of peace, expressed through masterpieces of sacred tradition that, in different musical languages and expressive forms, evoke the universal desire for reconciliation, hope and harmony among peoples. For the fifth consecutive year, Trevor Pinnock is confirmed as one of the most important international interpreters of baroque and classical music on original instruments, in the role of Artistic Director, supported by Production Director Guido Corti, Responsible for the overall organisation and implementation of the event. A musical journey for the soul that has its roots in tradition, but always looks with confidence and openness towards the future: it is in this perspective that the International Competition of Sacred Composition "Anima Mundi" which, in the 2025 edition, The winner was the Tuscan composer Antonio Galanti, author of a new and intense version of the Salve Regina that will be performed as an absolute premiere in the concert on 22 September.
Il cartellone di questa ventiquattresima edizione, firmato per il quinto anno consecutivo dal direttore artistico Trevor Pinnock, 4 grandi appuntamenti sinfonico-corali di musica sacra in Cattedrale con inizio alle 21.00, e 3 concerti in Camposanto.
The program of this twenty-fourth edition, signed for the fifth consecutive year by artistic director Trevor Pinnock, 4 great symphonic-choral appointments of sacred music in the Cathedral starting at 9 p.m., and 3 concerts in the Camposanto.
On 9 and 25 September, under the Tower, there will be the welcome of brass and percussion from 8 p.m.
PROGRAMME
Opening Tuesday, September 9: the usual welcome of brass players from the top of the Tower, then a great concert in the Cathedral directed by Trevor Pinnock, dedicated to two pillars of sacred music of the eighteenth century, the Gloria RV 589 by Vivaldi and the Missa in angustiis (Nelsonmesse) by Haydn. The jubilant character of Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi evokes the spectacular splendour of the late Venetian Baroque, and is reflected in the denunciation of the horrors of war, unfortunately more topical than ever in our time, of the Missa in angustiis by Joseph Haydn - now known as Mass of Nelson because he finished composing and performed against the background of the naval battle at Aboukir - concluded with a triumph "Dona nobis pacem". Pinnock will lead distinguished singers - Hilary Cronin soprano, Sara Mingardo contralto, Stuart Jackson tenor and Neal Davies bass - and the now legendary ensembles he founded, the English Concert & Choir, with which for decades it has established itself in the world as one of the main interpreters of a historically informed performance practice, with original or faithfully reconstructed period instruments.
Thursday 11 September in Camposanto the prodigious accordion of Richard Galliano, will open a series of three instrumental concerts substantially joyful. The untiring curiosity, the virtuosity, the creative flair of a volcanic improviser will shine in a reinterpretation of the masterpieces by Georg Gershwin and other great French artists of the early twentieth century such as Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel, and Astor Piazzolla, for Galliano a master and an indispensable reference.
Always in Camposanto, Saturday 13 September, a monographic program: the great "Goldberg" Variations of Johann Sebastian Bach. The sound splendor of an inexhaustible fantasy accompanied by a musical science without equal, the most elegant entertainment balanced by the deepest reflection, in a page that remains among the highest of all instrumental literature. To revive it will be Angela Hewitt, today among the most authoritative interpreters of Bach’s harpsichord translated into modern piano sounds.
We will return to the Cathedral on Friday, 19 September for one of the most fascinating and impressive speakers by Georg Friedrich Händel: Israel in Egypt. A true feast of freedom and faith celebrates the victorious overcoming of difficult and tragic moments with strict adherence to the biblical narrative: To the most vivid and dramatic representation of the wounds of Egypt is opposed that of God’s blessing attention towards his people, until a joyful epilogue. We will hear him in the very authoritative interpretation of Hansjörg Albrecht, several times guest of Anima Mundi in recent years, at the head of a specialized and prestigious instrumental complex, the Händelfestspielorchester of Halle. The choral component, very important in Israel in Egypt, will be entrusted to the Carl-Philipp-Emanuel-Bach-Chor of Hamburg, of which Albrecht is artistic director, and from which the singing soloists trained in the CPE Bach Young Artists project will be expressed.
No less celebrated as a harpsichordist than as a conductor, Trevor Pinnock will once again be with us in Camposanto on Saturday 20 September, forming an exceptional trio with two other world-renowned concertists, flutist Emmanuel Pahud and cellist Jonathan Manson. Great protagonist Johann Sebastian Bach, 275 years after his death: the three instrumentalists will alternate and join in different combinations to offer us a selection from the fabulous deposit of his instrumental music, without forgetting his contemporary Georg Philipp Telemann.
In addition to retracing glorious historical chapters, Anima Mundi also looks to the future, and every year an international contest of sacred composition, entrusting its evaluation to a jury of great prestige. The 2025 edition had as its obligatory text the prayer Salve, Regina, addressed to Maria, dedicataria of the Cathedral of Pisa, and focused on the certainty of forgiveness and eternal life: the winner was Antonio Galanti, a Tuscan musician also active as an organist and critic, composition teacher at the Conservatory of Florence; his work will be performed on September 22 in the Cathedral next to one of the most illustrious musical appearances of the ancient text, signed by the king of Italian baroque opera, Alessandro Scarlatti, and the Dies irae by Giovanni Legrenzi, one of the most important authors of the Venetian seventeenth century, and instrumental pieces by the two authors, in the interpretation of another old friend of Anima Mundi, Antonio Greco, harpsichordist and conductor, with his ensembles, the Choir and the Cremona Antiqua Orchestra.
Monumental conclusion on Thursday, September 25 in the Cathedral, once again preceded by the welcome of brass. Maximum synthesis of all the themes of Anima Mundi 2025, one of the highest and greatest achievements of the Ordinarium, the Missa solemnis by Ludwig van Beethoven, that after extraordinarily complex and intense musical adventures ends with the especially enthusiastic and pressing underlining of the supplication "dona nobis pacem" opposed to the threatening sounds and clearly allusive to the war on which the Agnus Dei has opened. Performance appropriate to the importance of the program: a great conductor, Hartmut Haenchen, important voices such as Valentina Farcas soprano, Anke Vondung mezzosoprano, Sung Min Song tenor and Anthony Robin Schneider bass, the Leipzig Konzertchor and the Staatskapelle in Halle.
Music and solidarity: a concrete commitment
The public of Anima Mundi will have again this year the possibility to support, through free offers, some solidarity and assistance projects in the area. The initiative is promoted by the Diocesan Caritas of Pisa and represents a simple gesture that transforms listening to great music in solidarity action, reinforcing the message that artistic beauty is never an end in itself, but it can become an instrument of care and responsibility towards others.
INFO AND RESERVATIONS
Free entry with ticket. Tickets can only be booked online in September for all concerts.
The direct link to the booking page is https://eventiculturali.opapisa.it/
