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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