Concert III Program Notes

by Robert Hurwitz


George Frideric Handel (1685–1758)

Concerto Grosso in F major Op. 6 No. 2

The twelve Concerti Grossi Op. 6 were written (or in a few cases rewritten) during a remarkable short and fertile five-week period in the Fall of 1739. They were originally published under the title “Twelve Grand Concertos in seven parts for four violins, a tenor violin, a violoncello, with a thoroughbass for the harpsichord.” Each of the concertos is composed in a unique key which gives it its own particular character. In all of these concertos, we find music that is neither as emotionally extreme as the composer’s operas nor as sublime as many passages in his oratorios. Nevertheless, they in many ways demonstrate Handel at the zenith of his art.

The Concerti in Op. 6 adhere to the old sonata da chiesa model, in which movements alternate in tempo: slow-fast-slow-fast. In their avoidance of empty virtuosity they recall the groundbreaking work of Archangelo Corelli, whose concerti grossi set the standard for all those that followed.

The Concerto in F opens with a typically Handelian Andante larghetto that serves as an introductory promenade. The energetic Allegro that follows is in the unexpected key of D minor. A slow movement alternating between Largo and “Larghetto andante” tempos leads into a final double fugue, with the two subjects being introduced in succession.

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767)

Suite for Two Horns in F

For a long time Georg Philipp Telemann was mistaken for a mass producer of functional, uninspired music, due for the most part to his enormous musical output. Actually, Telemann was one of the most universal musical personalities of the eighteenth century.. Although his reputation as a composer was for a long time overshadowed by his friend and contemporary J. S. Bach, the advent of the recording industry allowed the public at large to share the excellent quality of his music. A great number of compositions by this extraordinarily prolific and versatile composer are still awaiting modern discovery and performance, but the reassessment of Telemann’s work has been ongoing for some time.

Telemann was a sophisticated man of the world who traveled to many of the countries of Europe. He was proficient in many spoken languages, and also in the diverse languages of musical style. From his own German musical tradition he mastered counterpoint; from the Italians he learned the lyrical melodic style, and from the French he assimilated the galant style. These and other influences are satisfyingly synthesized in his music, which is consistently of high quality.

In one of his three autobiographies, Telemann admitted that the concerto genre was not very comfortable for him. (He produced a mere 125 of them!) He was not impressed by virtuoso passages written simply for display, and he resisted the temptation of giving his soloists a lot of brilliant passagework. His ideal was to give “each instrument that which suits it.”

Telemann played nearly a dozen instruments, and he had an excellent understanding of their characters. This allowed him to compose works with unusual combinations of instruments and have them sound effective. He composed concerti for recorder and horn, two bagpipes, three horns and violin, two chalumeaus and two bassoons, and three trombones, to name just a few. In this context, a brief suite for two horns (he wrote many for this combination) seems fairly mundane, but in Telemann's hands nothing was ever just ordinary.

The Suite in F for two horns, strings and continuo is an appealing example of Telemann's style at its most galant. A fine overture in the French manner is followed by a Rondeau and Sarabande, two of the most affecting movements in the suite. The Sarabande, particularly, contains a blend of French sensibility and Italian feeling for color that characterizes so much of Telemann’s eclectic style. A graceful menuet and boisterous bourée bring the work to a happy conclusion.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)

Concerto for Flute and Strings, “Il Cardellino

Dr. Charles Burney, the famous musical chronicler, defined the “Ospedale” where Vivaldi spent the greater portion of his life as “a kind of Foundling Hospital for natural [i.e., illegitimate] chil­dren, under the protection of several noble citizens and mer­chants, who, though the revenue is very great, yet contribute annu­ally to its support.” The girls with whom Vivaldi worked were very talented musicians who ably played a large variety of in­struments. It is not surprising, then, to discover that Vivaldi composed a considerable number of concerti for a large variety of instruments, through which the virtuosity and musicianship of his students could be demonstrated.

From the corpus of many concerti by Vivaldi for solo flute comes the concerto Op, 10, No. 3. This work provides a wonderful display of Vivaldi’s descriptive technique. The brilliant music of the first movement features a realistic picture of birds singing. The second movement, a peaceful pastorale, is a slow dance called the Siciliano. The finale is a lively Allegro.

J.S. Bach (1685–1750)

Cantata No. 210, O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit”

The cantata 210 is made up of a long virtuoso sequence of arias linked by substantial recitatives. It is one of Bach’s two complete secular cantatas written to celebrate a wedding. Although we do not know for what bridal couple it was intended, the text points to its having been created for an influential bridegroom who was a devoted connoisseur of music. The anonymous librettist meditates over the interrelations between music and love, questioning whether they can coexist and concluding that they can. The libretto ends with praise of the bridegroom as a patron of music, and with good wishes to the bridal pair.

Composed between 1738 and 1741, this is a cantata coming from Bach’s mature period. It is extremely demanding of the singer’s technique, incorporating coloraturas, trills and rapid passage work, as well as a wide vocal range (including the “high C”). In addition, there are demanding parts for the instruments, especially the flute. Because it is a solo cantata with only one vocal timbre, it demands a richly contrasting treatment of the movements in order to maintain variety and interest.

The introductory accompanied recitative (no. 1) leads to a dance-like aria, where the changeable feelings of the “enraptured breast” and the surging up and down of the spirits are vividly illustrated. The second aria (no. 4) features the oboe d’amore and violin in a duet of inspired gentleness. The third aria (no. 6), which features the flute, is governed by the text. After only a few notes, the melody is interrupted by the words “Be silent, you flutes”. This leads to an animated exchange between the solo soprano and the virtuosic flute part. The fourth aria (no. 8), which incorporates an oboe d’amore obbligato, returns to a dance-like character. The ninth movement is a fully accompanied recitative (the previous ones had been secco settings), and it forms a transition to the finale. The final aria unites the entire ensemble in applauding the bridal couple.



Concert IV Program Notes

by Robert Hurwitz

Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)

Pavane, Op 50

Fauré wrote his Pavane in F Sharp Minor in the year 1887, completing it a few months before his Requiem. Although the composer described the work as “carefully wrought, but otherwise unimportant,” this short composition is a superb example of the art of a composer who even today is largely unknown to the American public. Fauré’s intimate and reflective style is not one which summons up surges of enthusiam. This is not music which glitters brightly; it quietly glows. The austere quality of its lyricism and the subtlety of its melodic lines demand a high degree of concentration, but the listener who meets this music on its own terms will come away richly rewarded.

Claude Debussy (1862–1918), orchestrated by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)

Danse (Tarentelle styrienne)

Maurice Ravel was one of the most effective orchestrators in the history of the art. He is, of course, best known for his masterly version of Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, but he also produced a variety of other arrangements, adapting works of Rimsky-Korsakov, Schumann, Chabrier, Delius, and his elder compatriot, Claude Debussy.

Highly creative and individual from the standpoints of melody, voice leading, harmony and rhythm, Danse, from Debussy’s early work Tarentelle styrienne for solo piano, already carries Debussy’s personal stamp. Danse takes on the characteristics of the tarantella, a dance closely associated with the Neapolitans, but this particular one, with its “Styrian” style, has Austrian, Serb and Croatian influences, including exotic modal tendencies. In Ravel’s hands, the work, which in its original setting is already a brilliant composition enriched by beautiful melodies, takes on the marvelous orchestral color characteristics so typical of Ravel’s orchestrations.

W.A. Mozart (1756–1791 )

Symphony No. 31 in D, K. 297 (“Paris”)

The Symphony No. 31 was commissioned during Mozart’s ill-fated visit to Paris in 1778. As was the case with many of his other compositions from this time, the commissioner was Jen le Gros, director of the famous Concerts Spirituels. Mozart took pains to create a work that would please French audiences, and the result is a symphony that conforms to Parisian style in many respects. The work is cast in the traditionally French three-movement form (the French were uncomfortable with what they considered to be the German Minuet), and begins with a unison fortissimo passage, the execution of which was a point of great pride with the Paris orchestra. “I have been careful not to neglect le premier coup d’archet,” wrote Mozart in a letter on the 12th of June. “What a fuss the oxen here make of this trick! The devil take me if I can see any difference! They all begin together, just as they do in other places.” For Mozart himself, the great attraction was to score for an orchestra that included clarinets, clarinetists being unavailable in Salzburg.

The opening movement displays a multitude of tunes, several of them connected by the use of the French galant slide, and Mozart was careful to limit learned development to a minimum. The original second movement was considered by le Gros to be too long and complex, and it was therefore replaced, but modern performances invariably include the original piece, which is clearly superior. The finale deliberately begins softly, with an elegant tune tripping along above a scurrying accompaniment. The Parisians, who were accustomed to a loud finale, responded to this bold stroke by suppressing their normal chattering, and standing up and cheering when the first forte filled the hall.

At a time when Mozart’s hopes for success as a mature composer were frustrated by constant lack of attention, the D Major symphony provided a brief respite. It was, in fact, the only composition that brought the composer any success during his stay in Paris.


Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)

Ma Mère l’oye” (Mother Goose)

Ravel originally wrote Ma Mère l’oye in 1908 as a piano duet, i.e., as a set of pieces for four hands at a single piano. He intended this work for the gifted young son and daughter of his friends the Godebskis. When it was first performed in public, in the spring of 1910, the performers were also children, Christine Verger, six, and Germaine Duramy, ten.

The orchestral version was prepared in the following year for a ballet production staged at the Théâtre des Arts in Paris, and for the occasion Ravel included a new introduction, Danse rouet, et scène. This version was later revised to produce a work specifically intended for concert performance.

The colorful scoring of the work requires flutes, oboes, english horn, clarinets, bassoons, contrabassoon, horns, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, jeu de timbres (Glockenspiel), xylophone, celesta, harp and strings. The suite of movements that form the basis of the ballet score is described below:

The first movement depicts Beauty asleep. The flutes and horns are featured here, in a gentle and lovely piece of only twenty measures’ duration.

The second movement, “Tom Thumb,” tells the story of a boy who spreads bread crumbs on a path in order to find his way back home. As in the better known Hansel and Gretel, the birds eat up all the crumbs. In the middle section of the piece Ravel provides a fine imitation of birds chirping.

The third movement is in march time, and represents the Empress of the Pagodas. The music is filled with lovely effects of magic and fantasy. The fourth movement deftly contrasts Beauty, represented by a clarinet, with The Beast, played by a contrabassoon. Beauty’s voice later is taken up by a flute, then by an oboe, and after the transformation of the Beast, he is portrayed by a cello.

The final movement represents Sleeping Beauty’s awakening in a magic garden. The celesta depicts the stirring of the princess, and a joyous fanfare sounds at the end as the sun floods into her long darkened world.


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