1797 Agati organ at Saint Michael the Archangel Church, Vignole-Quarrata, Italy

We trace back root causes on this week’s show, exploring composers in Italy, who laid the foundations for much of what we enjoy in classical music today. And organbuilders, too, whose instruments in Bologna, Treviso, Turin and Pistoia retained an unparalleled degree of simplicity of design and purity of sound across four centuries of European history. Their unique character blooms in the special idioms of Frescobaldi, Pasquini, Valeri and others, as we discover during A Sojourn in Italy.

…the original ‘touch piece’ has manifested itself in many different ways, dependent on time and place.

…equalizing any potential clergy/musician power struggle, our performers here all are men of the cloth.

…our traditional summing-up of some of the year’s happenings in the world of the King of Instruments.