I thought by now you must be a little tired hearing about all the churches and organs we have been discovering and playing on the Historic Organ Study Tour, so this post will be a little different.

This morning we left the Treviso area and traveled to the northeastern part of Italy called the Dolomites, a mountain range as part of the Southern Limestone Alps. Our tour director, Bruce Stevens, had asked the Hotel Villa Argentina to prepare us a “simple supper” and this is what we got.

(It was as delicious as it looked!)

Our first stop on our way here was at the Chiesa Parrochiale di Santa Lucia di Piave, home to a 1892 Gaetano Zanfretta e Figli organ. Our tour leader had told me my selection of Schmücke dich, o liebe seele by Johannes Brahms would work here, so that is what I played. Either my fingers are out of shape (which is a strong possibility) or I am just a weakling, as I found the action quite stiff when playing this piece.

The organ is certainly capable of some big sounds as heard in the following example.

As you can see above, the stunning interior is painted throughout—Italy has no end to beautiful churches.

The next stop was in Conegliano at the Chiesa dei Santi Martino e Rosa where an 1882 Giovanni Battista de Lorenzi organ was built. The organ is situated in a baroque choir loft, with numerous intricate carvings on the organ case. The Great manual was again on the top. I played the first two movements of Bach’s partita on O Gott du Frommer Gott, and it worked well.

Tomorrow it’s back to the bus for exploring more churches and organs.