Anima Mundi, Sacred Music Festival | Pisa

The ‘Anima Mundi’ Festival is the International Festival of Sacred Music, organised by the Opera della Primaziale Pisana. For the 23rd time since 2001, the Cathedral and the Monumental Cemetery are the extraordinary settings for concerts from 10 to 27 September (9.00 p.m.)

The 2024 programme includes three major symphonic-choral events of sacred music in the Cathedral, each preceded at 8 p.m. by the traditional brass and percussion ‘welcome’ from the Tower, and four chamber concerts in the Camposanto.

Opening on Tuesday 10 in the Cathedral with the Stabat Mater composed in 1876-1877 by Antonín Dvořák, conducted by Trevor Pinnock at the head of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir and featuring internationally renowned singers such as soprano Simona Šaturová, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Steve Davislim and bass Georg Zeppenfeld.

Two concerts in the Camposanto: on Thursday 12, violinist Alexandra Tirsu and pianist Jacopo Giovannini perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata a Kreutzer and the Third Sonata by Romanian composer George Enescu; on Monday 16, harpsichordist Ton Koopman tackles Bach’s Musical Offering with soloists from the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.

In the Cathedral on Wednesday 18 with Antonio Greco, soprano Hilary Aeschliman, mezzo-soprano Sveva Pia Laterza and the Cremona Antiqua Orchestra in Giovan Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and in Raffaele De Giacometti’s Crux fidelis, winner of the Anima Mundi International Sacred Composition Competition.

Two more concerts in the Camposanto: on Friday 20 Pascal Moraguès, one of the most famous clarinettists in the world, in a trio with two young but established Italian instrumentalists, Miriam Prandi cello and Marlene Fuochi piano, for music by Robert Schumann, his wife Clara Wieck and Johannes Brahms; on Tuesday 24 the Russian pianist Alexandra Dovgan (born in 2007 but already world-famous thanks to her victory in the 2018 Moscow Competition), with an impressive programme, the Sonata op. 110 by Beethoven, Schumann’s Second and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Variations on a Theme by Corelli.

Grand finale on Friday 27 in the Cathedral with the Cèco Philharmonic Choir and the Ostrava Janáček Orchestra conducted by Gábor Káli: Bohuslav Martinů’s The Mountain of Three Lights, and Leoš Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass.