Autunno Musicale 2025: Mozart and Sacred Music in the Churches of Treviso

Autunno Musicale 2025 (Musical Autumn 2025), Treviso

From November 15, the musical autumn Autunno Musicale 2025 begins in Treviso. Over seven evenings and accompanying meetings, several musical ensembles will present sacred music from the Renaissance to the Classical period. The festival is organised by the association Musincantus in collaboration with the City of Treviso, the Province of Treviso, and local cultural institutions. This year’s edition is dedicated primarily to the relationship of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with sacred creation.

This year’s edition, however, does not stop at Mozart. The program also commemorates 500 years since the birth of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the most significant representative of Italian Renaissance polyphony, and at the same time 200 years since the death of Antonio Salieri. This opens a broader view of how sacred music has evolved over the centuries and how different eras have used it in liturgy and beyond. It is not just a “concert” autumn, but also a musical-historical journey typical of Autunno Musicale.

Palestrina remains a symbol of Renaissance perfection and purity of polyphony, to which European music still returns today. Mozart reminds us of the strong influence of sacred music on his compositional style and his perception of harmony. Salieri represents a generation that sought a balance between operatic drama and church tradition.

Music in the Sacred Spaces of Treviso

The basic idea of the festival is simple: to play sacred music in sacred spaces and to use the natural acoustics of Treviso’s churches.
Concerts will be held at the Cathedral of Sant’Agnese and at the churches of Sacro Cuore and San Nicolò. This creates a small “route” through the city, connecting music, architecture, and the history of Treviso. The organisers are also aligning with the tradition of the Treviso concert season from the 1960s, when both major works and compositions from local archives were systematically presented in the city.

Program

November Concerts

The festival will open on November 15 at the Cathedral of St. Peter with a performance of Handel’s Messiah, arranged by Mozart in 1789 at the request of Baron Gottfried van Swieten. It will be conducted by Filippo Maria Bressan and performed by Accademia d’Archi Arrigoni, soloists, and the Italian Youth Choir. The first evening will already show that the organisers do not just want to “play” the well-known oratorio, but to place it in context: Mozart’s adaptation is a bridge between the Baroque original and the Classical taste of his time.

Other concerts develop the same line. On November 22, Michele Pozzobon prepared a scenic program, Una festa nella Treviso del 1500, in the bishop’s palace, which will connect music from manuscripts preserved in the Biblioteca Capitolare di Treviso with recitation and historical dance.

On November 29, listeners will return to the cathedral for Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri, arranged for choir and organ, pieces that are played less often than Verdi’s operas but that fit perfectly with the festival’s focus on the sacred repertoire.

December Concerts and Musical Manuscripts

The December part of the program has two levels. The first is musicological: on December 6, the publication Musiche Ritrovate will be presented, which deals with rediscovered Treviso scores. This will be followed by a guided visit to the chapter and its musical manuscripts.

The second level consists of Christmas and festive concerts:
On December 8, in the church of Sant’Agnese, Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli will be performed by the ensemble UT, and on December 13, in the church of Sacro Cuore, the orchestra La Corelli will combine Mozart’s Requiem with Salieri’s Te Deum. The finale on December 21 in San Nicolò will be dedicated to the Christmas repertoire.

The Festival as a Living Tradition of the City

For cities like Treviso, such a festival is essential for another reason: it opens historical churches to audiences who do not usually go there and shows that sacred music can be presented in a contemporary, unobtrusive, and unpretentious way.
At the same time, it gives young performers space, including tenor Filippo Scanferlato.

In Conclusion

In Conclusion

Mozart’s relationship with sacred music is reflected in his masses, requiems, and liturgical motets, where he combined Viennese classical stylisation with the tradition of Italian polyphony.
Salieri represents a generation that sought a balance between operatic drama and church tradition. Palestrina remains a symbol of Renaissance perfection and purity of polyphony, to which European music still returns today.

Enhance your late autumn and early winter by attending one of the concerts of the Autunno Musicale 2025 festival.
In the unique atmosphere of Treviso’s churches, works by great masters – from Palestrina through Mozart to Verdi – will be performed by exceptional Italian ensembles.

Music that once filled the temples comes to life again —where it originated —along with detailed concert times, possible reservations, and program changes here.

Source of information: Koine
Photographs Koiné Communicazione/ Public domain – Wikimedia Commons (Mozart, Salieri, Palestrina – optimised for Veneto-Magazine.com