Congress Members, Students Members, Accompanying Members and Youth Congress participants are invited to come and share in the celebration.




WELCOME RECEPTION AT PALAZZO PITTI

Date:		Friday, August 20, 2004
Time:		7:00 p.m.
Place:		Palazzo Pitti and Giardino di Boboli (Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens)

Buffet service

ORGAN CONCERT IN SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE CATHEDRAL

Date:		Saturday, August 21, and Sunday, August 22, 2004
Time:		20.00
Place:		Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (Duomo)

Admittance coupons available at the Organizing Secretariat, Congress Center
Dress code: please remember to be properly dressed for visiting Churches. No shorts, no uncovered shoulders.


CATHEDRAL OF SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE

The Tuscan-Gothic cathedral was begun in 1294 and consecrated nearly 150 years later. The marvellous dome was
designed by Filippo Brunelleschi around 1420 and was frescoed by Vasari with a monumental Last Judgement that
was recently restored, while the bell tower is the work of Giotto in the 14th century. The magnificent interior offers
breathtaking, broad harmonies rather than the soaring thrust of the international Gothic style.
An interesting note: it was long known that there had been an early Christian church in the vicinity of where the
cathedral now stands. The 1966 flood that devastated the city also damaged the cathedral, cracked the floor and
led to the discovery of that ancient church, Santa Reparata that has been excavated and can be visited.



In the square, Piazza di San Giovanni, just opposite the cathedral is the baptistery - dedicated to St. John the
Baptist. The bronze door, depicting scenes from the Old Testament, is Lorenzo Ghiberti's great masterpiece that
Michelangelo himself called the "Door of Paradise". The original panels are in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo,
those on the Baptistery are copies.

From the center of the city's religious life, we will continue (passing some more wonderful shops and the colourful straw market) to the center of the city's political life. Piazza della Signoria was the backdrop for many significant events in our history, from the colourful to the dramatic: embedded in one of the paving stones is a memorial marking the spot where Girolamo Savonarola was burned for heresy in 1498. That he met this fate may seem to be poetic justice for he was responsible for the destruction of countless artworks, including many paintings by Botticelli, who voluntarily threw them onto the flames himself.


THE ORGAN IN THE CATHEDRAL OF FIRENZE

This large instrument was constructed by the famous firm of Mascioni in Varese in 1961 and enlarged in 1991. It
has five sound chambers, 7000 pipes and 107 stops.
The particular acoustics of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral together with the perfection of the organ, its overall
power and the quality of each individual stop produce some of the most beautiful organ music in all of Italy.


THE ORGANIST

Federico Talamucci, was born in Florence in 1965, where he attended at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in
music studies. He obtanied his diploma in piano studies with Maestro Fiuzzi in 1988. In 1991, he graduated in
harpsichord studies with honours under the direction of A.M.Pernafelli; after studying organ and organ composition
with Mariella Mochi, he received a diploma with highest honours in 1977. He has attended several workshops,
including those in baroque music interpretation and execution, and basso continuo performance. He has given
many concerts, most of them as organist, and is now collaborating as organist at Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral
in Florence. In addition, he is a researcher in Mathematics and Physics at Florence University and his research
activity is devoted in part to acoustics and the physics of sound.