New Mascioni organ at Ponte Tresa

New Organs: Mascioni, Church of the Santissimo Crocifisso

Mascioni Organs, Azzio, Italy; Church of the Santissimo, Crocifisso, Ponte Tresa, Italy

Mascioni Organs of Azzio, Italy, recently completed a new three-manual, thirty-five-stop, electric-action instrument for the Church of the Santissimo Crocifisso at Ponte Tresa, a community on Lake Lugano in the Province of Varese in region of Lombardy, on the Italian border with Switzerland. This is the first pipe organ for this church, which was built in the late 1950s. It is conceived in an Italian symphonic style and yet incorporates features characteristic of the Mascioni firm, which will shortly celebrate its 200th anniversary merely yards from where it was founded.

Equipped by Mascioni’s partners Eltec Industries of Italy, the console boasts sustain and transposing features. The four-rank Solo Cornet, like in many of the firm’s larger instruments such as that at the Shrine of Fatima in Portugal, is composed entirely of harmonic flutes and includes a Septième. The main divisions stand on traditional slider windchests, yet the overall tonal scheme is designed to accompany a choir determined to break the traditional Italian mold. Works by Brahms and Rutter are as commonplace here as well as those by Frescobaldi.

Mascioni was chosen not simply because our workshop is in Azzio, a forty-minute drive away. More crucially, the company’s tonal team has taken on some considerable acoustic challenges in recent years, such as the Fatima shrine’s seven-second reverberation, Tokyo cathedral’s acoustically dry triangular concrete structure, and the Paris Conservatoire’s forty-stop practice organ in a room eight meters square.

The acoustics at Ponte Tresa were equally challenging, the church being in the form of curve-walled, concrete scallop complete with an exceptionally tall, ribbed roof, resulting in a reverberation time of almost six seconds. With that in mind, to keep melodic lines clean and clear, the scales, nicking, and wind pressures are slightly more robust than the Italian norm. The result is a clear, warm, colorful palette that inspires congregations and choir. It was aptly demonstrated by Olivier Latry at the inauguration on November 17, 2023.

Design team: Andrea Mascioni, Daniele Invernizzi; voicer and finisher: Franco Nicora.

Further information: mascioni-organs.com/en/lavena-ponte-tresa/