German, Italian, and French organ music – a recital by Ennio Cominetti

The Bakáts Square mechanical tracker organ, renovated in 2024 and equipped with a stepper (Setzer) system in 2025, hosts free concerts by renowned European organists, such as Pedro Alberto Sánchez, Alessandro Bianchi and Patryk Podwojski. The concerts are organized by Szeged organist Levente Kuzma.

Data

• Date: 17 October, 2026, 7PM
• Venue: St. Francis of Assisi Parish Church, Budapest, Bakáts Square (map link)
• Admission is free, and donations for the renovation of the organ façade are welcome.

A CV of Ennio Cominetti

Ennio Cominetti is an organist, composer, director of choir and conductor of orchestra.
He performs in every continent of the world. He performed as soloist and as conductor in more than two thousand concerts, at the most important cathedrals and in most renowned theaters in Europe, North, Central and South America, Middle East, and Africa: Cathedral St. Paul in London, Notre Dame in Paris, Charlottenburg Castle, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, Berlin Cathedral, Cathedrals in Tallinn and Warsaw, Philharmonic Theatre in St. Petersburg, St. Thomas Church in New York, Cathedral in Indianapolis, St. Philips Cathedral in Atlanta, King’s Chapel in Boston, Albert Busch Hall in Harvard-Boston, St. Mary’s Cathedral and Berkley University in San Francisco, Cathedral in Guadalajara, Brigham Young University, Protestant Christian Church in Jerusalem, Basilica Notre Dame d’Afrique in Alger.

He took part in festivals in the following cities: Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice, Naples, Bari, Palermo, Monaco in Bevier, Colonia, Mannheim, Hamburg, Hannover, Dortmund, Darmstadt, Aachen, Bonn, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Uppsala, Kristiansand, Helsinki, Dublin, Madrid, Menorca, Buenos Aires, Rosario, La Plata, Montevideo, Montreal, Cleveland, Indianapolis and also festivals in Salisbury, Aaland, Luzern, Bourges, Le Havre, Carcassonne, Avignon, Auxerre, Saint-Tropez, Bruges, Maastricht, Linz, Bratislava, Heidelberg, Trier, Ulm, Ingolstadt, Kiel, Lübeck, Weimar, Mulhouse, Olmütz, Gdańsk, Lublin, Kielce, Krakow etc.

his concerts were commemorated in numerous newspapers: „Even in Heidelberg we cannot listen to such an excellent interpreter of music like the organist Ennio Cominetti. He showed himself as an soloist of great virtuosos (…) firework of organ articulation and possibilities of phrasings that transformed our listening into a performance we cannot forget” (Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, Heidelberg, 14.8.1992); „Cominetti’s performance a lesson of composure and style” (Il Giornale, April 4, 1989); „His clear and neat execution comes from his intuition of the meaning of musical language” (Il Giornale di Lugano, January 1980).

His intentions are to make sacred music well-known and widespread, particularly in organ music. He founded and conducts the „Circuito Organistico Internazionale in Lombardia” (“International Organ Circuit in Lombardy”), about 80 concerts a year for over 25 years playing some of the most important old organs of the region.

Ennio Cominetti recorded CDs, videos, wrote articles for musical magazines and journals both Italian and other European languages, gave lectures, master class, chaired juries.

His CDs are so described: „Cominetti still fully plays his instrument adding and taking out the ranges, exploiting the infinite quality of it and keeping a great astonishing sound equilibrium! Add to this a great capacity of articulation, a clear and deep reading of music to make the multiple voices of his instrument and their interconnection perfect to our hears! Sensation in of quite easy pages but it is not so it is his magic lightness and naturalness” (G. Capponago del Monte in CD Classica, July / August 1997).

Cominetti founded and still conduct the Orchestra Cameristica Lombarda, the Ensemble Vocale „Soli Deo Gloria” and the “Coro Accademico Lombardo”, formed by professional players and singers, beside Ensemble „La Scala”. The repertoires go from lyric opera to operetta, from symphonic to chamber music, madrigals, motets, oratorios, and modern music.

He is also a composer of organ music (winner of Concorso Internazionale di Composizione per Organo in Magadino, Switzerland, in 1982), and also of instrumental, and choir music. He regularly publishes his work by Italian and German companies, such as Berlin Chormusik, Musica Rinata – Berlin, Bérben, Carrara, Curci, Eco, EurArte, Intra’s, Sinfonica etc.

His music is transmitted by RAI Radio 3 and Bayerishe Rundfunk; in 2015 an entire transmission show was dedicated to him by Hr2 Hessen in Germany.

Among his essays we cannot forget: „Marco Enrico Bossi” (ed. Gioiosa), „Marco Enrico Bossi, the organist and the composer” (second edition updated and with some important addition), „Note d’organo (Notes about the organ, notes made in order to know the complex and fascinating word of the organ), „Guide to the listening and interpretation of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier of Johann Sebastian Bach” and “L’avventura dell’armonia infinita” (The adventure of the Infinite harmony) and “L’Organo in Italia, cronache di una storia millenarian” (The organ in Italy, chronicles of a thousand years old history).

In 2013, on the occasion of the celebrations of the two centuries after the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, Cominetti wrote „La Traviata in salotto” (The Traviata in a sitting room), an adaptation of the great Opera of Verdi for concert and smaller theatres, and recorded CD „Va ‘pensiero, sull’ali dorate – Verdi Organ Works” and wrote, together with Clara Bertella, the book „Io Verdi, mi racconto… ” (I Verdi am telling you about myself), introduced by Marco Buticchi, a quite famous Italian writer.

He then published the following books: La musica in tavola: le ricette dei grandi musicisti italiani (Music on the table: the recipes of the great Italian musicians), 2015, Ah, che bel vivere! Guida ai piaceri della tavola e ai luoghi del grande Rossini (Ah, what a beautiful life, guide to the pleasures of the table and to the places of the great Rossini), 2018; Gioacchino Rossini, il genio burlone (Gioacchino Rossini, the genius joker), 2019, and Leonardo e la musica (Leonardo and the music), 2019.

After obtaining the chair as Professor of Organ and Gregorian chant at Conservatorio of Trapani, he resigned to direct and conduct the Department of Sacred Music of Arts Academy in Rome, where for a few years he also taught courses of perfecting in organ music: some of his students became famous organists and won prices everywhere in the world.

At present he is an external consulting expert for the history and the interpretation of Italian music by quite a few European universities.

Program

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Canzona in d, BWV 588
• Johann Christian Rinck (1770-1846): Variations on a theme by Corelli, op.56
• Filippo Capocci (1840-1911): Fantasia on Adoro te devote
• Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925): Redemption, op.104 No.5
• Oreste Ravanello (1871-1938): Corale-Fantasia, op.7
• Louis-James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869): Boléro de concert, op.166
• Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897): Finale-Marche (from Suite 2, op.27)